INTERVIEW “BEING A PART OF BRINGING SOME THING TO LIFE WHICH CAN AFFECT PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD IS, WITHOUT QUESTION, MAGICAL” As Luxembourg gears up for the Sonic Visions Music Lab and Festival, Merkur took the opportunity to interview Mac Reynolds, keynote speaker at the music lab and manager of Las Vegas’s own Imagine Dragons. With years of experience in both entertainment law and as a band manager for big names in the industry, music has been an integral part of Mac Reynolds’s life for as long as he can remember. We couldn’t wait to ask him a few questions about the ins and outs of his busy life and career and what it’s like to work in the music industry in the 21st century. Text: Hannah Ekberg / Corinne Briault
You’ve worked in the entertainment industry for years, first as an entertainment lawyer in LA and now as a band manager. Can you tell us a bit about how you first got into management in the music industry? Did you pursue any studies in particular to get into that line of work? (Management? Marketing?) Or was it an obvious next step from your work as an entertainment lawyer?
“It’s strange, because music has always been a part of my life, but I never expected it to be a part of how I made a living. I grew up playing in bands and writing music. I know my way around a few instruments, but I also knew that I wasn’t good enough to really make a run of it for a living. And like most people, I didn’t really think of it as a plausible way to make money, even though I loved doing it. I went into law, but even as I was practising law I found myself veering back towards music. I started practising entertainment law, and then started managing a couple artists on the side as a hobby more than anything. As Imagine Dragons started looking more promising, I quit the law job and moved back to Las Vegas to do it full time. It was still a while after that before the band started having real success, but it does feel like I’ve come full circle to a first love, just unexpectedly. Being a lawyer can be helpful, both in terms of actual contract law and how it makes you think and operate when you’re managing. Everything is a negotiation at the end of the day.
In addition to working as a litigation and entertainment lawyer and managing big names in the music industry, you have
also co-founded a record label (Night Street Records), are vice chair at the Tyler Robinson Foundation (a non-profit that assists families dealing with paediatric cancer diagnoses), and a dad with a big, beautiful family! As Merkur is the magazine published by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce group and one of its missions is to support entrepreneurs, we often see people balancing passion projects with fulltime jobs, family responsibilities, and more. Can you tell us a bit about your journey balancing a busy and varied work life with family and other responsibilities?
“Striking the right balance between work life and family life is a constant journey of discovery, and I think it’s different for everyone. I knew going into this that my focus always had to be on working to live, and not living to work. I love what I do for a job, but if it isn’t aimed at making the most important things in my life more fulfilling, and becomes a replacement for those things, things need recalibrating. I try to ignore what most people see as expectations for balance, and find what works for my family and me. That means working from home sometimes, taking moments to do things with the kids even in the middle of the day, when I can get them, and generally just prioritising that part of my life as much as I can. You can only do so much when you have a 24-hour job like management, but you find ways to maximise the time and moments whenever you have them. If you don’t lose that focus, things tend to work out in the end. I also try to drag my family along with me whenever I can get away with it. You’d be surprised by how many people appreciate the humanity
of not always having clear divisions between work and home.
Speaking of home, given that one of your brothers (Dan Reynolds) is the lead singer and a founding member of Imagine Dragons, and another brother (Robert Reynolds) is also an entertainment lawyer and music manager (The Killers), it could seem that your careers are “all in the family.” How influential or important do you think connections really are? If you could break it down into percentages in terms of talent, motivation/passion, hard work, connections, what would that look like?
“Connections can be helpful in getting your music to the right ears, but at the end of the day, I find it to be more distracting than important. With Imagine Dragons, for example, there was never any shortcuts associated with our brother managing The Killers. It was inspiring for us to see another Vegas band do so well, and showed that it was possible, but we never opened for them or used that connection to open a door. It’s always better in the long run to get there on your own merits. It’s the same advice I give all artists, honestly. You really need to focus on your music and the way your fans are connecting to it. Don’t worry about anything else, because the rest will follow if and when you get the music right. There’s too much you can’t control, so focus on the things you can. So to answer your question, I think talent is 49%; motivation/ passion/hard work is 49%; and connections are 2%. You can’t succeed long term without the first two things – the third may help, but you don’t need it to break through.
From your privileged position as both a lawyer and manager in the entertainment and music industries, if you could give advice to someone just starting out in, or trying to get into, the music industry about how best to navigate those particular waters, what would it be?
“My first advice would be to recognise how small the business really is. It’s too small to burn bridges. This means that your reputation truly matters. So many of the people you work with will act differently behind the scenes in relation to your artist if they truly like you and care. From your partners at the label to the promoters, to radio stations, to
Photo : Wesley Tingey
MAC REYNOLDS
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