March 28, 2018

Meet Jason Price of Rise Up Agency

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Price.

Life as an independent talent buyer can be a challenge. There isn’t a school you go to. To gain entry into the field you either intern for a larger promoter or venue. Or, start with a with blood sweat and tears, and a plan and continue to do things wrong till you get it right. The most important thing in entertainment, as in life, is to simply just do what you say you are going to do. Be honest with yourself, and others. Everything else will just fall into place.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Looking back, the struggle has been a large part of the story that has lead to where I am today. You make mistakes or you aren’t trying. You learn from the mistakes, or not. If you don’t you won’t last. I have been an independent promoter, and talent buyer, since 2001. Being “independent” might sound like a great buzz word but it only means you stand alone. That can be a scary thing. The success you have is built one relationship at a time, one deal at a time, one promise at a time you must live up to.

My story on how I found the entertainment industry is a bit complex. As a young man, I graduated high school at West Hardin High School in Saratoga, Tx. The first industry I briefly went into was commercial diving. It did not take long to realize the dangers of this industry. There is no union for commercial divers on the Gulf Coast. Much of the work is on offshore rigs, or worse, in waste pits inside chemical plants. After seeing many co-workers injured, or worse I know it was time to move on. I then went into the U.S. Navy in 2001 at the beginning of the Desert Storm conflict.

My job was being a battlefield medic supporting the United States Marine Corps. I will never forget the day I enlisted. It was February 3rd, 2001. This was the first day the USMC hit the beach on foreign soil for the conflict. It was also the first time in history the landing on the beach was televised. I stayed up all night watching the operation on CNN. At 5 am the next morning the recruiter knocked on my door and off I went to boot camp in San Diego.

Looking back, that was a very surreal experience to start my adult life. At the conclusion of my enlistment options were a bit limited as to what field I would be qualified to work in. I enjoyed watching the tv show Cops. It just looked interesting. Three days after my military enlistment I moved back to Texas and started the police academy at the Baytown Police Academy. Seven months later I graduated. I had a young family and it was time to go to work.

Unfortunately, at the end of the academy in Baytown, there was a budget problem and Baytown could not hire the cadets that have graduated with me for 6-12 months. I worked various jobs in chemical plants but it only took about 5 months to realize it was not what I was supposed to be doing. I spoke to my uncle who was an attorney in Lake Charles, LA and he advised that the police department was hiring. After a brief, but detailed interview process I was hired as an officer with Lake Charles Police Department.

During my employment with L.C.P.D., my outlet away from the very stressful, and dangerous work was going to see live music. I loved it. Going into my fourth year of employment I met a musician, Phil Ebarb. Phil was putting a music festival raising money for Multiple Sclerosis. He asks me to be on the board of the event. For a year we would have monthly board meetings. I looked forward to each meeting as it allowed me to scratch a creative itch that I could not scratch at the police department.

Going into the event Phil ask me a be the spokesperson for the event. The event happened and it was a very rewarding experience. At the event, I met the publisher of an entertainment magazine. After a brief conversation, she advised they were looking for a representative in Southwest Louisiana. Part of the role was writing about local entertainment and the other half was overseeing the advertising sales. Soon thereafter I took my first leap of faith as an adult and took the job with the magazine.

The job with the magazine was a definite step back financially but for the first time in my life, I was doing something I fully loved to do. During my role with the magazine, my job of writing gave me access to an artist I was interviewing. The other part of the job supervising advertising sales gave me access to decision makers at each venue. I quickly realized that there was an actual profession that linked artist to venues, a talent buyer/booking agent.

Soon thereafter, in 1999 I took my second leap of faith and moved to Houston to pursue a career in entertainment. Even before I moved to Houston I heard of a person who lived there making large things happen, Louie Messina. Louie was a bit of a legend even then, almost a mythical figure to me. After moving a Houston I briefly took a few odd jobs just to pay the bills, or at least try. Late that year I went with a friend to a Pantera concert at Reliant Arena. My friend knew legend Kings X bassist, Doug Pinnick, and he was going to the show.

Doug was very good friends with Dimebag Darrell. He secured access to Pantera’s green room and I met Dimebag. I was in awe. Also, a guest in the room I met the venue owner of the local venue, the Engine Room. I told him of my dream of being in the entertainment industry and he told me that anyone who knew Doug Pinnick had his respect. The following week I was offered the job of the assistant talent buyer at the Engine Room. To my surprise, I would be working with the lead talent buyer, Jeff Messina. Jeff was Louie Messina’s oldest son.

I look back at my time at the Engine Room as earning my undergraduate degree in music, if such of a thing existed. I was at the venue load in to load out for every show. I learned there how to do things, and also how not to do things. I learned a ton from Jeff and also the venue GM, Tommy Bryant. In 2003, Jeff approached me and advised that Louie was doing a large scale event named Super Bash that associated with the Super Bowl coming to Houston in 2004. He asks if I wanted to work with him buying the talent. The answer was a fast yes.

The event itself was a multi-act event of all music genres. It was about 50 touring acts over a 4 day period. Many valuable relationships were made during that time. First, I met the entertainment publicist for the event, Gina Rotolo. She struck my eye on a professional and also on a personal level. We work intensely on Super Bash for several months and realized when it was over we wanted to see more of each other. We went on a date the week after and she is still by my side as my plus one in life 14 years later. The second person I met was Brent Silberstein.

Soon after Super Bash Brent was planning on opening a music venue and bringing Jeff Messina over as a buyer. That venue was Warehouse Live. Soon after, I was offered to be a talent buyer along with Jeff. I am still the buyer at Warehouse Live. To retract, in 2001 during my time at the Engine Room I met a local musician, Richard Gandy. He was wise beyond his years and also did what he said he was going to do. He was very good at promoting his band…

At the time he was a college student at Sam Houston State. He told me when we met that he was going to graduate college to make his parents proud but when he was done he was going to come back to me to work in entertainment. In 2003 Richard came back as promised and we formed Rise Up Agency.

Rise Up Agency – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As stated earlier Rise Up is an entertainment agency I formed with Richard Gandy in 2003. We have a small staff that is focused on the individual needs of each client and venue. In most of our endeavors, we represent various venues in regards to bringing in their entertainment and programming component from the agents and managers that represent each act. We book a variety of different music genres at our venues including, but not limited to the genres of country, classic country, alt-rock, indie rock, pop rock, hip-hop, Americana, New Orleans street bands, tribute and cover acts…

The venues we currently program are…

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
We book all genres of music and have spent years to garner the right relationships in each genre. We are honest with our clients. We do research on each booking and offer our educated opinion for each effort. We are willing to stand our ground if we believe a client is making a bad decision.

At the end of the day, each of our venues have final say in the decisions they make that lead to the offers we put in for talent for each venue. However, we do not say yes just to say yes. This has proved positive to our longevity with our clients. I am very proud of the long-term relationship we have with our venues. Most venues we represent we have been working with for over a decade.

Contact Info:

Website: www.riseupagency.com
Phone: 832.443.4239
Email: jprice@riseupagency.com

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