EM.CO’S KELLY CLAGUE & SCOTT SIMAN ON GROWING UP IN THE MUSIC BIZ, BUILDING A MULTI-AWARD WINNING BRAND WITH TIM MCGRAW & ‘MAKING S*** HAPPEN’
In the ever-changing music industry, few figures have made as significant an impact as Kelly Clague and Scott Siman of EM.Co. With a deep rooted understanding of artist management and an unwavering commitment to their craft, Kelly and Scott have steered the careers of some of the industry’s most iconic artists, most notably the legendary Tim McGraw. Both born into the music industry, and with Scott representing Kelly’s stepdad’s band, the Wright Brothers back in the 80’s, they always laugh that they were “meant to know each other in this lifetime.” Major successes include a performance by McGraw on the 2015 Oscars; a Clio Award, three Grammy Awards, two best-selling books, and 94 million records sold worldwide. More recently, they helped oversee the launch of McGraw’s film/TV production company Down Home in association with Skydance Media, building on the success of McGraw’s acting career (“Friday Night Lights,” “The Blind Side,” and most recently “1883,” the smash prequel to “Yellowstone.”) We had the pleasure of working with EM.Co for the first time on McGraw’s current Standing Room Only tour and we were blown away by their creativity and collaborative approach. We caught up with them to discuss their almost 30 year journey together, the founding of EM.Co, and how they carve out time for themselves…
WW: Could you share a bit about your journey in the music industry and how you came to establish EM.Co?
Kelly: My grandparents were musicians. I’ve been right in the heart of artist management from the time I was a kid. Then after college I started working at a music publisher-to-management company in Nashville and did everything I could possibly do along the way. In the early years of that Tim McGraw was signed to our management company. We were the young ones but we were able to quickly get some success and grow. And then Scott came into the picture early 95’ prior to Tim’s Everywhere album. It was perfect timing because we really needed an adult in the room. Someone with the experience that Scott had, the larger vision to be able to tell us when to quell our young rebellious nature and to provide a little more structure so that we could be more successful in the long term. We’ve been working together on-and-off ever since and then 10 years ago we set up EM.Co.
Scott: My journey is pretty straightforward. My dad, Si Siman, was in the music industry so I grew up around the business. He was a successful radio / television producer, talent agent, record producer and music publisher (“The Letter,” “Always on My Mind”) who really helped transform the country music industry while staying rooted in the Ozarks. I grew up around that but my dad always wanted me to go to law school. So I ended up coming down to Nashville to go to college and then went on to law school. I practised law for about 13 years before moving to Sony Entertainment to help run the Nashville Office. We had a lot of fun doing that for a few years – we had the Chicks, one of our big breakthrough acts during that time. And then I was actually intending to leave to go to another record label and the opportunity to get involved with Tim came up. It was really intriguing because as a lawyer and record executive you’re dealing with 30, 40, 50 careers at any given time and the idea that I could help focus energy on one act was appealing because we could do that really well and grow his brand and the company.
WW: So how do your roles at EM.Co differ?
Scott: We work closely on all things Tim – we have complementing skills so we each might be more active in some areas than others. And of course we have a number of other great executives on our team (Brian Kaplan, James Stewart, Jack Purcell and Doug Phillips). Kelly takes the lead role in creative. I give input and obviously my experience but honestly, she takes most of those balls and runs with them. She has a great rapport with Tim, a language communication. My background in law and at a label puts me in a lead position on contracts/negotiations. I am also keen on empowering the team to do the best they can.
Kelly: My role within the management structure is as a manager, but I’ve always been able to run in a creative lane because we’ve needed it, because Tim’s so creative. So approaching a 30 year run, whether that’s a book project or a movie project or a tour, it’s about being able to make sure his vision is executed and also serves him best in the other areas of his career.
WW: You oversee Tim McGraw’s multi-faceted career across music, film/television, publishing, branding and partnerships. What area do you find most rewarding?
Scott: I guess I always still have to go back to music first. When you get the music right, it creates opportunities to do a lot of other things. We’ve been blessed with Tim to have 47 number one radio singles and almost 70 top 10 singles. So for me it’s music first, but we’re having so much fun in the film and TV arena too. He’s done really well there but I think our best things are still in front of us. It’s in our DNA. We have our little brand sheet and one of our missions is “we make big s*** happen”.
