Music Morsels

Album Capsules And Kelly Keeling Concert Preview
by Mark E. Waterbury

Rise - Uncertain Wonders
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Elaine Lachica - Self titled
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Enode - Memory Still Fresh
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World Class Noise - Day & Night
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99 Names of God - Interwoven
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Furniture Music - Satellite Life
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Geomancer - Self titled EP
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Plum Village - self titled
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Michael Johnathon - Homestead
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Living Space - Fade Into Existence...n
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Kelly Keeling Live In Concert At The Velvet Underground/Hard Rock
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Feature Article: Ego - Your best friend or your worst enemy
by Mark E. Waterbury
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MAD Booking asst. talent buyer Tania Taschereau
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Indie Artist Spotlight: Kris Manvell - Drummer for Rise
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Scott Turner's Song Publisher's Perspective
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Music Biz Opportunities
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Music Industry Marketing Showcase
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Serge Home
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Music Morsels archives
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Scott Turner Tapes
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Copyright 2004 by Music Morsels, a Serge Entertainment Publication.
Editor: Sandy Serge
Contributing Columnists/Writers:
Mark E. Waterbury, Scott Turner

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MAD Booking asst. talent buyer Tania Taschereau

by Mark E. Waterbury

California born Tania Taschereau had some early ideas of what she wanted to do with her life. "Even though I loved music since I was a little kid, I never really thought it would be a profession. I really wanted to have music talent but I didn't have any. So I started to look at the business side of music as something I could do." After moving to the tiny town of Columbia, Tennessee when she was thirteen, the high school there did not offer much in the way of extracurricular activities involving music, but gave her a perspective on what she would eventually end up doing. "I knew all of these people who were in bands, but they could only play locally. No one would give them a chance to play anywhere else. They had to struggle a lot." After graduating, Tania attended Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. That city had a bit of a music scene of its own, but was also about a half hour from the music mecca of Nashville. "I was getting a major in the recording industry, and the professors had information about opportunities to help out with music conferences and such in Nashville. I did as much as I could in those avenues, and I loved to help out with them and they were great learning experiences for me as well." Among the entities Tania worked with while in college was an urban music convention at Opryland Hotel, the Tin Pan South conference and a contemporary Christian radio show.

Heading into her final semester of college, Tania had still not decided what particular route to go with her music business career. Nashville was full of record labels and major publishing houses, but when an opportunity came up for Tania to intern at a local booking agency called MAD Booking, she jumped at the chance. "A good friend of mine was interning there and she was graduating so there was an opening. I heard about this festival they were booking called Dancing in the District, which has been around for about nine years and it seemed like something I wanted to get involved in." Tania interned at MAD Booking for five months when CEO Marcie Allen asked her to stay on full time. They just started doing a concert series in Atlanta called On The Bricks, and Marcie wanted Tania to help with that. By this time, Tania was already starting to grow a passion for booking bands. "I remembered all of those struggling bands from my high school days and was thinking if I had some kind of power to help bands like that out that I would do it. If I could get them in festivals with national acts, that would help get their name out there and people would come to actually see them. I really love getting out and scouting these bands in clubs and seeing how they are live. Some of them would just blow me away, it's like I made a discovery." Every Thursday, Tania would hop on a tour bus and head to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta to work with On The Bricks.

Then in fall of 2001, MAD Booking decided to open an office in Atlanta. Marcie asked Tania to help launch and run the office, which she agreed to. Along with assisting in the talent buying for festivals in Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis and Washington D.C. as well as corporate events, Tania will shortly be taking over the college booking division, which had actually been the impetus of MAD Booking's creation about six years ago. "Working with the colleges is going to be another step up for me. With most of the festivals, I have been assisting Marcie, but she is going to let me work the college division on my own. Marcie has really been my mentor. I'm so lucky to have met her. A lot of people when they intern, do nothing but tasks like putting numbers into databases, but she gave me a lot of power to run with things and wanted to see what I could do. I'm really looking forward to helping colleges and bands alike."

Somewhere down the line Tania thinks she may like to try her hand at artist management. Right now she is happy with what she is doing and wants to keep her career growing exponentially with the growth of the MAD Booking, which is working more on the production side of events and festivals. Looking back, Tania feels that going the intern route to launch her career was a wise decision, and she encourages others to follow her example. "If you intern as much as possible, it is the best way you can really learn and try out as many aspects of the business as possible. Also, it offers you chances to get out and network, meet as many people as you can, and build relationships. Make sure that people you meet always remember you and then keep the relationships going.

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Tania's advice for musicians: Try to play as much as you can...anywhere that they will have you just to get your name out there. Most clubs will at least do some advertising and people will see your name in the paper or on posters, and that helps people to know who you are. Be persistent when you are connecting with people so when you call them back and say your name the know who you are. Just play as much as you can, connect with people from club owners to record label people and booking agents and get your name into their heads.