We were lucky to catch up with Alice Halley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I got my first job in the music industry when I was 18 years old, and it wasn’t really even technically a job because I wasn’t getting paid. I was the leader of a street team for a local band that I liked. I started networking and getting other jobs in the music industry over the next five years, including two years as staff on Vans Warped tour in 2016 and 2017. I was 22 at the time with a day job as a server and I let other people convince me that I was never going to make it in music and it was time for me to get a “real job.” So, being young and more easily manipulated, I decided to quit touring and stop working in music.

I did go on to get said “real job” and I can’t deny that I’m thankful for the experience that came along with it and I had the opportunity to make more money than anyone in my family had ever made, and for a few years, I did. After a few years of this though, I became miserable. I was living for the weekends, I didn’t feel any drive or purpose connected to what I was doing, I was miserable at work and constantly just couldn’t wait to be off. Friday to roll around, and then by Sunday night I would have a meltdown thinking about having to go back to work every single week. Eventually I ran into complete burnout and extreme depression and even though I tangibly had everything you could think that I would ever want or need, I felt so unfulfilled. I got to a breaking point where I just told myself I absolutely have to go back to doing music, it’s the only thing that’s ever made me want to work and the only thing I’ve ever felt truly connected to. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to get a job and make money and make ends meet, I didn’t even know what job I would want. I just knew it had to have something to deal with music,

At the time, it had been over four years since I had toured and I felt like I was completely obsolete and that nobody would remember me. Despite that, I picked up my phone and I started going through my entire old contact list and texting every single person who I knew that was in the industry. I had no idea if they would remember me, let alone answer me. I just started copy and pasting the same text saying”Hey I’m gonna be coming back to the music industry, I really want to get started again. I would pretty much take any job, I just need something to start getting my foot in the door and network again.”

I was so overwhelmed with the love and the feedback I received from people. I didn’t even think they would remember me, but they were texting me back saying things like “oh my gosh, how are you, we’ve missed you, where have you been?!” and I immediately started feeling that sense of community again that I had missed for the past four years.

I got one text from somebody that I had met one time, at one show, and he said he remembered me and that they were about to go on tour, but they had all their staff already figured out. I told him no worries and to keep me in mind. A week later he replied back to me and said that their tour manager had just resigned and they were in a pinch and he wanted to know if there was anyway that I could do it. Of course I immediately jumped on the opportunity and continue to rent and repeat the same process to start building back a network and finding other jobs even if they were one day or short term.

Within a month and a half I set foot in my first arena as a photographer (a skill I didn’t previously have I just learned to be more marketable), within three months I picked up my first management client, and within six months I was on my first national tour as a TM after coming back.

This month I’m celebrating two years since telling everyone I was going to quit my job and go back to doing music and I can’t possibly imagine my life being anything but what it is. I wake up every day so grateful that I took the leap of faith to quit a highly coveted position to do what I love. The people I surround myself with, the opportunities that I get and the rooms that I stand in are beyond some of my wildest childhood dreams and I will never take that for granted because of the risk I had to take.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As an entrepreneur in the music industry, I have to be adaptable and I have to be able to wear a lot of hats. When people ask me exactly what I do, sometimes I struggle to give them a direct answer. Depending on the day, I say artist manager, tour manager, event coordinator, artist relations manager, festival coordinator, sponsorship technology partner, liaison, artist coach, artist consultant, content director, photographer. Truthfully, I am all of these things.

It’s so important to be multifaceted and multiskilled with what I do. In a given day, I can be on a label meeting representing my management client, then a developing artist consulting call, then be tour managing a stop on the road, and then be someone who uses a lot of psychology to create a positive environment and combat the mental health challenges that artists face while on the road.

I think what sets me apart from other managers and tour managers in the industry is my level of passion for the job. I will often outperform my peers in a given task simply because I hold this so close to my heart. After going out and trying a completely different lifestyle, and realizing that it was not for me I have a profound amount of gratitude for getting to do this instead. I do tend to be competitive, and I do love learning. When I see someone who is doing something better than I am I always try to learn from them.

One of the things that I’ve remained most proud of across all of my different brands and projects is maintaining integrity of not just myself, but my artists and teams as well. I get to choose to work with people who truly align with my values and have a similar vision as me.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

A lot of people would probably tell me that I’m crazy for leaving stability in pursuit of creative freedom and happiness. I cannot deny the fact that I work far more hours than I did when I had a normal job. This new lifestyle is far more demanding and much less financially predictable than the jobs that I had previously. From an outsiders perspective it probably looked like I had the perfect life. And for a long time I felt a lot of guilt for not fully being happy with that. I had a fairly easy job, I was very financially well off, I lived in a really nice safe neighborhood. I don’t take for granted the fact that for most people that’s all they want, is stability.

I had to make the decision to choose safe or happy. Since making that decision, I have experienced community, creative freedom, reconnecting with myself, regulating my emotions, freedom of choice, freedom of time and location, becoming reconnected with my intuition, and waking up every day so excited for the day and experiencing extreme gratitude.

I think a lot of people go through life not betting on themselves and choosing what they perceive to be reliable, but not necessarily what truly makes them happy. The truth is that you can always get laid off from any job, people can walk out of your life, accidents can happen. My view is that life is uncertain no matter what you do, so you might as well choose what makes you happy.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

If you’re not in the music industry and you want to support artists there’s a lot of ways that you can do that. Artist can’t even be recognized for their work without an audience, so you are actually the most important factor in determining their success. Here’s a couple ways that help out more than you realize:
-Buy tickets and go to shows- every person matters especially when a band is developing
-Buy merchandise from the band-touring is really expensive and merchandise is one of the ways that bands actually make money on the road
-If you can’t financially contribute, it’s free to share on social media. Reposting your favorite band or even just sharing them with your friends on social media helps to spread their audience.
-If you’re a little bit more into making content, use their music in your videos
-When you see social media posts from them, leave comments, share them, add them to your saved folder. All of these dramatically helped the band get seen by a wider audience.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shameless_alice/ sense maybe someday I need a Darrow too three four five 12 three four one 12 three cents my life our think it ruined my life why are you still talking to me spiral what was the one that like most recently came out
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yL96jZtjvmDVsRdss8GIT?si=0364636491bd4110

Image Credits

all photograpy credits: Alice Halley