Plus One is a public relations, management, and events agency that was started in January 2004 by Jonny Kaps and Nat Hays. Both came from large PR agencies, and both had handled major artists, but were tired of the drag and cookie-cutter approach, and Plus One was born. These two twenty-somethings are now head of a successful—but small—agency based out of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But their aspirations are for a world takeover. Of the music business at least.
How did you start?
Jonny: We never aimed to start a company. We did it because we were in a situation in another company that just wasn’t working. I had stellastarr* on my own and I wasn’t getting paid for it, it was like my baby. It all kind of clicked cause I was having fun.
Nat: I got laid off in LA, and came to New York. I started hearing about stellastarr*, and was like, what’s going on here? They said this guy Jonny is handling them. A mutual friend set us up and we had a drink. When we met, I said, “I can help.”
Coming from the majors, what did you bring and not bring?
N: I left everything behind.
J: We really learned how not to run a company from our experiences.
N: We don’t take a band if we don’t like them.
What is it about independent music that you enjoy?
J: We work with bands from very early on. It makes us feel like us against the world. When people are like, what’s your new release and we say Trainwreck Riders, they’re like who the fuck are they? Trying to get press for a band no one has ever heard of is a challenge. To see a band go from “who are they?” to “I know them,” it’s great.
Five years from now, where do you want your company to be?
N: I want to shake up this industry. Most people are down on the music industry, but the passion and the vibe is stronger than ever. The problem is that the people controlling the business side—the money side—have let it go awry. Yet despite that, the bands we work with are all growing—not through CD sales, but through having careers. They’re not rich, but they all don’t have day jobs anymore. I want to prove everyone that says the music industry is dying that they’re wrong. I want to do it like no one expected it.
J: We want to keep growing. We’re doing that by letting staff we think are talented step up, lead a project, bring in a band—because that’ll bring in different music, facets, and skills to the company.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
J: There’s no sex in the champagne room. (Laughs.) I’ve learned that sometimes I get bogged down in working very closely with a band or artist and it’s not bringing in the money. We try not to think about that, but we are running a business. I have to be more practical sometimes.
N: We don’t go into a studio and tell a band how to make their songs or mold them into superstars. Taking a band that isn’t ready and trying to make them ready isn’t what we do. We find artists that exist on their own and we help spread what it is they’re doing.
J: Also, that we’re not artists. A lot of people in this business just want to be in a band. We don’t. They’re the artists, they’re the talent. We just want to tell people about what we love.
How do you best represent a band in the press?
J: It comes from us looking into the heart and soul of the band, and staying up late at night and hanging with them. By the time we’re writing a release, we know why we want to work with a band, what makes them different. And then we make it personal. A press release should tell you how the music makes you feel.
Any last thoughts?
J: We 100% feel like we’re going to make a difference in the music industry. That innocence and overconfidence and wanting to shake things up is what makes Plus One what it is. A couple of years from now, people are going to look back at what we’re doing—and I don’t know what it’s going to be—but something is going to happen. We want to make a difference. It makes the hard days and the problems easier to swallow, having that at the back of your mind.