3rd Tsunami: It’s About Your Approach To Music, Not Your Setup

WWe had the opportunity to talk to two representatives of the Danish agency 3rd Tsunami, namely Soren Mensberg and Anders Wind, at the Where’s The Music conference in Norrköping early February 2017.

3rd Tsunami works with artists from all kinds of genres. It is very important for them to have a genuine love for the artists they work with. In addition, the creative attitude of the artists towards their music bears more weight than their equipment. The agency tends to favour artists who like to take a risk.

In contrast, the online presence of a band is of far less significance than their history of live-performances. Also, 3rd Tsunami believes in working closely with labels. Lastly, they adhere to a philosophy of being in demand and exclusivity with regards to their artists. Every performance should be special and exclusive. It is better to perform less often in a sold out small venue, than more often in a bigger venue with empty seats.

Please tell us a bit about your agency.

Our agency has 20 years of experience, we are pretty diverse genre-wise, and have bands from indie pop to death metal in our roster. It’s a small and independent agency. Our booking agency also promotes international acts coming to Denmark, and helps artists in other territories. We work with music coming ‘from the hearts’ of the artists. Your approach to music is more important than anything. Sometimes we are also promoting an artist. Our philosophy is “if it’s good, music it’s good music.”

Anders Wind works mostly in the indie segment, with bands that do something out of the ordinary. Soren has a more diverse roster, and he says if he won’t buy the ticket to the concert himself, he won’t work with the band. Both Soren and Anders are on the same page: they need to love the artist, the project, it’s not like selling toothbrush, music is about your emotions.

Please tell me more. What is important for you when you look at an artist?

Live history for us is important, so if it’s an artist who had 50 million streams and never performed live, that does not say anything to us. A good setup (presence of a label and media) is definitely a plus. Still we think that for a musician a feeling and your approach to music is more important than the setup.

Do you work with labels?

Yes, we work really close with the labels, it being either a label picking an artist or seeing him at a showcase festival. In a perfect world we would have a manager, a label, an artist, a publisher and a booking agent working together. Soren: Once I met an artist at a bar, and he sounded like he had no compromise and was so convincing, so I thought even if we do not know where we are going, it appealed to me. There is no recipe for success, they say.

What frequence of performances would you recommend?

At the agency they are big fans of keeping a demand. Do not do an extra show. People can get enough of your music if you do it. It should be kept organic – always do a show less. We would do better a sold out show in a 400 capacity than sell 600 tickets in a 1000 capacity venue. If you are a band, you need to hold your horses. A solo singer-songwriter can play a lot in a major city. The main beast is to keep it exclusive, so people keep wanting more.

By Polina Aitkulova, a singer/songwriter known as Shell-i. A sea shell inspires her as a notion of infinity and femininity.