MBW’s World’s Greatest Managers series profiles the best artist managers in the global business. Gabz Landman is, amongst several other things, the manager of Amy Allen, winner of the 2025 Grammy for Songwriter of the Year. Here she talks about her star client’s incredible success (and work ethic) as well as her own career, values, and goals. World’s Greatest Managers is supported by Centtrip, a specialist in intelligent treasury, payments and foreign exchange – created with the music industry and its needs in mind.
Gabz Landman was still an intern when she placed her first song.
She was at what was then Sony/ATV Music Publishing, performing duties way beyond making tea, when she was instrumental in securing the song Melodies as Madison Beer’s debut single.
“I remember being very excited because Justin Bieber was in the music video,” Landman laughs. “Ina Wroldsen co-wrote that song and she’s one of my favourite songwriters ever, so I was freaking out that it worked out. It was amazing – and that’s become the feeling I’m chasing a lot of the time…”
Now at Warner Chappell Music, where she was recently promoted to SVP of A&R, Landman must be getting used to that buzz by now. As both manager and publisher of Amy Allen – the 2025 Grammy winner for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical and one of the greatest and most successful hitmakers working today – she has been involved in hits for everyone from Sabrina Carpenter (Espresso, Please Please Please, Taste), Tate McRae (Greedy), Rosé & Bruno Mars (Apt.), Koe Wetzel (High Road), Harry Styles (Matilda) and many more.
There is also, of course, the rest of her management roster (superstar British writer-producer Lostboy and singer-songwriter Donna Missal), plus her WCM publishing line-up (where she works with the likes of Laufey, John Ryan, The Chainsmokers, Kenya Grace and Cal Shapiro, co-writer of Alex Warren’s megahit, Ordinary).
But it’s Landman’s relationship with Allen – who she first signed for publishing when working at Mike Caren’s APG in 2017, back when Allen was yet to write for other people – that really stands out. As well as doing business together, the pair are great friends, regularly sharing posts on Instagram, while Landman even goes on holiday with Allen and her family.
“Gabz is one of the most loyal and hardworking people I’ve ever met in my life,” Allen tells MBW. “She wholeheartedly believed in me before I had any songs to my name and has always made me feel like anything is possible. She fights fiercely for her songwriters and producers, and I am over the moon to call her my manager, A&R and one of my dearest lifelong friends.”
Things haven’t always gone quite so smoothly for Landman. Despite her “confusing” accent, she is British, growing up in North-West London and starting out interning at Live Nation UK (she originally wanted to be a booking agent), before heading Stateside for a stint at Madison Square Garden.
Sony/ATV back home gave her the publishing bug – and an early intro to her WCM boss Guy Moot. But, when she left there, she – by her own admission – struggled to find another role in the music industry. She freelanced for Billboard (where she’d had another previous internship) from London, before convincing Ben Mawson to give her a job at Tap Music Management.
She worked day-to-day on Dua Lipa, then moved to Los Angeles for Tap, before joining APG, where she forged a relationship with Aaron Bay-Schuck, then managing producer duo The Futuristics.
That’s where she met Allen, who was pursuing an artist career in the under-rated Amy & The Engine, and they immediately clicked.
“I booked her in some sessions to check out how she works, and Amy was like, ‘OK, I have a session every day, but what am I going to do at night?’”
“Amy is just so charismatic, natural, effortless and likeable that my Spidey senses kicked in immediately where I was like, ‘Any artist or songwriter is going to love working with her, based on personality alone’,” Landman says. “The part I had to figure out was work ethic – I immediately booked her in some sessions to check out how she works, and Amy was like, ‘OK, I have a session every day, but what am I going to do at night? I should be in doubles’. I was blown away by how on it and ambitious she was.”
When she left APG, Allen asked Landman to become her manager and Bay-Schuck, by now CEO and co-chairman of Warner Records, brought her in as VP, A&R – where, despite some interesting signings, she found record company artist development to be a rather different animal to publishing.