Kelly: Personally I’ve never been as excited about the deal as I am about the execution. That’s just sort of how I’m wired. So anytime we pull off big s*** it makes me really happy. Because if we’ve pulled it off then typically there’s a big orchestra and there’s been a lot of directing to make the orchestra sing. So creatively I really like knowing that I’ve made a difference somehow. Either in how I’ve helped manage it or whether it’s bringing in the right parts.
Scott: I think we’ve always had a philosophy of trying to be groundbreaking. We love being the first to do something or put a new twist or turn on things. I think we sort of thrive on that and Tim does too so it’s always fun when we come up with a successful idea and then we see people start to emulate it.
WW: That leads us nicely onto working with Wonder Works. McGraw’s ‘Standing Room Only’ arena tour is the first time we’ve worked together. How have you found the process?
Kelly: We found Wonder Works because Tim had seen the Roger Waters tour and he was raving about it. I basically booked a ticket for me and our lighting director, Pat Brannon, to get on a plane and go see the show immediately. We were able to see what was connecting with Tim in real life. We weren’t going to go and replicate Roger Waters’ show, but we were able to see what was really resonating. And so from there, I called Wonder Works and I quickly got to Jeremy. He made it all feel technically possible and introduced us to the right team. I think Jeremy was really excited by it creatively too, which was refreshing. Often people come into the world of country music and they try to dumb down the look and feel because they think that’s what we want. Jeremy just got it straight away.
WW: McGraw’s Standing Room Only tour kicked off in March 2024 and will see him play in 30+ cities across North America. How many of these shows are you likely to go to?
Scott: I probably go to about 20% of the shows, so on a 45 city tour I might end up there 9 or 10 times. We’ve all learned over the years that it works really well when you’ve done the homework up front and then on that first weekend, you’re just fine-tuning it and then it’s a well-oiled machine. So we’re very hands-on at the beginning to make sure everything runs smoothly, and then we might be at a show for a sponsor need, it might be a radio need, it might just be that we want to see the opening act. We’ve got a super talented road team, so once the tour is under way we can be focused on the other things we need to do to promote the tour, alongside managing Tim’s multi-faceted career.
WW: Tim manages to strike the perfect balance between art and commerce. How have you helped him achieve this?
Kelly: We were able at a pretty early spot in Tim’s career to reign things in and really control how we branded him. From the way radio ads went out to how his shows looked, we could be really consistent. He also happens to be really consistent as a person and as a creative. The things that he likes, the way he thinks about things has been consistent. He has known himself from a pretty young age and has allowed himself to evolve within that sphere. So we’ve had the luxury of being able to really wrap the visuals around who that person is as a brand.
I feel like Tim’s ability to balance art and commerce has always been great. He has really amazing guttural instincts in that direction and the ebb and flow of “have we gone too heavy on art and now we need to throw in a little commerce” or “are we a little commerce heavy and now it’s time to challenge every challenge.” Sometimes when we fight his instincts he’s the most right and sometimes we’re right. We have a diverse team so you get these different perspectives coming together and then you’re able to challenge each other.
Scott: Yep throw it out there and it can get shot down, but it might lead to something bigger and better.
WW: How have you seen the industry change over the years and how have you adapted as a business?
Scott: We live in a world where entertainment is everywhere. It’s very competitive for people’s time and attention and sometimes the music industry has not been the most adaptive or quick to respond to how the fans want to consume their music. So I think we have to constantly challenge ourselves as an industry and us as a management marketing company. We have to ask the question “how do we get to these fans and how do we connect with them?”
One of the fun things we did for this tour was remove pre-sale tickets. Everybody got really into doing these pre-sales and then fans were saying “I don’t know when to buy a ticket? I just want to go to the show.” If the fans are telling us they don’t like it, why do we keep shoving it down their throats? So we mixed things up and made a conscious decision not to do a pre-sale and it played out really well for us.
Kelly: I also think we’ve brought in the right people at the right time. 10 years ago when we rebranded as EM.Co we brought in a really strong Business Development digital mind and staffed accordingly. Somebody who knew how digital strategy worked. As people that were born in a print world we needed somebody to remind us that digital does not work like print. We had to bring in and invest in the people who really understood where we were going.
