Tour manager Laura Strayer is currently heading up Alanis Morissette’s Triple Moon Tour. She has just been awarded this year’s Parnelli Awards’ Patrick Stansfield Tour Manager of the Year, for her outstanding work on that tour. Having started out in audio in the UK, beginning as a studio tape op, then audio supervisor, she has moved through the industry, becoming an in-demand tour manager. She’s tour managed Kesha, Brian Wilson, Steely Dan, the Dukes of September, the B-52s, and for the past four years, Alanis Morissette. She graciously took time out of her day while on the road with Morissette to speak with us about her career, advice she’s gotten, and given along the way, and her philosophy of tour management.
How did you end up in the concert tour industry?
When I was 14, my mother married a songwriter, so we then had a recording studio in our house. I hadn’t seen anything like it before and it interested me. So, I enrolled at a university in London to study music technology, which was a new, two-year course. It was very informative and taught me a lot of the practical and technical side. After I finished, I got a job in a recording studio in London. I got started as a Tape Op lining up two-inch tape machines. This was right on the tail end of analog. I’m so grateful, but I still remember how to splice tape and line up the machines. People were starting to bring in their Pro Tools set ups. I was right on the edge of that technology coming in. That studio was bought out, so I transitioned to audio mobiles, and that was fun. We were on live shows; we were out and about and that was exciting. We were doing the MTV Awards, AC/DC in Munich, Robbie Williams in Cologne. I started doing sports and TV work as a freelance engineer working for the Golf Channel, the Brit Awards, all kinds of things.
How did you make the transition from audio to tour management?
My husband at the time was a monitor engineer working on a tour when a job opened for a tour assistant on Seal’s tour, so I thought I’d see what touring was like. That was in the U.S. supporting the Seal IV album in 2004. That’s when I started touring on a tour bus and saw every corner of the USA, which I hadn’t seen before. There was a tour manager that came in for a spell, Vincent Corry, who would later mentor me. The following summer, I wasn’t up to much; just renovating a fixer-upper house. A friend’s band was touring, and they asked if I’d come and help. They were playing small clubs. There were four of us living on a tour bus; we’d put the driver in a hotel. I got really creative on how to save money on that tour. The opening act was honeyhoney and Jeffrey Azoff was managing them, so I bonded with Jeffrey that summer. A couple of weeks after the tour ended the Azoff office called me to say they were looking for someone for a young, female artist, which was Kesha, right before her first album came out. So, I went with her for a couple of years and really cut my teeth there. It was an explosive pop debut, an incredible experience. We were hopping on a private plane managing four shows a day at one point. That full touring cycle was 18 months and had Kesha opening for Rihanna in arenas. That was the first time I’d really seen an arena tour as a Tour Manager.
Talk about the mentoring and training you got from Vincent Corry.
At that time, Vince said that he was looking to retire but was concerned about the state of the industry. He asked if I was interested in tour managing, and he’d train me. He was a very experienced guy, and a wonderful person. He had been the tour accountant for the Backstreet Boys for 15 years among many, many other things. I took him up on it. He would take me into settlement every night. He taught me the accounting side of it, then the artist side of it, all the important parts. He would give me daily quizzes about different scenarios that could come up. He was always there on the end of the phone too when I started taking on bigger tours myself. He was a big influence on me getting into tour management as he trained me.
Vince very kindly recommended me to Wayne Sharp from Crush Management for the B-52s about 2016, as they wanted a woman in that role. Ever since I started, women have been in demand, which comes with its own unique pros and cons. I very rarely thought about gender along the way, but it was hard when I was with Kesha. People used to ask me if I was her sister or her friend. I would say, ‘I’m a professional tour manager, recommended personally by Jeffrey Azoff.’
Has it gotten easier for you to navigate the business?
It has, but—like with all careers—it took some time. This particular job is based on building a name for yourself; once that was more solid, I found it a lot easier. Since working with Crush Management on the B-52s, I still did other artists, like Brian Wilson. I had a daughter, so I didn’t want to travel for extended periods of time, so I’d cover shorter runs, fill-ins, or work with older artists who didn’t want to be on the road for a long time. Then I started doing The Strokes because they were doing festivals, which was right up my alley at that time. Then Covid hit. We were home for about a year and a half when Kevin Miller at Crush contacted me to see if I was up for coming in to take over Alanis for the rescheduled Jagged Little Pill 25th Anniversary tour. I’ve been with Alanis ever since.
Talk about working with Alanis and the team you’ve built.
We’ve really got our momentum going for her. We’ve built a great team; this is now our fourth year together. We had a great design with Nate Cromwell and Melody Tseng for the Triple Moon Tour (TMT). It was a beautiful process working with them. It was exactly what Alanis had in mind, and it was fun, too. To be a part of that process and see her communicating with Nate and Melody and expressing what she wanted and them giving their feedback; that was cool.
