LINDSAY MARIAS MANAGEMENT

Lindsay Marias was 18 and living in Chicago when she started working for Live Nation and Jam Productions, cutting her teeth in the biz by doing every job imaginable—production assistant, catering, wardrobe, runner, cleaning dressing rooms, you name it. It was hard work and long days, but it was a great lesson in coming to grips with what it takes to be successful in entertainment. Later, while working at the local country venue Joe’s, she asked her boss to book Cam, whom she’d known for about a year, for a small acoustic show. “When she started playing,” Marias recalled, “I knew in that moment that I had found my calling. I saw the superstar quality in her and knew I needed to help.”

How Cam got signed wasn’t the norm in Nashville. Walk me through it.

I quit my job and moved to Nashville after we raised a little over $11,000 on Kickstarter to make her album, which isn’t even close to enough money to make a studio album. We slept on the same air mattress for a year and could barely put gas in our cars. It wasn’t easy, but we wanted to take our time to get the music and branding right before bringing anyone else along for the Cam ride. The intense dedication from her producers, Tyler Johnson and Jeff Bhasker, was crucial in getting the music to a commercially viable level. We knew when we were walking into labels that we weren’t going to need much artist development, because Cam knew who she was and the music expressed that. I now tell people ‘often, it’s only about who you know if your product is worth their time.’ So we put in the work in isolation until we were ready.

What’s your greatest triumph so far as a manager, and how’d you do it?

Recognizing Cam’s talent, acting on my instincts and pouring everything I had into executing a mustard-seed-sized dream. Also, breaking a female in country music. It was an intense group effort from everyone involved—Sony Music, Doug Morris, CAA, country radio, Cam’s entire team and band, and so many more.

What’s your biggest frustration with “That’s how things are done,” and how have you gone against the grain?

I hear that so often. I truly believe that if Cam and I had listened to that advice and followed the norm, we wouldn’t be where we are today. I think in order to make good art and break through, you have to go against the grain. I would say quitting my job to start a career in something I had never done before and managing an unknown female country artist is very against the grain. People would constantly remind me that it’s nearly impossible to break a new female in country—and astronomically improbable if the artist isn’t connected with a major-name manager. But I’m grateful people said that, because it really lit a fire in us to make something great.