“Karen Kwak [Warner Records EVP/head of A&R] has a quote – which I find hilarious – where she told me, ‘You’re an amazing person, activist and publisher. Label person? Not so much!’” she laughs. “I was not good at it, it just wasn’t my talent. That was a wake-up call for me.
“I’m a little bit naïve and I guess I thought my role was to make the public care about an artist,” she adds. “But a big part of it is also getting everybody at the label to see what you see. There are people who are so good at that, I just was not, but I love everyone that works there.”
Indeed, after moving from the second to the fifth floor at Warner’s downtown LA HQ when she moved across to Warner Chappell in 2022 (“It’s a better view from here”) – and swiftly signed Allen for publishing – Landman remains a daily visitor to both the Warner Records and Atlantic Records offices.
She even signed Cadillac Dale after she and WCM senior manager Lulu Largent heard the then-unreleased Jack Harlow track, Lovin’ On Me – which samples Dale’s Whatever (Bass Solique) – through an office wall and realised the Detroit R&B artist was unsigned for publishing.
That sort of attention to detail has undoubtedly helped make Landman and her charges such a success. But there is also huge passion behind what she does. Today, she arrives to meet MBW at Warner Music’s LA HQ in a whirlwind, talking ten-to-the-dozen to make up for being stuck in traffic, and displaying unbridled enthusiasm for Warner Chappell, her bosses (co-chair/CEO Moot and co-chair/COO Carianne Marshall) and every aspect of the publishing and management games.
She’s not planning on growing her management roster any further, but she’s certainly buzzing with current and future plans (“More hits!”). First, however, it’s time to talk rejections, 3am phone calls and why Amy Allen is not on a hot streak…
What makes Amy Allen such a great songwriter?
She’s a generational talent. Her impact on pop radio alone over the past 12 months speaks for itself, but an incredible facet of her career is also how eclectic the genres she works across are.
Even as someone who knows her schedule, I’m like, ‘How do you have the same amount of days in the year as everyone else? How is it possible you’ve done eight songs on this album, eight songs on that album, an entire project with an artist and still have all these one-off hits?’
I don’t know how she does it, but it’s a testament to both her talent and her demeanour, because it means people want to keep working with her. Her long-term relationships with artists really set her apart.
How do the two of you decide who she collaborates with?
Amy is open-minded to an extent that would surprise people.
I have some clients who say, ‘Gabz, use your judgement, I don’t need to know everyone that reaches out’. Amy wants to know every opportunity that’s been presented to her and then we get together to discuss.
The most important thing is that she feels inspired, but we think strategically, big picture and long-term about whether an opportunity makes sense. Amy doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed by genre, she always wants to try different things.
She also has an amazing instinct for which projects are worth the most time. When she and Sabrina [Carpenter] started working together, Sabrina – who is remarkable – already had a big fanbase and had been in movies and TV shows, but she wasn’t as big as she is now.
The first day they met, Amy was like, ‘I believe in her so much, I want to do as much as possible with her’. That’s a gut instinct thing.
She worked with Koe Wetzel last year, which I think surprised some people, just because it’s not obvious. She went all the way to Texas, never having even spoken to him before, and did a few days with him. And she was like, ‘I really believe in this project’ – and that resulted in a No.1 at country radio.
It’s also something I like to be strategic about. Her first cut was with Selena Gomez [Back To You], which is unusual for a brand-new songwriter and obviously so impressive but – I’m not speaking for Amy – I feel more proud when she’s broken an artist or is part of their first success. That says more to me, personally.
Are there times when you have to decide whether you’re looking at something as her manager or her publisher?
Honestly, not really. There haven’t been any moments where it’s been an issue. If anything, it’s an asset.
What about when she’s doing her publishing deal?
It’s always up to Amy to make those kinds of decisions.
When I came over to Warner Chappell and she was selecting her new publishing partner, it was really important to her and myself that the decision wasn’t hinged on me, and that she was deciding based on
the team.
I said to Amy, ‘I’m going to be involved no matter what, I want you to love the company you work with’. And it’s testament to the team at Warner Chappell that, even with that in mind, she chose to be with Warner Chappell. She met [WCM North America president] Ryan Press and immediately hit it off with him; they had such a clear, creative connection that, regardless of my being here, she would have wound up at Warner Chappell.
