United Talent Agency’s Josh Garrett takes his agent role in breaking artists seriously. Currently the RA for Jimmie Allen, whose Broken Bow release “Best Shot” spent three weeks at #1, and Matt Stell, whose nearly gold “Prayed for You” debut is approaching 17 million Spotify plays and 5 million YouTube views as a unique partnership between Wide Open Music management, Barry Weiss’ RECORDS and Sony Nashville/Arista, these seemingly unlikely contenders for big-box star-dom are in all the major conversations about today’s country breakouts. The Houston transplant—another Belmont grad—is also busy with Logan Mize, Moon-shine Bandits and Lonestar.

How has breaking artists changed?
As an agent, you need to be in the trenches with the artist from day one. The days of waiting on an act to have a hit prior to working with them are long gone. Right now, UTA is surrounding developing artists in all ways possible, from listening to their demos to helping them grow their teams—be it managers, publicists, lawyers, publishers or whatever else they might need—to coming up with out-of-the-box touring strategies. We are also committed to building cross-departmental brand strategies with our colleagues across the agency, opening up a whole other spectrum of possibilities.

Best Advice?
Don’t get mad at your money. I’ve seen deals fall apart and people get sideways over the smallest things. We all want the same things: for the artists to grow and do well. When they win, everyone wins.