When it comes to marketing a band, a manager needs communication skills, hard work ethic, creativity and colored paper.
Yes, colored paper.
In a quiet computer lab, a senior in interior design perfectly places her fluorescent green paper in the copy machine tray and proceeds to print 100 fliers advertising an upcoming rock concert.
She may seem like an average Ohio State student, but what people do not know about Katie Read will surprise them: bright colored paper helps make her rock ‘n’ roll dreams come true.
For over a year, Read has been managing Proximity Grey, a local rock band with a hope to take its music to the top of the charts, and to take Read with it.
“She’s like the sixth member of Proximity Grey,” said bassist Dan Giancola.
She has been a part of the band’s history longer than three of its five members.
Read met vocalist Adam Nation and guitarist Chad Weirick at a crowded Our Lady Peace concert in Dayton in May, 2002. While speaking with Weirick about his band, Read was interested in hearing MP3’s.
“I remember the first thing I said about the music was, ‘wow, that’s really marketable,'” Read said.
The next step was witnessing Nation and Weirick’s live two-piece acoustic set. After she was floored by their performance, the two asked Read to be the band’s manager.
“They just needed someone to handle the business aspect so they could focus on the music,” Read said.
A year after their chance meeting, three new band members finalized Proximity Grey’s line-up. The band and its manager have since been taking their efforts toward stardom more seriously than ever.
However, stardom is a long way away from Katie’s hometown of Newark, Ohio.
Although a single band was surely not all it took to turn Read from an average student to a rock band manager, music has been an immense part of her life for the last 10 years.
“My aunt heavily influenced me as a child,” Read said. “She was very close to me and very much into music. She had always gone to concerts when she was young, and I had always traveled with her.”
Read’s first concert changed her life. After seeing the Foo Fighters in Cincinnati at age 12 and meeting the band at the show, she knew she would never be the same.
“I would say from that point on I was pretty much sucked in, and I had to go to every concert that I could,” Read said.
She went as far as following national rock bands Third Eye Blind, Splender, Nine Days, Greenwheel and Our Lady Peace.
“Every time I saw them, it created a bigger desire. It was like, this is more a part of me and I have to keep doing it,” Read said. “It was a very emotional and overwhelming thing.”
By the time she reached college, Read attempted to balance her lifestyle with her education. She tried a major in psychology before switching to business, yet neither offered an outlet for her hush-hush creative half.
“A lot of people don’t know my creative and artistic side,” Read said. “I keep that to myself.”
Finally, she discovered interior design and has been happy with her decision.
“I knew that if music didn’t go anywhere for me, I could fall back on interior design and be creatively fulfilled,” Read said.
Read’s education from her major has helped her manage Proximity Grey. With a focus in costume design, her classes have helped the appearance of the band and stage; She has considered the band’s image by advising them to incorporate new and hip apparel into their wardrobe, and she has included a special rug on the stage at every show.
In addition to the aesthetics behind her job, Read credits her continued internship at PromoWest Productions for the tools to market and manage a band.
The marketing internship has helped her get to know the Columbus market, which people and places to target, and the loudest color paper for fliers best captures the attention of a possible concert-goer.
Although the internship was only supposed to last for three months, Read has been with PromoWest since August, 2002 despite her busy schedule.
“There are so many different areas of the music industry, it’s so hard to stay balanced in all of them. I feel that keeping my foot in the door keeps me grounded with the business and promoting aspect and seeing behind the scenes of the venue,” Read said. “The more I know how a venue works and how they promote, the better I will be for the band just because I’ll have that experience.”
Thanks to her internship and her inherent love for music, Read has constructed a stable method for managing an up and coming rock band.
“She sets up shows, she’s our personal photographer, and she put together our press packet,” Nation said. “She helps us immensely.”
Proximity Grey and its manager have put their all into getting the band off the ground. Three members have dropped out of school to focus on the band; a decision Read would consider if a grand opportunity was introduced for the group to further its career.
However, Read is very well aware of the risks involved in the music business.
“The bands with the most motivation sometimes fail, even if they’re amazing and very driven,” Read said. “This is an industry that makes you or breaks you. If you’re not willing to put everything you inside of you into it, you’ll just be washed away.”
Read does not question that her determination will help Proximity Grey receive the break that they deserve.
“She has a really strong work ethic and drive,” Weirick said. “We wouldn’t be the band we are today without her.”
Katie Read shows no signs of slowing down anytime in the near future. However, no matter where the music industry takes her, Read will always be a fan.
