Today we’d like to introduce you to Willow Rothbart.
Hi Willow, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I think it all started when I dropped out of college after my Sophomore year. I left everything comfortable, moved to another country, and tried to find what I was missing. The truth is, I was still too young to know. Flash forward, I found myself back in LA top of 2018 with no plans to return to school, no plans at all. Just by word of mouth a friend connected me with an Artist Manager who was seeking a personal assistant for his artist. I figured I have the time and I like music, so why not? I didn’t know it then, but this was where my journey into finding myself had really begun.
I started working for Lido in 2018. Driving him to sessions, picking up his meals, getting his laundry cleaned, making sure he was on time to the airport. You name it, I did it. Over time, we formed a friendship and I grew to love sitting in a room while he created these beautiful records from nothing. I found myself in the studio with Sean Paul and then the next day, we were in with James Vincent McMorrow. I vividly remember looking at his calendar one day and seeing a session titled “Lizzo” having absolutely no idea who that was hahaha such a trip to think about now. What makes Lido a great producer was that he was also a great teacher and to this day I owe him for introducing me to a world I didn’t know I wanted to be a part of.
Now that I had the hands on Day to Day experience, I felt ready for this next chapter. Come 2019, I moved over to The Artist Group, a boutique management company based in Hollywood founded by Gabe Saporta (formerly known as Cobra Starship) with an extremely eclectic roster (Tessa Violet, Naomi Wild, Against The Current, Daysormay to name a few). Gabe believed in me enough to bring me onto the team and this is where I really started to see a potential career in the industry. I was booking sessions, coordinating music video treatments and overall day to day tasks for our roster. Shout out Sydney Jacobs for being a huge mentor during my time at TAG.
There were two moments that really solidified my love for this world. The first was at Coachella 2019 watching our artist Zohara perform with Gryffin at the Sahara tent and the second was getting to travel to Chicago and watch Tessa Violet perform to a sea of fans at Lollapalooza. I remember being 14 paying for the Coachella installment plan because I just didn’t have enough money to afford a ticket so to be standing backstage ten years later watching these artists who have tirelessly worked their ass off to get to this point, it was a full-circle moment to say the least.
Since parting ways with TAG, I’ve had the pleasure to work in the electronic division over at Red Light Management looking after acts Rhye and Bob Moses. Both phenomenal artists and all around great humans. After departing Red Light, I found myself on the label side of things at Ultra Records product managing for their legendary roster.
When the pandemic hit, I saw it as an opportunity to take my Japanese citizenship and hop over to Tokyo for a few months. At the time, Los Angeles was on heavy lockdown while Tokyo was as normal as could be. When I landed in Japan in August of 2020, I picked up a point and shoot camera. I was able to experience Tokyo during this pre-tourist era that we will probably never see again. Being able to enter one of the most toured countries in the world during such a scarce time in history, I wasn’t going to miss out on this moment to capture all of it in its rarity. So I naturally took photos of everything and almost everyone I came across.
It’s a weird feeling. To think that during a time where we were encouraged (practically forced) to stay home, I was roaming through the country of Japan meeting the quirkiest personalities and creating lifelong friendships. I was the happiest I think I’d ever been.
Now I’m looking to merge my knowledge in the industry with my love for creative direction / photography. I’m just excited to see what’s next. A year ago I felt lost, upset and confused, but I’ll be the first to admit that 2020 worked wonders for my mental health. It allowed me to be present again. To make sure I was showing up for myself.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
“The key to living isn’t getting rid of struggle. It’s finding good struggles. Struggles that invigorate you, struggles that feel important to you, struggles that can contribute to the people around you”.
I think for a long time, I was ashamed to come from a lower middle-class household. Once I was eligible for a work permit, my mom made it a point that I started working and bringing in my own income. Mostly because she wanted to make sure I was instilled with independence but also because we just didn’t have money. Looking back, having to gain that type of independence at such a young age it’s why I stand so tall today. It’s funny how growing up, it feels like you against your parents, at least for me it did. I hated working, I wanted life to come easy as it seemed like it did for my friends around me. I thought my parents wanted me to suffer. I didn’t see what they were dealing with behind closed doors. I was too young to take into account that any money left over was spent putting me in school, hobbies, after school programs, etc. They were molding me to make sure that I was ready to handle life on my own once it came to be that time.
If given the opportunity to go back, I don’t think I’d change a thing. I used to see this part of my life as a struggle but I’m not sure I’d like who I am if I had been brought up any different. It’s because of my upbringing that I work so hard, I can’t thank my parents enough for the core values that they’ve instilled in me over the course of my 24 years. I only hope to pay it back one day.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I feel extremely lucky to have the background that I do. To have started with day to day’ing for a producer, moving to management, to flushing out a release from start to finish at a record label. It’s been a time. I’m just proud of the relationships and I’ve been able to come across. I feel inspired to work hard because of the people I surround myself with and it’s been such a pleasure to grow with those around me. I’d like to think I dabble in a bit of everything. During quarantine, I started to hone in on my passion project which I guess you could say is a mixture between creative direction and photography. It’s something I feel confident I could pursue full time.
I wouldn’t say this trait sets me apart but something I’m proud of and love doing is just connecting those together. Like why not. Everyone should know each other, let’s be on the come up together.
What matters most to you? Why?
What I’ve realized in the last year, through all of this uncertainty, the one thing that has become so abundantly clear is that you need your peers. While I have seen such immense growth in myself, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for those that I’ve been so lucky to come across. From Lido to The Artist Group, to Red Light and then Ultra to where I stand today, it’s because of the friendships I was able to establish along the way. My friends are the artists, the producers, the managers, and the moshers. Wouldn’t be here without them. Be open to learning and listening. Take the coffee you’ve been putting off with that one person you ran into a bar that you don’t know that well. It seems tedious but a coffee goes a long way. People appreciate it and remember it. Apart from the job itself, make sure you’re taking the time to learn and listen. It is how you will grow and ultimately succeed.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowroth/
