Costin Opens Up On 123 Agency Switch

Damian Costin's 123 Agency never looked like remaining part of the Mushroom Group of companies when he spun off from Premier Artists in July this year.

After theMusic.com.au broke the news that most of Costin's clients – including Stonefield and Kingswood – would be joining him in the new venture in May, the company was officially launched at the BIGSOUND conference.

One of the agency's Directors, Costin spoke to theMusic.com.au at the conference and said that remaining within the Mushroom group of companies was never really considered.

“I don't think so,” Costin said of any potential deal. “Really at the end of the day I love Mushroom, awesome people and they're great. We still work together on a lot of thing… [but] I just wanted to try something different. I'd been there for seven years, the environment probably wasn't something I was suiting and I needed to go in a different direction.

In 2010 Brett Murrihy left Mushroom's Harbour Agency to form Artist Voice with The Temper Trap and Empire Of The Sun, amongst others, but remained within the group.

The vast majority of the artists Costin was working with at Premier followed him to 123, although he said he was “not at all” confident that they would make the switch.

“It came as a request from them, more than anything,” he said. “I needed to put a full stop… ultimately I couldn't give the right service to my acts if I was unhappy. It takes a bit of drive to wake up every day and knock on doors and bash down barriers and ultimately put my acts in different people's faces on so many different levels… unfortunately my passion wasn't there [at Premier].”

The agency current has over 25 acts, not including the two international The Cribs and The Bellrays, and Costin admitted that he won't let it grow too much bigger.

“I don't wanna look after 60 acts, that's not a priority,” he said. “The priority is to look after a small amount of acts, a good quality amount of acts and do them properly, with a purpose. Ive realised that we'll work with only good people with good teams and ultimately great artists.”

Watch the full interview here:

After recently signing Drunk Mums, the roster also includes Blonde On Blonde, BONJAH, Cabins, Cairo Knife Fight, Calling All Cars, Dune, Ella Hooper, Katalyst, Kid Mac, Kingswood, Krista Polvere, Lester The Fierce, Michael Paynter, Miss Murphy, Ngaiire, Pierce Brothers, Red Ink, Space Invadas, Stillwater Giants, Stonefield, Sun City, Tales In Space, The Seabellies, The Sinking Teeth, Undercolours and Way Of The Eagle.