Industry Veteran Brendan Biesen Launches Field Booking: Exclusive

Music industry veteran Brendan Biesen announced Thursday the launch of Field Booking, an independent arts agency based in Chicago. The founder has spent 10 years in the business and most recently worked at Paradigm. 

While Field Booking will primarily focus on booking and tour management for musical acts, the company will also provide promotional and image cultivation services.

The agency’s roster of independent artists includes Peter Oren, Half Gringa, The Slaps, Fast Preacher, Logan Farmer and more.

“I want Field Booking to be an inclusive agency that puts emphasis on the artist and their growth. I think it’s important to recognize that while I may be the agent, we are all in this together as a team to make this industry better as a whole,” Biesen told Pollstar.  

Biesen started at the Windish Agency at the Music Desk department in 2015, the same year the company partnered with Paradigm Talent Agency. He was promoted to working on both the agent teams of Erik Selz and Tom Windish where he managed day-to-day booking duties for their rosters, handling 92 active artists including Andrew Bird, Sharon Van Etten and King Krule. During his time at the company he also helped Windish expand the reach of the A&R department. 

One of the highlights of his career includes booking and coordinating all aspects of a local, independent music festival featuring Foxygen as the headliner at the age of 22.

Biesen’s resume features a variety of roles in the music industry including time at labels like Secretly Group, radio promotion at Chicago’s WXRT, and various events-focused organizations at his alma mater, Indiana University-Bloomington.  

“The idea for Field Booking came from just keeping my finger on the pulse of the industry, and how it’s been adapting and reacting to the pandemic,” Biesen said in a statement. “I felt that, with my time in the industry and the relationships I’ve managed to build in that time, I could forge a new path with Field and help give artists a chance at the success they deserve.”

With furloughs and layoffs at major companies throughout the industry during the pandemic, the business has seen a trend of deconsolidation as executives strike out on their own. Several of the new agencies recently formed feature folks who previously worked at Paradigm. 

In late October Ali Hedrick, Erik Selz, John Bongiorno, Karl Morse and Ethan Berlin – all most recently booking agents at Paradigm Talent Agency – announced they had teamed up with Matt Yasecko, the former COO of Billions Corporations, to establish Arrival Artists agency. Agency associate Jess Bumsted also joined from Paradigm. In September five former Paradigm agents – Marshall Betts, Avery McTaggart, Amy Davidman, Ryan Craven, and Devin Landau – announced they had founded TBA. MINT Talent Group was launched that same month with agents from Paradigm, Madison House, WME and CAA. 

To learn more about Field Booking please visit www.fieldbookingagency.com.