Meet Michael McGrath of No Favors

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael McGrath.

Hi Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I only ever wanted to do one thing with my life and that was be in music. Like everyone else, I wanted to be a big artist and my thought was start on the business side of music and learn as much as possible. I started as a stagehand at a venue in Philadelphia called the Electric Factory.

That’s where I met Natalie Brede, one of my closest friends & longest working relationship going on 12 years. She was on tour, managing merch for the artist & we immediately clicked. After the show, we stayed in touch and anytime she was in Philly or surrounding areas, I’d go and help her and she taught me everything about merch management. After a bit, she would hire me to sell at shows leading up to my first US tour in 2014 with Zomboy, who has become a close friend and someone I still work with.

From there, I just worked as hard as I could whether it was for free or not & hustled. That opened a lot of doors for me. I started getting more tours & gigs.

In 2016, I moved to LA and worked for a merch company, I worked there until March 2017 and when I left that job, I panicked and stressed about how am I gonna pay my bills? Well, shortly after tour offers started coming, people I had worked with previously had recommended me and my career started moving. I toured all of 2017, 2018 & 2019 until the pandemic.

When the pandemic hit and everything started getting canceled an opportunity presented itself to Natalie and myself for us to run everything related to merch for deadmau5. I created my company solely for that and as 2020 continued, I gained additional clients which led me to artist management.

My company No Favors now operates as artist, tour & merch management and continues to expand.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t always been smooth, when I first got started I would try and find as many contacts as possible and would cold email as many as I could, to which I was met with a lot of No’s or no response at all. With anything, there’s always going to be ups and downs when learning how to navigate your profession & the skills to be the best you can be.

Some struggles I’ve been met with we’re making mistakes when starting out, saying the wrong things at times but as I continued, I learned a lot and try to grow as a professional everyday.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I started No Favors as a merch management company as that was what I specialized in which is what I became known for in the industry.

My company has grown and expanded and I now manage four artists, manage merch for three artists and a record label.

I think what sets me apart from others is my work ethic, professionalism and how I interact with my clients. I also live by two rules 1. I never overpromise and under deliver & 2. I’ll put in as much effort, time and energy as the artist does, I work about 70 hours a week.

My company does a number of things outside of artist and merch management. We curate and execute Popup shops, vip & much more. You can see the full scope on my website www.Nofavors.co

How do you think about happiness?
Besides music, some of the things that make me happy are my dogs, my close friends, art, traveling and cooking.

When you’re on tour majority of the year, it’s hard to stay consistent with the things you really enjoy but when I’m home, the excitement my dogs have is unmatched feeling, my close friends for obvious reasons they understand how much I work, they understand me and they love my cooking haha, I love cooking because I love that when you’re in the kitchen nothing else matters, art has become a big part of my life and collecting and supporting the artist I love is an incredible feeling.

Contact Info:

• Email: Michael@nofavors.co
• Website: www.nofavors.co
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikebmcgrath
• Other: www.instagram.com/nofavorsco

Image Credits
Nicole Mago Randy Edwards Kevin Ramirez Teaghan McGinnis