{"id":13280,"date":"2019-08-08T11:22:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=13280"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:56:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:56:03","slug":"a-career-in-tour-management-advice-from-berklee-online-alum-ashley-pk-mogayzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/a-career-in-tour-management-advice-from-berklee-online-alum-ashley-pk-mogayzel\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour Management: Advice from Wilco and I’m With Her’s Tour Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo by Zoran Orlic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Aspiring Tour Managers Should Know About Logistics, Community, Travel, and Life on the Road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ashley \u201cPK\u201d Mogayzel has a map on the wall in her apartment in Chicago. It\u2019s dotted with colorful pins that cluster across the US, Canada, and Eastern Europe with random pins stuck in South America, Japan, Russia, and Australia. Ashley travels 200 days out of the year as the assistant tour manager for Wilco and the tour manager for I\u2019m With Her. 
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At age 12, Ashley thought that she wanted to attend Berklee College of Music as a performance student\u2014she even toured the campus. When she realized that she couldn\u2019t shake stage fright, she gravitated toward the logistical side of the music industry. 
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\u201cI was very much in the arts, but I hated performing, and I hated being on stage,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cWhich as I’m sure anyone that attends Berklee knows, those are two very important parts of being a performer: being on stage and performing.\u201d
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In high school, Ashley started booking basement shows for her friends\u2019 punk bands and went on to study Entertainment and Events Management at Johnson & Wales University in her home state of Rhode Island.
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After she graduated, she pursued an advanced certificate in Artist Management<\/a> through Berklee Online. During this time, she landed an internship at Aware Records and A-Squared Management and moved to Chicago. The record label once represented artists such as Guster, Brandi Carlile, Michelle Branch, Jack\u2019s Mannequin, and Motion City Soundtrack. She made important connections working at the label but found her true direction working at the Chicago venues Lincoln Hall and Schubas.
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Ashley\u2019s mentor, Melanie Renecker, left, instructs Ashley on how to set up the stage on one of her first tours with the Colourist, circa 2015.
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\u201cI started working at a couple of music venues in Chicago while I was interning and while I was finishing my studies at Berklee,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cI just talked to as many touring people as I could that came through, and told them that I wanted to go on tour and learn about touring. Eventually, someone picked me up and took me out on tour for what was meant to be a couple of weeks and has turned into the last five\u2014almost six\u2014years of my life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since earning her advanced certificate through Berklee Online, Ashley has worked with artists and bands including Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Deer Tick, Man Man, the Colourist, and the Postmodern Jukebox, before landing steady gigs with Wilco and I\u2019m With Her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, Ashley has learned what it takes to be a tour manager and has some advice for those who are interested in a career on the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be a tour manager, you need to:
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Be Organized and Detail Oriented<\/strong>
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Ashley\u2019s responsibilities vary between bands. She handles travel logistics including flight and hotel booking. She plans with venues, production companies, and promoters. She handles merch. She makes sure that everyone\u2019s favorite snacks are available. She makes sure that venues have amenities for the babies of two of the members of I\u2019m With Her. 
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Overall, Ashley makes sure everything runs smoothly on tour and that the artists have everything they need. It involves working far in advance. 
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\u201cEvery day on tour, I need to make sure that my work for the next few shows, and even the next months\u2019 worth of shows, is done, or is at least being worked on,\u201d says Ashley.
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Be Adaptable<\/strong>
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Ashley says that you need to be able to work in any kind of environment whether it\u2019s an outdoor festival, a large indoor concert venue, or a tiny concert with inclement weather.  
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\u201cYou might have the same exact show that you\u2019re going to put on, but you\u2019ve got to work with what you\u2019ve got,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to work within tight timing restrictions. Sometimes you\u2019ve got to work with a tent as your dressing room, and you\u2019ve got to roll with whatever the day is going to throw at you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Have a Support System<\/strong>
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In case you were wondering, \u201cPK\u201d stands for \u201cpocket knife.\u201d That\u2019s the nickname Ashley was given by her community of female touring managers. They\u2019ve dubbed themselves \u201cThe Knives.\u201d These women work various positions with artists including Deer Tick, Bon Iver, Shovels & Rope, Iron & Wine, and Jim James. 
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Ashley, center, with her community of female touring managers, who call themselves \u201cThe Knives.\u201d Ashley\u2019s nickname is \u201cPocketknife.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m fortunate to be a part of a group of other badass touring women,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cAside from on-tour friends, these women are always just a text message or phone call away and I owe a lot to them. We\u2019ve helped each other by troubleshooting issues on tour, passing gigs to each other, and just generally being there for someone who is having a stressful day on the road.\u201d
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Ashley says it also helps to have a confidant on your team since you can\u2019t always call your friends, family, or significant other on tour. 
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\u201cIt\u2019s a huge help, mentally, to just have that other person, your tour buddy or your tour best friend, that you can talk through things, whether it\u2019s personal or work-related.\u201d
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Understand that \u2018Touring\u2019 Isn\u2019t Always \u2018Sightseeing\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ashley says that it\u2019s a misconception that you get to see the world if you tour often. Having the time to thoroughly sightsee is rare and it\u2019s not uncommon that she only gets the see a city through a window\u2014sometimes not even that. 
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\u201cPretty often, I travel to a place, and then I do a show, and then I wake up, and I fly to another place and do a show,\u201d she says. 
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She recalls one tour where she was in a new country every day for a week and a half. Even though it can be hectic, traveling is one of Ashley\u2019s favorite aspects of her job. 
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\u201cI like just being able to travel and experience different cultures,\u201d she says. \u201cEven if I don’t get out of the theater or the venue for the day, you’re still experiencing a little bit of their culture, and it’s pretty cool to work in a new country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ashley at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado with the folk trio I’m With Her last year. Photo by Tim Retinouer. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Love the Excitement of Live Music<\/strong>
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Ashley\u2019s favorite part about her job is when a show is about to start and the work she has done from early in the morning until late at night comes to fruition. 
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\u201cThat part of it, the house lights are going out, the show is about to start, the energy of the room is hands-down my favorite part,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cWhether the day was insane and crazy and nothing went as planned, or the day was another day at the office, we\u2019re going to have a concert, and it\u2019s going to be great.\u201d
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Ashley says that the best advice that she\u2019s received about concert touring is to keep doing it while it\u2019s still exciting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked with a couple of very wise people,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cThey say, \u2018The moment that you are sick and tired of hearing that excitement and feeling that energy on stage right before a concert, you should quit. You should go and find a job at home. You\u2019re done.\u2019 I just can’t get over the excitement part of it, and I hope that it never goes away.\u201d
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Someday we’ll find it, the Berklee connection.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Berklee Instant Strings students perform with the trio, I\u2019m With Her, at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival. Ashley is the group’s tour manager and coordinated the performance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Berklee instructor Greg Liszt, contacted Ashley about the possibility of having four Berklee students perform on stage with I’m With Her at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival, she was able to pull a few strings. 
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\u201cIt was kind of a full-circle moment,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cI was a student of Berklee and now here I am coordinating the band that I work with and these students who are excited to be on stage at Newport Folk Fest. It was a pretty cool moment.\u201d
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Violinist Louisa Byron, violinist Emily Gelineau, violist Cecilia Vacanti, and cellist Emanuel Keller, are members of Berklee Instant Strings, a student group that can step in quickly to provide a string section for touring bands. They served as the string section to I\u2019m With Her\u2019s song “Overland,” and several other acts during the three-day festival in Newport, Rhode Island.
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