“At a time when all of our clients are off the road, it’s given us an opportunity to look at our clients’ plans as well as our company structure,” says Heimann. “It felt like the right time to use these months to really build out a structure and find ways to support these managers who wanted to have a bigger team and have a brain trust where they can share ideas and get feedback.”
Prior to Salty, Chen independently managed Model/Actriz while co-managing Kate Bollinger with Messina-Doering, in addition to also providing A&R support for the Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records. Chen also spent several years at Brilliant Corners Artist Management (formerly Zeitgeist Artist Management) where he worked with a variety of nationally-acclaimed artists like Death Cab for Cutie, Toro y Moi, Phantogram and SASAMI.
In addition to his new responsibilities at Salty, Messina-Doerning will continue in his A&R role at Nice Life, a Los Angeles-based record label and publishing company founded by Grammy-nominated artist and producer Ricky Reed.
Baker also brings with him extensive management experience having spent the past several years as the manager for artists Slow Pulp and Jackie Hayes, who now join the Salty Artist roster.
Additional artists joining include Ella Jane, Huck, Kate Bollinger, Model/Actriz, Momma and Soft Glas. The agency is currently home to a variety of both established and up-and-coming music acts including Car Seat Headrest, Field Medic, Giraffage, Jay Som, MICHELLE, Mitski and more.
“We are massive, massive fans of all of these artists and that’s an important part of the process of who we are bringing in,” says Crowley. “Working with new managers is not just having great managers, but also continuing to build a great artist roster for the company.”
Crowley mentions that Salty also plans to add producers to its roster for the first time with help from the new managers. “Having folks who are focused on bringing more artists, but also helping build out the producer side of our roster will be an invaluable asset moving forward.”
