Creator Spotlight: From metal-obsessed kid to touring your idols with Your Mate Bookings

Anthony Blayney is living his dream. As we chat, the founder of music touring and booking agency Your Mate Bookings is on the highway out of Melbourne, heading back home to Sydney after another great run of dates. “The last tour I did was Sasquatch from the US and Pieces of Molly from New Zealand,” says Blayney. “That was really good, it was the longest tour I’ve ever done, like three weeks.” 

Your Mate is Blayney living his passion for music, a career love letter to his favourite styles; hardcore, metal, psychedelic and stoner rock. “I’ve been obsessed with music since I was a kid and I became a metalhead when I was 12 years old,” says Blayney. Since starting Your Mate in 2017, Blayney has channelled that lifelong love of music into a job that is tough, but full of highlights.

“There’s the funny tours, there’s the crazy tours, there’s the long tours,” says Blayney. “I toured a band called Crowbar from New Orleans in 2019 and this was just a three date tour. They’re a big band, so there was a lot involved in running the tour and a lot of prep involved. Only being three shows makes it easier, but when you can get along with a band and connect with them, it means a lot, and this is a band that I’ve been following since I was a kid. I’m so glad I did this tour and it makes it worthwhile when they treat you with respect and they want to hang out with you just because you’re a dude that they can speak to, not because there’s a business deal. That was a bit of a highlight for me.”

Getting started

These days, if you’re heading to a psych rock or metal show anywhere in Australia, there’s a good chance that Anthony Blayney has had a hand in organising it. It’s no exaggeration, with upcoming shows everywhere from Collingwood in Victoria to Belconnen in the ACT, and a 2022 full of international tours, local single launches and day festivals. It’s all the more impressive when you consider that, prior to 2019, Blayney was only booking acts part time. “I used to be a bank manager,” says Blayney. “It’s a huge change. Whilst doing booking on the side, and after doing my first few tours and understanding finance and budget and things like that, I realised I could do it full time.” 

Orchestrating a tour means coordinating a huge variety of moving parts. “There’s Australian immigration visas, marketing, artwork, support bands, contracts, accommodation, flights, backline, venue hire, and that’s making it easy for you,” jokes Blayney. Even more impressive – Blayney is essentially a solo act, with just one part time assistant, a street team for postering, and his dad pitching in to help with visa applications. “I taught him how to do it and he’s really good at it now,” Blayney says. 

Supporting the local scene

Your Mate has two sides: touring and booking. Besides the more glamorous task of touring international acts, Blayney books shows for local up-and-comers. They might not have the profile of the touring bands, but Blayney’s agency roster is his chance to foster a scene that he loves. “When I do the international shows, that’s my take home money basically,” says Blayney. “The local bands, I want them to earn their money so I don’t take a lot out of that because they’re not earning that much money as it is. I want them to develop, I want them to do well. Money is one of the only things that can help them do well, so whether it comes to recording, mixing, merchandising, or travel for touring, they need that cash.”

For Blayney, the chance to develop the smaller bands isn’t just an investment in the future of Your Mate Bookings, it’s an investment in the music scene in general. “The most important thing is to be a part of the scene and give back to it as much as it gives you,” Blayney says. “At the end of the day, all those people are there to buy tickets to your shows and if you’re not supporting them, why should they support you? That local connection is so important.” 

Learning lessons and chasing success

For aspiring bookers, Blayney says there’s one thing that makes the difference. “The biggest thing for me is relationships. If you don’t have a relationship you cannot have a proper business deal. Especially if you’re trying to develop underground artists, relationships are really important because you need someone that’s going to back them over here.”

It’s a reflection of how much he cares for the music that the former banker looks for more than one indicator of success. “When you can succeed in accordance with what you’ve projected the tour to do [financially], obviously that’s success. But because I’m quite a spiritual individual, I also feel that it is what it is. If it didn’t work out, that’s okay, at least you’ve helped someone, at least you’ve done something for the masses and made them really happy. It can’t always be financial. You need to weigh up a few things. One tour might not do so well, but the support band on the tour might get an offer to tour with that international band overseas, so that’s a success.”

Looking ahead

In the short term, Blayney is going to keep sharing his favourite music with Australian audiences, bringing new experiences to local crowds hungry for more. “As much as we deal with a lot of underground bands from around the world, we’re constantly reaching for the stars with the bigger bands,” says Blayney. “For example, next year we’re going to be touring a 90s band called Unsane. It’s noise rock but it’s got elements of hardcore, punk and metal. It’s extremely abrasive noise rock that’s actually really groovy, they’re an incredible band, they’re legends of the 90s. That’s one of the big bands we’re excited about bringing out next year.”

Blayney is also hoping to keep growing the business, crossing his fingers that he’ll get the chance to step back occasionally. “I’m basically working towards shorter tours. We’ll still keep supporting the underground and doing those underground tours, but it’s going to be the case where I need to train someone up to do everything that I do, and it’s a big job. Some nights you’re getting three hours sleep, and you’ve got to be up first and you go to bed last to make sure everything’s in order. But I think touring bigger bands, having a bigger team that knows what they’re doing, and growing a bit more to the point where I’m looking at things from afar because I’ve hired people.”

Growing with Eventbrite

Blayney has been creating experiences with Eventbrite since he started Your Mate Bookings in 2018. Compared to other platforms he’s dealt with, Blayney finds it easy to control everything he needs with Eventbrite, from running email campaigns to event ticketing. “It’s pretty damn good – it’s a very easy platform to use,” Blayney says. “It helps because you have ultimate control over how you’re running the tickets for the event. You can change things yourself, you can do things yourself and even the help centre is very good, very helpful, very on it compared to the other companies. Some of the experiences I’ve had with those companies where you’ve told them to do things and they don’t and it affects you financially.”

From international tours to local underground bands, discover more of Your Mate Booking’s events.