Andy Saunders has seen the music business at its messiest.
As founding father of Velocity Communications – celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary this yr – he’s spent a long time constructing tales and shaping methods for a few of music’s most distinguished firms. However there’s one other facet to his work that not often will get mentioned over well mannered business lunches: disaster administration for artists whose worlds have abruptly imploded.
“My first query is all the time, ‘Did you do it?’” Saunders tells MBW. “I’ve to be 100% assured they’re telling me the reality. As a result of when you don’t inform me the reality, I can’t enable you.”
It’s a stark opening to our dialog, but it surely will get to the guts of what Saunders does when he’s not selling the most recent signing or business deal. He’s on velocity dial for artists (and their reps) when accusations floor on social media, when tabloids come knocking, or when a second of poor judgment threatens to derail all the pieces they’ve constructed.
Saunders’ ‘reputational administration’ shoppers fall into two distinct classes: (i) those that’ve been falsely accused of misdeeds and wish their reputations defended, and (ii) those that’ve genuinely transgressed and need assistance navigating the resultant fallout.
As you’d anticipate, this sees Saunders wade into difficult territory. But he’s steadfast about his ethical boundaries. “I by no means wished to be Max Clifford; I don’t defend the indefensible,” he says. “In case you’re a racist, a rapist, or an abuser, I don’t need to know you, not to mention work with you.”
With typical straightforwardness, he provides: “You’ll be able to’t come again from one thing unforgivable that harms one other particular person. You can come again from being a fucking fool.”
Under, Saunders discusses the ethical traces he gained’t cross, the methods that truly work in disaster conditions, and why social media has essentially modified the sport for anybody within the public eye…
You’re employed with artists accused of significant issues, however you say there are strict ethical limits to the instances you tackle. What are these limits?
I’m very clear on this: I don’t defend racists, I don’t defend rapists, and I don’t defend abusers. I might take the lawyer/solicitor view – ‘everyone deserves a protection’. However I’d be mendacity to myself. Some individuals, some actions, are indefensible.
My position is to mitigate conditions for individuals who have made real errors, or who’ve been falsely accused. I’m right here to work with artists to articulate an apology if wanted. And I’m right here to assist them navigate the dangerous actors within the media who want to exploit their fame – their ‘fall from grace’ – for clicks.
I’ve turned down rather more of this work than I’ve taken on. Why? As a result of I’ve bought a spouse and daughter, as a result of I’ve bought a various group of pals, and since I wish to suppose I’m an inexpensive, first rate human being.
What provides you the boldness that an artist is being falsely accused – that they’re not mendacity to you?
First, I look them within the eye and say: ‘Did you do it?’ And even when they then say no, I ask: ‘What had been the circumstances behind this even changing into an accusation?’
If, on the finish of that dialog, their story appears credible, I start a strategy of proof constructing. That may be so simple as web analysis or as advanced as working intently with attorneys and personal detectives.
One of the severe instances I ever took on was a rock band who had been accused, through an nameless social media account, of assaulting one in every of their followers. This account principally mentioned: ‘They assaulted my buddy at this explicit resort on this explicit city.’ However having carried out analysis in tandem with the band’s administration, we concluded it couldn’t be true.
In the meantime, the [accusatory] tweet was getting amplified, and the band’s profession was abruptly in free fall. Cowl shoots had been drying up, gigs had been being cancelled and folks had been piling in on social media with feedback like “I all the time thought they regarded like mistaken ‘uns”.
We had been finally in a position to establish the particular person behind the nameless account, and so they agreed to put up a public apology, having confirmed the data they obtained was incorrect. The band then requested their followers to not bully this particular person, accepted the apology, and everybody moved on.
It blew over, inflicting fast however restricted injury. However it’s not an exaggeration to say that if it wasn’t handled rapidly, it might have destroyed careers and lives.
Nameless accusations on-line are a uniquely trendy subject: anybody can publicly accuse anybody of something through social media whereas masking their identification.
Social media has made individuals lonelier than ever. Once we work together with different individuals by means of our gadgets greater than we do in actual life, actuality can grow to be a bit blurred. We’re actually seeing that with AI and ‘deepfakes’ now.
Social media permits you to simply ‘different’ individuals, to deal with them as commodities or one-dimensional beings. It’s additionally gamified outrage in a means that may incentivise individuals to stretch the reality – or overlook it completely.
Individuals who lack company and energy in their very own lives can see it as a means of attracting consideration or being within the highlight. It makes them really feel like they’ve affect.
What about when artists have carried out one thing mistaken? One pop star you labored with a number of years again broke Covid guidelines, which rapidly grew to become tabloid fodder.
Reassurance is an enormous a part of what I do, taking the warmth out of the scenario. When somebody is in the course of a reputational disaster, it’s often the worst day of their life. It’s simple to lose perspective when all that’s going by means of your thoughts is: ‘What the fuck am I gonna do?!’
My job is to place a metaphorical arm round their shoulder and say, ‘You’re not the primary particular person this has occurred to, and also you’re unlikely to be the final. Let’s not enable emotion get in the way in which of pragmatism.’
