We recently connected with Gage Luce and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Gage thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?
“You can pay to learn, or you can get paid to learn.” My first chef told me this when I asked him for a letter of recommendation to go into culinary school. I have since lived by that quote. I don’t have any sort of formal education in business/entertainment. I’m a high school dropout with some community college credits under my belt. Everything I know about this industry I learned about it through trial and error. Observing others and asking a boatload of questions. Lots of mistakes were made throughout the years and I learned some hard lessons. The amount of times I have told myself that I was done and giving it up is absurd and I tried a few times to step away, but I couldn’t. I’m meant to be doing this and I know that, and if you’re meant to do something, anything else you try and do just doesn’t cut it. There is a certain void and emptiness you feel if you’re not doing what you’re meant to be doing. That’s how I felt when I stepped away like I had no purpose.
Gage, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Well, I am from a very small town called Los Osos which is located on the Central Coast of California. We had less than 10,000 people that lived in this town. I have moved around a lot over the years. I have lived in Utah, New York, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and California. I wasn’t a good student by any means, I dropped out of high school at 15 and started working with my dad and in kitchens. Worked in Alaska in the fishing industry for a bit as well. Growing up, I never thought I’d be involved in the music industry, it just kind of happened and ended up working out that way. I wanted to be a journalist, so I took a few classes at Scottsdale Community College when I ended up in Arizona. Wrote for a couple of blogs and got published in a couple of local news outlets. Ultimately decided school wasn’t for me, so I continued to work in kitchens. Eventually, I’d get involved in the local Arizona hip-hop scene, with a company called Universatile Music, I’d pass out flyers for them to get into shows for free. I’d go to local events like The Blunt Club, First Friday Artwalks, WTFunk Friday, and various local shows and just meet people involved in the scene. That all paved the way for me to eventually start bringing out-of-town acts to to Arizona, which led to me throwing events of my own in Utah and at festivals like SXSW and A3C Festival all of which led to me ultimately starting my booking agency. I shut that down in 2019 so I could spend time with my father as he was terminally ill at the time, once he passed in January of 2020, I moved back to SLC a few months later, worked at a couple of jobs that I hated with all my heart, and eventually got back into throwing shows, managing my friend Bronze Nazareth, and eventually found myself here at Breakpoint Booking after sending Isaac over my resume, and I’m stoked to be apart of this team.
Certain things are just meant to be, even though I didn’t come from a background or household that encouraged me to go into the entertainment world and pursue working in the music industry, I believe everything happens for a reason, and that’s why I’m here now and where I am at in my career. Having gotten to where I am now without any formal education or experience in the industry is something I’ll forever be proud of, especially because I had ZERO idea what I was doing when I first really went down this path. Being a talent agent isn’t for everyone, there is a certain level of discipline it takes to be successful in this industry. Being able to remain diligent, paying attention to extreme detail, and then being able to adapt to situations in the blink of an eye, I think that might be one of the most important abilities you can have in this industry. Also, my inability to give up is something that sets me apart from a lot of people in my line of work, you can’t get discouraged if you hear the word “NO” because if you do, you’re gonna get thrown out on your ass real fast.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I don’t know that I ever had a mission or a particular goal. I just know that I enjoy being able to bring good music to people. I guess that would be my goal, to continue to be able to do that. Knowing that I had a hand in creating an experience for 1 or 100,000 people is a pretty awesome feeling. Seeing my friends and clients be able to do what they love for a living and seeing the fans react to them. Knowing that in that moment, during that song, that experience is made and it might not ever be the same again for that particular fan or artist. Hearing the fans talk about the shows after and lining up at the merch table to talk to a favorite artist of theirs and seeing the reactions on their faces in the crowd is enough for me to keep on going.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Society is so quick to just accept what is given to them through social media, TV, and news outlets, we are programmed to buy what they tell us to buy, and we’re all guilty of it. If you want to support artists, share their stuff with your platform of friends. Introduce your favorite music to your friends. Buy direct from the artist. Spend $50.00 at the merch table next time you’re at a concert. Buy that piece of artwork for $25.00 that your friend posted on Instagram that they spent 3 weeks on. There are so many ways you can support artists and creatives, DON’T ASK TO BE ON THE GUEST LIST! BUY THE TICKET. I could go on for days in regards to this.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.breakpointbooking.com www.blackdayjuly.com
- Instagram: @GelCreed @BlackdayinJuly
- Twitter: @GelCreed
Image Credits
All photos belong to Gage Luce