WW: What would you say are your career highlights so far?
Kelly: It’s got to be the Hollywood Bowl. Tim completely sold out the venue which if you’ve ever been to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles just looks like more people than you can imagine. I think as much as there are other great moments, that’s certainly in my top 5.
Scott: It was great to be a part of Live 8 in Rome (2005). It was a blast to be able to go to Rome and see Tim go toe-to-toe with some of the best artists in the world. He also did the Nobel Peace Prize Awards (2003) in Oslo and he’s performed on The Oscars (2015). You realise that those are really unique moments and that if you get to do one of them you’re lucky but to do all three is pretty freaking amazing. That Trio of international events is special. And then I’ve gotta say “Live Like You Were Dying.” That song is obviously a career song for Tim – it spent 10 weeks number one on radio. That hasn’t happened in 50-60 years and will probably never happen again. It was great to play a part in that.
WW: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Kelly: It’s not my story but one of my favourites is from years and years ago. Tim was playing at some festival along with Johnny Paycheck, who’s this old school country legend that I listened to growing up. We were all on the tour bus and Tim asked Johnny, “Hey, do you have any advice for a young guy like me?” And he said, “Son, just get up enough speed so that when you hit the ditch you come out on the other side.” I just loved that! Hesitation kills – just keep after it and don’t overthink things.
WW: How do you balance work with your personal lives?
Kelly: Well, I managed it so poorly that I had to quit and leave the country for five years, so I’m probably the worst person to ask! I fully checked out. I looked up at about 38 years old and realised that I had no life balance and literally just stopped and went on a walkabout for about five years. I think coming back from that sabbatical, I’ve tried to really heed and understand certain cues. I’m not good at working a little bit all the time. I have to have a full stop. Even if it’s 24 hours. I need a full stop. I think that one of the most important pieces of advice I ever got was to just really understand how you get your soul back and what that means. Culturally we’re sort of told that it’s a massage and a spa but actually it’s the little rituals that really make me a happier person. Sometimes it’s just having an hour and a half in my house in the morning to do the dishes and to potter around in the kitchen and not be trying to do seven things at once and rush out the door. I find when I’ve been on the road a bunch of days, then this time at home is exponentially better for me than a spa day.
Scott: When we started this EM.Co round of our careers, we tried to build in time to breathe. We didn’t want to take on a hundred artists. We wanted just a handful so that we could have time to think, to contemplate, to experience the world and to be creative.
WW: EM.Co’s output is super creative. How do you nurture that creativity?
Kelly: You can’t continue to be creative and not fill up the coffers, whether that’s with travel or art or community or however it is you fill up as a creative. You just tap out at a certain point and I think Tim believes that as well. He’s the first to tell songwriters or any other creative that you got to live to create. You can’t create in a vacuum.
WW: What advice would you give to someone who aspires to work in artists management?
Scott: I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding of what management is. They’ve read the books, they’ve heard the stories. I think the reality of management is not as pretty as the outside picture and you’ve got to be willing to deal with the setbacks and the challenges. Maybe it’s the world in general but everything seems like much more of a battle. So what I would say to those who are looking to get into it is learn as much as you can and try to figure out a way to appreciate dealing with some of the s*** that you’re going to have to deal with rather than think “why am I having to deal with this?” That’s your job. One of the phrases I use a lot is “we get to do this, we don’t have to do this.”
WW: Finally, what satisfaction do you gain from your work? What keeps you doing it?
Scott: I think when the artist say’s “that’s exactly what I had in my head or even better,” those are the satisfying moments. I’m sure Jeremy finds that too! The chart stuff and the numbers and all that, we are proud for sure, but they’re so fleeting. By the time you get them, they’re ancient history. Yeah, it looks good on paper but true satisfaction comes from seeing the artist’s vision play out in real life. Or seeing a fan react to “Live Like You Were Dying” when Tim sings live. Real life sh*** beats it all.
Kelly: Yeah, it’s the real life experiences. Sometimes we get messages from people after a show who said it changed their life. Whatever their situation – runs of IVF, a death in the family. They went to a show and it was the carrot they needed to continue. We’re not curing cancer, but at least we’re doing something that makes people have some hope…
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