Conversations with the Inspiring Briana Harris

Today we’d like to introduce you to Briana Harris.

Briana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been a working musician since I was a teenager: playing gigs, teaching lessons, and writing music. I’ve known since high school that I wanted to pursue music professionally, so I majored in music in college at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. I first moved to Colorado to get a master’s degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, which has a fantastic School of Music.

People make a lot of jokes that a music degree isn’t very practical, but my music education has been the most incredible preparation for my career today. I’m a saxophonist by trade, but I always knew that I’d likely have to build some other skill sets to carve out a path and a living in music. In graduate school, I gained a lot of experience with arts marketing, administration, and management tasks. I booked visiting guest artists, organized teams of student workers for our jazz festival, and stepped into the world of event production. I found that the best tool for interacting with artists was really understanding their art. The logistical and organizational skills were always things I could learn, but there is no replacement for being able to clearly communicate about an artistic discipline in a deep and informed way.

After school, I worked a series of marketing and administration jobs for arts organizations: first for the Greeley Philharmonic, and then for UNC’s College of Performing and Visual Arts. These jobs were great stepping stones to continue building my toolkit of systems and professional network. In 2014, I joined The Burroughs, a nine-piece original funk and soul band based in Greeley, CO. The band was already performing often, and we quickly began booking bigger gigs and more shows. Over the years, I’ve taken on more and more of our management and booking for the band. I currently co-own the group with Johnny Burroughs and Mary Claxton, and I serve as our primary booking manager and day-to-day operations manager.

As work with The Burroughs has grown, so have my opportunities as a freelance musician and artist consultant. This past spring, I was able to leave a full-time arts marketing job at UNC to become fully self-employed. It was a big leap, but self-employment has made so much sense for my career and lifestyle. In addition to performing, teaching, and writing music, I also currently work with creative clients under Harris Artist Management. I provide customizable services to assist professional artists with management, business, and booking tasks so they have more time to make their best creative work.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t know that I can describe the road as smooth or full of obstacles. The one theme I seem to return to often is that the road is LONG. Particularly in a discipline like music, it takes decades of study and practice to even begin to master your instrument. I’ve found that the same lessons apply to “mastering” the music business: it takes a really long time to learn everything you need to know, to build a circle of trusted connections, and to carve out a sustainable niche for your project. You don’t know what you don’t know at the beginning, and half the battle is just finding the right information. You also aren’t going to magically improve at any skill you don’t dedicate time to, whether that’s playing your harmonic minor scales, or sending booking inquiries to venues.

My advice to women is to be absolutely tenacious and unapologetic about asking for help and getting the information you need. The music industry (like many industries) is largely built around personal relationships. The power brokers in the industry can feel gated off, but you’d be surprised to know how many of them got to their positions because they… were dudes who knew someone in college. (And yes, most of the folks with power and influence are still dudes!) This past year, I changed my mindset and just started assertively (but politely) asking people in my circles for help. Can you make an introduction to this venue? How does this series booking work? How can we find a producer for our next record? Who are the funders for this project? I also started stating my goals OUT LOUD to people- no one can help you if they don’t know what you want. This shift has been game-changing for everything in my professional life. In general, I truly believe that people want to help if they can, especially if they see that you’re putting in the work to better your craft and business.

My other piece of advice for young women is that you never have to work with people who make you feel uncomfortable. This industry is big enough and full of tons of fantastic people who will treat you with respect and view you as a peer, so if someone doesn’t do those things, move on. Music is still pretty heavily male-dominated, but I feel really fortunate that all of the men I collaborate with on a regular basis are vocal advocates and supporters for women achieving success in this industry. Your talents and skills are valuable enough that you deserve to be working with people who make you feel good about your work.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Burroughs and Harris Artist Management story. Tell us more about the business.
I’m a saxophonist by trade, but I work in a wide variety of facets of the music industry as a performer, educator, composer, and manager. As a freelance musician, I feel my strength is having the skill set and flexibility to perform confidently in a wide variety of genres. I’m comfortable leading a jazz quartet in a club, or playing in a funk band for a festival crowd of thousands of people, or collaborating with a songwriter to write new music. I’m also proud of the energy I bring to stage as a performer in any context; I’m pretty comfortable in front of a crowd, and I love engaging with an audience.

The Burroughs is an original funk and soul band that performs throughout Colorado and beyond. We play between 50-60 dates a year that include festivals, venue shows, private events, and some select touring. We also book weddings and corporate events where we perform a variety of cover tunes. Our live show is super high energy, and our number one goal at every performance is for the audience to have as much fun as we’re having on stage. I’m super proud of the band and business culture we’ve built from the ground up. We’ve had the same eight regular members in the band for the past five years, which is pretty remarkable, and speaks to the quality of character of the people involved.

In my artist management work, my unique offering is that I truly understand what it’s like to be a working artist since I work as a musician myself. It builds so much trust to be able to communicate about the art and craft in an informed way. I think my superpower is project management: I love taking an artist’s grand creative vision and breaking it down into sequenced steps that help them actually achieve their goals. I’m good at problem-solving and having the grit and stamina to see a project through all the way until the end.

Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?
You can’t find someone to help you with your work if you don’t ask for what you want. Find ways to form genuine relationships with the people you admire in your industry, tell them you’re a fan of their work and make it a regular practice to sit down with them and ask questions. I’ve found that most people in the music industry truly want to help up-and-coming artists if they are given a clear opportunity to do so- the limitation for all of us is time because EVERYONE is busy.

If you’re reaching out to a potential mentor or contact, make the ask clear and specific. Instead of saying “I’d love to grab coffee with you sometime,” say “I really admire what you’ve been doing with your most recent live event series. Could I take you out to dinner next week and ask you more about it?” If someone doesn’t respond to a request right away, don’t be disheartened; 9 times out of 10, they are just buried in work or emails that particular week. Politely try to connect again in another month or two.

My other tip is to follow up with everyone you work with and say thank you. A kind email to the client/talent buyer/other artists/production team directly following a show or event goes a long way. Handwritten thank-you notes really stand out. Also, be respectful to everyone you work with from the bottom to the top of a production team- the tech crew, the sound engineers, the admin assistants, the other event vendors, etc. It’s such a small industry, and even the shortest interaction with someone can color their impression of you or your organization for years.

Contact Info:

• Website: brianaharris.com
• Email: brianaharrismusic@gmail.com
• Instagram: @brianaharrismusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianalynnharris
• Other: http://www.theburroughssoul.com/

Image Credit:
Stephanie Burchett, Backstage Flash, Josh Clements Photography

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.