You and Amy also seem to be great mates…
We are. I feel so lucky. I have a very small management roster, but I think it’s the same with all of them: at the foundation of my relationship with them is friendship.
When I’m deciding whether to work with someone, I think about how I would feel if it was 3am and I saw their name calling on my phone. I want to feel at peace with that – that kind of barometer has meant I work with really amazing people who – whenever, wherever – I’m happy to be there for.
Amy also has an artist career – how do you balance that with her songwriting for other people?
When she first signed a record deal, she felt she should maybe take a break from writing for others. This time around, it’s been more like, ‘When I’m inspired, I’m going to write for myself and I want to know what opportunities come up’.
She also writes her artist project pretty much by herself, but she could be at home one morning and come up with an amazing chorus that ends up becoming a song for her project, or something she brings into a session for someone else. It’s a mutually beneficial situation.
What happens when she becomes a massive star as an artist?
We’ll be very happy! I don’t want to speak for her, but I think Amy’s definition of success as an artist has very much been about making music she’s proud of, that she can play for her grandkids and they will be proud of too.
It’s more about leaving a legacy than it is about, ‘I’m going to go make a radio hit for myself’. If it happens organically, which I hope it does, because she’s so amazing as an artist too, then that’s incredible. But I don’t think she’d compromise her integrity for the sake of becoming a household name as an artist.
What do you look for in a signing?
The most important things are work ethic, obviously talent and demeanour. Because if you’re missing one of those three, it’s just not going to work.
You could be the most talented, hard-working person ever but, if you don’t have a great demeanour, people aren’t going to want to keep working with you. You could be the most talented, likeable person in the world but with no work ethic, it’s just not going to happen and there’s nothing I can do to change that.
“My hope is to build The Avengers of songwriters, where I have the best in class at any genre.”
My hope is to build The Avengers of songwriters, where I have the best in class at any genre, but I also have up-and-comers I’m developing that I believe in wholeheartedly, that will grow into that role too.
When you got promoted, you posted on Instagram about your previous rejections. Are you a resilient character?
I’m a pretty self-deprecating person and, to my therapist’s disappointment, I don’t like saying nice things about myself – but ‘resilient’ is a word I do associate with.
The reason I posted that was because at the time I was going through it, I didn’t have a reference point of someone who got through that and landed on their feet. I’m not a public figure, but I’m sure there are people that, like me, want to work in music and, if that helps someone in the same position, I would feel really good about it.
Some people reached out and I’ve been doing calls with people in that position and trying to counsel as much as I can, because I really do have a lot of empathy. It’s easy to take it personally, but it’s actually nothing to do with the person. So, if I can help people going through it, that would be very fulfilling.
You worked with Dua Lipa at Tap before she made it – is she a good example of playing the long game?
Yes, and she didn’t skip any steps. Talk about work ethic, hers has always been top notch. I always really believed in her and it’s so gratifying to see someone like that take off.
I had worked with many people, but Dua was the one where the writers and producers – even in the beginning when I had to beg someone to do a session, because she wasn’t known yet – all came back being like, ‘Please can we do more with her’. She’s so magnetic, talented and special that people who gave her a shot at that point in time immediately got it.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, right here and now, what would it be?
More appreciation, respect and just more rights for songwriters. The music industry does not exist without songwriters, it’s the most fundamental part of the music business, and so often songwriters are overlooked or disrespected in the process.
It’s my purpose to try and advocate for them as much as I possibly can. When I go to Nashville, it always warms my heart how much you can feel the appreciation for songwriters.
The second you land, you drive by billboards celebrating their achievements and I wish there was more of that globally and within the music industry.
How long can Amy’s hot streak keep going?
One of the things people have said to me that is maybe misguided, is referring to Amy as having a ‘hot streak’, because I don’t believe that. She was in a session at 11am the day after the Grammys. We went out and celebrated, she just takes her work very seriously and was ready to go next morning.
Amy has had a phenomenal career, not a hot streak. It’s just who she is: an amazing songwriter. So why would anything change?
