HAIR AND MAKEUP BY FLORIDO BASALLO AT CLOUTIER REMIX
A
LLISON KAYE DOESN’T LET A
little thing like pregnancy slow
her down, even when she’s
touring the globe with one of
the world’s biggest pop stars. The newly
promoted president of Scooter Braun’s
SB Projects says she has been pregnant
with each of her three kids — Barrett
(age 4), Elle (2) and Ryan (1) — while on
the road, most recently during Ariana
Grande’s 2017 Dangerous Woman Tour.
“I was scaling a tower trying to deliver
iles from the soundboard to the video guy,
and Scooter stopped me and asked, ‘Should
you be doing that?’ ” recalls the 37-year-old
former New Yorker. “I told him, ‘I’m pretty
sure I shouldn’t, but you’re the only person
here who knows I shouldn’t be doing it, so
I’m going to keep climbing.’ ”
Kaye has also made a steady climb
throughout her career. Prior to SB, she
was a lawyer for several record labels
before joining Braun when he launched
SB Projects in 2007. Since then, she has
helped grow the management irm built
around the career of Justin Bieber into
an industry powerhouse, with tentacles in
ilm, TV, branding, digital and tech. After a
brief split with Ka nye We st, SB Projects is
again working with the superstar, and was
by his side in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in June
for the release of his latest album, Ye.
That growth has meant an increasingly
expanded role for Kaye who, as Braun’s irst
employee, managed a growing company
in a space with a constantly changing cast
of characters and opportunities, and was
rewarded with the title of president at SB
on July 31. Billboard sat down with Kaye to
talk about her work as Braun’s top deputy
and what it takes to break a new artist a
decade after breaking Bieber.What does your new role mean for you?
Scooter has really expanded the company
into many diferent verticals over the last
six years, and I was the irst employee,
so I’ve expanded in all areas with him.
Music remains our primary focus, but now
I’m overseeing everything to make sure
all verticals are working together. We’ve
brought in Jen McDaniels to serve as our
general manager of music and she is doing
a great job and frees me up a little bit. I
spend a lot of time taking meetings to help
Scooter expand, and I’ve moved into a role
where I’m his eyes and ears so that he is
able to do what he’s got to do.SB Projects has been in business for
over a decade. Do you still operate
with a startup mentality?
It’s hard for us to try and play the part
of underdog, but in terms of how the“I love helping celebrities use their voices
to make a positive change.”
1 A poster from the
One Love Manchester
benefit concert. 2 Gift
from Scooter’s wife, Yael
Cohen Braun. “I found it
in my office one day and
liked it, because I’m very
nice until you cross me,
and then I’m brutal, and
t h e n I ’ l l g o b a c k t o b e i n g
calm again,” she says.
“ T h e r e ’s a l s o a n ex t r a
letter there that I spend
a lot of time thinking
about.” 3 A gold hard
hat from Justin Bieber’s
charity of choice, Pencils
of Promise. A dollar from
every ticket sold on his
tours goes to this group
to build schools.company operates, it was started by
Scooter, who never worked at a label or a
big corporation, and there aren’t deined
roles. I tell people to come in for the
role they’ve been hired to do, but if they
decide three months in that they hate it
and there’s something that they’re better
suited for, we will make room for them to
do that if it makes sense. It’s really about
taking young people who are competent
and passionate and helping them igure
out their role. And most of our employeesare so young that they can’t tell you what
they want to be doing in 10 years, but we’re
there to help them igure that out.How has management changed?
What distinguished us when we started
was that we were the only ones that
seemed to understand the social and digital
space and how to capitalize on it. Justin
[Bieber] was the irst artist to truly break
of of YouTube. We have to be innovative
because we didn’t have the luxury of
being able to have someone else serve as a
trailblazer. And now, we’re being pushed
more and more every year to be more
innovative, to be more creative, to igure
out how to help our artists engage with
their fans in a way that sets them apart.
That gives us an opening to do something
no one has ever done before. Management
used to be very formulaic — check this box,
do this release, take this interview. None
of those things need to happen anymore.
A surprise album can do just as well as an
album that has been promoted for three
months, if it’s done right.What’s more important for a new artist:
a good song or a good show?
It’s always about the show. It’s their biggest
rush and leads to their biggest payof of
their job. And not just from the money,
but from being onstage in front of their
fans. That’s what is most gratifying for
our clients. Ultimately, it’s about building
a solid fan base that is dedicated to your
artists and cares about them so the artists
can explore their craft creatively and not be
beholden to expectations.Talk about helping plan Ariana
Grande’s One Love Manchester benefit
after the terrorist attack in England in
May 2017.
One thing I love about this job is helping
celebrities use their voices to make a
positive change and help people who
need it. Manchester obviously hit close to
home because it was Ariana’s show, and
watching her go through that and seeing
something I didn’t know she had in her was
one of the most gratifying moments of my
career. I don’t know anyone that has inside
themselves what Ariana has. Whether it
was meeting with the victims and their
families or getting back onstage that night
or going back on tour a week later, the
strength she showed was incredible. And
it was not an easy show to pull of — there
was an obstacle at every turn, but we kept
our heads down, didn’t take no for an
answer and raised a lot of money to help
these kids and their families.Scooter recently signed Zac Brown,
who has enjoyed a very successful
career. Why did he come over?
Scooter and Zac have known each other
since they both lived in Atlanta. They’re
friends, and it’s a big passion project. He
has been in the studio working on music,
and Scooter is going to help him focus.
Keep in mind, Zac is already huge and
plays baseball stadiums, but I think what
excites him is the business opportunities.
He’s got a summer camp,
a wine, a festival, spirits —
you can’t visit Atlanta and
not have an interaction
with Zac Brown. This isn’t
a situation where Zac came
to us because something
was wrong. We’re here to
help him grow. Everything
runs like clockwork and
we’re just there to help
make it better.123AUGUST 4, 2018 WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 21