What do you think is an important trait or quality at the core of being a tour manager?
I think that it’s having focus under pressure. To have the ability to take a beat and think things through. Stay calm in the eye of the storm. If things are getting intense, I double check all the facts myself. I don’t take people’s word for things, necessarily. When things are heated, or something’s gone awry, I’ll always take a moment to check everything out myself and think it through. Attention to detail is incredibly important.
Describe your approach to tour management and working with your team.
I take a very personable approach. I try and connect with everybody on every level, even if they’re not people I’m interacting with every single day. That includes everybody who’s on my tour: the drivers, people in the venue, promoters, you name it. Every morning when I walk in, I try and remember as many names as possible. I look people in the eye and say, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ because it makes it much easier later in the day when you may need to chat to them about an issue or ask for their help with something. Kindness, all around, always pays well. I’m also very organized by nature. I’m a Virgo and I like my spreadsheets and my nerdiness. I know that helps. We’ve built a good team, and I rely on them to help where needed. When it gets intense, if we’re canceling a show, we’ve had a reschedule, or something’s coming down and we’re rebooking something at short notice, we know how to work together very cohesively and calmly. I delegate certain things to people who I know can handle it, and we work through it.
Were there moments or jobs that you think really set you on the course of your career?
Well, I think being involved with Kesha in the beginning was a big one, because it put me on a fast track with planning especially. Then when I did Steely Dan it was a completely different set of artists and musicians, a completely different pace. It was incredibly valuable learning both ends of the spectrum. Then, of course, Alanis, because it’s been really rewarding to be able to evolve with an artist for four years in a row, working through new challenges as the shows change but always maintaining and executing on her vision. It’s a joy.
What do you enjoy most about your career?
The music and the people. Seeing everybody’s smiling faces when the artist goes on stage every night. It’s the same with most artists, I put them on stage, and I usually walk directly out to front of house to feel the room and to see how it’s sounding. That walk is my favorite. I’m looking at everybody facing the stage when I walk to the back of the room, and you see everybody’s faces light up. Touring brings live music, and brings people together, which is the most rewarding part. That’s what I love about it.
What do you like least about your job?
The short nights; I like my sleep. I do sleep well on a tour bus, but it’s a lesson in discipline.
Is there an example of what tour management is from your perspective?
To me, so much of tour management is being able to make the best decisions in that moment and make everybody feel supported and relaxed at the same time, no matter what comes up or how difficult the circumstances are.
You mentioned Vincent Corry, but who were some of your other mentors or role models?
I owe a lot to Vincent Corey because he really trained me, but there were a few older male tour managers who took me under their wings. I was just turning 30 when I started working with Kesha, and a lot of these tour managers I looked up to were already in their 50s or 60s. Marc St. Louis was one of them, who I took over Brian Wilson from. Keith Dean also mentored me some when I took over Boz Scaggs for him. I’m eternally grateful to Wayne Sharp and Kevin Miller at Crush Management. We have a great working relationship that’s developed with the B-52s. We’re an incredibly tight team, with the way we’ve integrated tour management and management. I think that’s something we’re all proud of because we have a good rapport going there when it comes to routing, booking tours, and discussing what’s next up for Alanis.
Is there a piece of advice you got at the start of your career that you still find applicable today?
I heard this early on: always do something you love because you’ll never work a day in your life. I do love what I do. I love music, and I’m lucky to be on a tour where I really love every single person I work with.
What piece of advice would you give to somebody in the early stages of their career?
Get as much experience as you can get; to see it all; and to follow your heart. Also, try different things, different departments. Look, I started as a tape op, and then I was an audio engineer supervisor. I kept moving my way around, feeling it all out, asking myself which direction did I want to go in? This is where I ended up, and it feels right. It was a path to get there, but I didn’t start out wanting to be a tour manager one day. I just knew I wanted to work in music. I loved the music business, music recording. I liked the tech side. I really loved working in the studio. Then I started doing the live concerts on the audio mobiles. That was exciting every day. But then finding my niche and walking your way to a point where you’re in a place that you enjoy in the position you want to be in and working with people you admire.
What has surprised you most about your career path up?
I find that I do my job successfully with a natural ease. It almost seems like I’ve ended up doing exactly what I was supposed to do. It does surprise me how much I enjoy it sometimes.
Is there anything else that you’d like to mention about your career and working as a tour manager?
I’m proud to be a female tour manager working for a successful female artist. There are so many men that I admire in this industry who have been wonderful to me, but I’m proud to represent the women that are coming up. We should all hire more females whenever we can because it’s not a feminist issue, it’s an equality issue. Alanis and I attended the Resonator Awards last year, where she was honored for her work. For women in production, the statistic is one in 60 is a woman, which is shocking. I want to set an example and be leading the path for other women to follow and help equalize the representation with the industry. I’m very happy to be a part of that.
