Scott Maclachlan was known for staying close to his young client at all times. Photo / Dean Purcell
Scott Maclachlan was known for staying close to his young client at all times. Photo / Dean Purcell
What's behind Lorde's split with her long-term manager? Matt Nippert argues it could be a sign the pop star wants independent control of her career.
The severing of ties between Ella Yelich-O'Connor, better known as Lorde, and Scott Maclachlan, her long-time manager, marks the end of a relationship that started between a 12-year-old Devonport schoolgirl and a former UK house DJ and has since set them both up for life.
The role of a manager is to do everything except the art - booking tours, commercial and record deals, teeing up media appearances - to let their clients succeed. In New Zealand, given the small size of our market, that job often comes with additional hats.
Scott Maclachlan was by Lorde's side when she returned from her Grammy win in Los Angeles in 2014. Photo / Gettys
In the beginning Maclachlan was also juggling a full-time role as talent scout for Universal Music and the pair spent years together without releasing a record, an unusually long gestation, before emerging as what appeared from the outside to be an overnight success.
As Royals sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 in late 2013 - a position it'd hold for eight straight weeks - Maclachlan spoke in a rare interview of the wild and uncharted ride he and his client were on. In a matter of months Lorde's album Pure Heroine and the accompanying singles had sold more copies than all other New Zealand artists would sell that year.
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"I get an update daily, a global picture - territory by territory - how this stuff is selling. I check every morning. The American figures still shock me every morning," he said in November 2013. Within another 12 months single sales would exceed 17m, along with 2.7m albums.
To put these numbers into perspective, according to the New Zealand Music Commission, the year Pure Heroine was released the sum total of local music bought in New Zealand amounted to only 851,298 singles and 414,242 albums.
At the time Maclachlan was in the rare position for a New Zealand music manager of juggling interview requests from the David Letterman and Graham Norton shows and rubbing shoulders with super-producer Simon Fuller.
Manager Scott Maclachlan was always in the background behind Lorde. Photo / Sarah Ivey
He was open in admitting this state of affairs was well beyond even his wildest dreams. "I'd love to say I was a Svengali guru figure, but none of this was planned."
Machlaclan was pleased to hear even from heavyweight music figures that there was no formula he should be following, as the industry was in a state of flux and old rules of promotion and management were no longer holding.
"You feel like, more than ever, no one really knows what they're doing - because it is the Wild West out there."
Certainly the gestation of Lorde, and the setting up of Saiko Management, didn't follow any typical playbook. Having signed the 12-year-old Ella with a view to getting her recording covers, Maclachlan described his approach as akin to the slow food revolution: Giving artists time to breathe, not over-pressuring, and choosing opportunities carefully, not quickly.
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Having cut his teeth in the United Kingdom as a DJ and a talent scout, the isolation of New Zealand proved a blessing. "There's no way, if I'd signed Ella in London I'd have been afforded the time."
As Lorde began taking off, after literally giving her first EP away for free online, so did Maclachlan: Shortly after Royals took up residence at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts, a position it'd hold for eight weeks, Maclachlan quit his job at Universal Music.
That move, allowing him to properly set up Saiko Management, neatly resolved the growing conflict that came from representing both the artist as manager and her label as agent.
Scott Maclachlan traveled the world with his young charge, Lorde.
Management deals typically entitle manager to one-fifth of their clients' income which, according to Herald calculations based on publicly-available sales information, should have seen Maclachlan's Saiko Management collect $3 million in fees over the past two years. Lorde herself has done ever better, clearing more than $12m.
Neither Lorde nor Maclachlan have publicly commented on their split. The singer is back in studio with her Pure Heroine partner Joel Little, dealing with the pressures that come with producing a sophomore album.
Following her 18th birthday in December she formally took over as director of the intellectual property company Sackful of Squirrels. Cutting loose form Saiko is likely part of this same push for independence.
And her manager now has new clients - including big-selling popera trio Sole Mio - to push. If lightning strikes twice, hopefully Maclachlan won't be quite as wide-eyed the next time he returns to the United States.
Scott Maclachlan was by Lorde's side when she won the Silver Scroll Award for Royals. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
He told the story of Lorde being besieged by autograph hunters at Los Angeles airport during her first trip to the country. Thinking they were fans, they obliged - only for Maclachlan to discover the signature-seekers were professionals and the signed posters and albums had all turned up on eBay.
As to how much missed revenue this represented, Maclachlan was torn: "I try not to learn, it's too painful."
Lorde and Maclachlan: A Timeline
2009: Scott Maclachlan sees video of 12-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor performing in school talent show. Signs her to Universal Music development deal.
Dec 2011: Maclachlan pairs Yelich-O'Connor with songwriter and producer Joel Little, who begin writing together. The pair record five songs in three weeks.
Nov 2012: Yelich O'Connor releases The Love Club EP under the name Lorde, for free, via SoundCloud.
March 2013: Maclachlan and Universal release The Love Club for sale after it is downloaded 60,000 times for free.
June 2013:Royals is released and becomes chart hit in New Zealand.
October 2013:Royals tops US Billboard 100, making Lorde the first Kiwi artist to achieve the milestone
December 2013: Lorde is nominated for four Grammy Awards and confirmed to perform at the ceremony
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January 2014: Lorde wins two Grammy Awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year. Maclachlan attends the ceremony, sitting next to her mother and co-writer Joel Little.