“I all the time inform shoppers who’re in that preliminary panic mode that shouting ‘it’s not truthful!’ is just not a method.”
After that, the answer may be so simple as issuing a press release: ‘I shouldn’t have carried out this; I apologize.’ And which means it!
Within the Covid artist story you’re speaking about, the transgression – severe although it was – was being made out by sure media shops to be the tip of the world, when anybody with half a mind might see that wasn’t the case. As soon as everybody understood the dynamics of that, our technique fell into place.
I all the time inform shoppers once they’re in that preliminary panic mode that shouting, ‘It’s not truthful!’ is just not a method. You must work out what you might want to talk and who you might want to talk it to, after which execute.
Is it true that you just’re working with Kneecap – the Irish band who’ve attracted media criticism for his or her pro-Palestine statements, in addition to some troubling public feedback made in years passed by?
I do know it’s boring, however I gained’t verify or deny working with any shoppers. I’ll say this about Kneecap: I’m happy to see they’ve held their fingers up, and overtly remorse, a number of the silly – probably unlawful – issues they’ve mentioned up to now. On the similar time, I’m happy to see they’ve doubled down on the political viewpoints they essentially consider in.
These are two separate points that had been in peril of changing into conflated within the narrative.
It doesn’t matter when you strongly disagree or strongly agree with Kneecap’s political statements. Artists have all the time had the liberty to say uncomfortable issues, and I help each artist’s proper to take action. I additionally help everybody’s proper to problem these statements.
“Artists have freedom to say uncomfortable issues. I help their proper to take action.”
We’re a poorer society once we begin clamping down on freedom of expression from any political ‘facet’. ‘Cancellation’ in that means is pure cultural cowardice.
I bear in mind being upset about Morrissey [writing about and using imagery connected to] Myra Hindley. However I nonetheless help his proper to do it. If we begin cancelling artists for expressing themselves, particularly once they’re saying issues we don’t like, the place does it cease?
You talked about working intently with attorneys on these instances. How does that play out?
Generally the attorneys really convey the instances my means, particularly if there’s potential media blowback.
I’m all the time comfy getting referrals from attorneys that I’ve quite a lot of respect for, and who take the identical strategy to issues that I do. Russells is a good instance of that, and I significantly like working with their litigation specialists Steven Tregear, Dan Hoyle and Eliot Leggo.
Working with attorneys can result in actually attention-grabbing philosophical conversations about why we’re doing it, what we’re doing it for, and what we’re hoping to
obtain. Generally I assist them soften the litigation edges, and so they give me a a lot clearer framework wherein to function. In sure circumstances, the communications component – the general public message – turns into simply as essential because the courtroom filings.
I’m an artist falsely accused of one thing – or in sizzling water over a mistake. What are the primary three belongings you’d advise?
1) Inform me all the pieces. Why would this particular person even suppose of accusing you? It gained’t go outdoors this dialog; you’ll be able to NDA me if you’d like. However I’ve to know all the pieces, as a result of with out all of the information on the desk, there’s no path to correctly figuring a means out of this.
2) Don’t remark. Don’t reply. Don’t put up. Don’t do something till we determine the plan. I do know each fibre of your being desires to put up on social media ‘I DIDN’T DO THIS!’ however when you do, you can fan the flames, particularly if it’s changing into a nationwide or worldwide media story.
3) Do you might want to apologise? In case you do, don’t pretend it. I’m not going to only provide you with a template ‘Yeah, sorry about this’ assertion. First, you’re going to understand why you might want to apologise. Then you definately’re going to inform me why you’re apologising, in genuine language – and what you’ve discovered from this expertise. Then we go from there.
When executives fall from grace
Whereas a lot of Andy Saunders’ disaster work includes artists, he’s equally skilled in managing reputations for music business executives who discover themselves in sizzling water. The dynamics, he says, are essentially totally different from artist instances.
“With executives, the very first thing you need to perceive is the company actuality,” Saunders explains. “Artists can’t actually get ‘fired’ – executives can.”
He provides: “I had one significantly high-profile exec case up to now few years, a basic ‘my life’s ended, what am I going to do?’ scenario. I needed to inform him, ‘There’s no means your organization permits you to survive in your job after this. Sure, you haven’t harmed anybody. However you’ve been silly, and your employer gained’t defend you in any respect prices.’
The technique then shifts from injury limitation to planning for the longer term, says Saunders. “As soon as they’ve accepted the truth, which isn’t all the time instantaneous, you’ll be able to have a extra trustworthy dialog about how they’ll come again from it – and the way lengthy that’s going to take.”
Working with American attorneys on govt instances brings further complexity, significantly in what Saunders calls “adversarial conditions” between US rivals or former companions.
“After I’ve labored with music business professionals who’ve discovered themselves in a legally adversarial scenario with an organization, it’s actually essential that they’ve a story that may play properly with the decide and/or jury,” he says.
“Generally, within the US particularly, one of the best ways to push that narrative into the broader world is definitely by means of courtroom filings. There are particular circumstances the place, when you get the messaging proper, courtroom filings may be the perfect ‘press launch’ you can hope for.”
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