News November 26, 2020

Joel Siviour talks Seismic Talent Agency: It’s the ‘culmination of almost a decade’s experience’

Senior Journalist, B2B

Australia’s freshest independent booking agency is already loaded with big names.

Seismic Talent Agency is unveiled to the industry this week, with a roster featuring Alison Wonderland, The Presets, George Maple, Example, Running Touch and others.

Based in Sydney, Seismic is the brainchild of Joel Siviour, formerly with domestic agencies Archery Club, Select Music and Falcona, and whose mission is to empower clients “to achieve their strongest results in touring throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”

The new business boasts a first of sorts. It launches with gender parity across its client roster.

“Diverse representation and the prioritisation of unique stories and perspectives is a core value of Seismic Talent, which of course also extends to the BIPOC and LGBTQI+ artists on our roster also,” Siviour says in a statement unveiling the new enterprise.

“It means a lot to me that we’ve been able to embody the change we wish to see in the music industry and it’s an area that we plan to continue leading in the years ahead.”

The timing is sweet. Seismic opens for business as Australia’s borders soften, flights resume between Sydney and Melbourne, and the federal government lays down its “Roadmap” for the return of touring.

TIO caught up with Siviour to talk business, priorities and the road ahead.

You launch with a massive roster. How so?

Whilst Seismic Talent may look like an ‘overnight success’ from a distance, it’s more accurately the culmination of almost a decade’s experience and development as an agent.

Over the years I’ve been able to experiment and refine what works to achieve the best results for my clients, and with this new endeavour I’ve been able to create a space that leans into those values more than ever.

Crafting bespoke touring strategies that prioritise each artist within their individual space; that’s what Seismic Talent is about, and I think our roster is a testament to the trust our clients have in that vision.

Scanning the talent on your books, Seismic has achieved gender parity. Was that by design?

It’s definitely something I’ve been making conscious progress towards over the last few years. Diverse representation is both important to me as an individual and as a cornerstone to the company-culture at Seismic Talent; it was certainly purposeful but far from a tokenistic approach.

The way I see it, you only have so many hours in the day to devote to your clients, so any time I’d be looking at taking on a new client I had to decide if prioritising this act was going to be in line with my values as an agent, if it was something I was truly passionate about, and if it contributes towards the change I wanted to see in the music industry.

Alison Wonderland

It’s a complicated time to launch a live music enterprise. Australia and NZ feel like we’re heading in the right direction to restart live music in a big way. What are your thoughts?

Complicated absolutely, but far from impossible. For each disappointing cancellation at the start of the pandemic, we’ve been fortunate enough to encounter equally as many exciting opportunities in this part of the world.

It has been a year of moving swiftly and decisively around ever-changing restrictions, but by navigating those limitations with purpose, our clients have already seen some extraordinary results.

ShockOne recently played the biggest headline show of his career, George Maple takes on the Sydney Opera House next month, and QUIX has taken his rightful place headlining festival bills across NZ.

I feel incredibly fortunate to be operating in a region of the world that has contained the pandemic, and I hope that easing of restrictions continue along this positive trajectory.