Guy Oldaker has spent years establishing Illenium in Las Vegas — ever since the UTA agent recognized, in 2014, that the bass producer was the ideal artist to bring the genre to a club landscape where it had historically failed to gain traction.
“I went, ‘Holy crap, this is exactly what I think will work with this audience in Vegas,’ ” Oldaker told Billboard in 2024. “I know very well how to build an artist in the scene where I’ve built everything else. I knew if I could connect the dots, we’d have a winner.”
In a city built on gambling, Oldaker couldn’t have known how big this win would be. The agent has not only nabbed myriad club residencies for the Colorado-based artist (Nick Miller) on the Vegas Strip over the years; in 2021, he booked him at the city’s Allegiant Stadium for what became the venue’s first concert.
While that show was big, Oldaker and the team would ultimately go even bigger with Illenium’s current Sphere residency, which launched at the technologically cutting-edge venue last weekend and continues March 12-14 through April 2-4. With both the show and the LP called Odyssey, the run marks the first time an artist has created an album specifically for a Sphere residency. That’s enough for Oldaker to earn the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
Here, Oldaker talks about embarking on the sojourn to Sphere.
In 2023 you talked to Billboard about how Illenium was the perfect bass crossover artist to work for Vegas clubs, where you’ve booked him many residencies before he went on to play “Trilogy” at Allegiant Stadium in 2021. To what extent did his long history in the city help you and the team secure the Sphere residency?
We’ve spent a significant amount of time developing Illenium’s career and fanbase in Vegas through various club residencies, festivals, appearances (EDC and Life Is Beautiful, etc.) and debuting our “Trilogy” event at Allegiant Stadium for their grand opening, one of the first shows to happen after the COVID lockdown. Our team recognizes Las Vegas as one of the world’s preeminent markets for dance music, and we’ve been lucky to have incredible local and national touring partners who have supported & championed us. All of these factors and more helped us get on the radar of the Sphere team.
What were the initial conversations about getting Illenium in the venue? Is it a competitive venue to get into? How did you get the deal over the finish line?
Initial conversations began years ago after the “Trilogy” show at Allegiant, when one of our local partners asked if we’d like to see a “cool new venue being developed.” Once we got a taste, the wheels started turning. Sphere is a very unique and special venue. It’s not a room that an artist can “just show up and play.” In order to maximize the capabilities of the room and for the show to be meaningful and impactful for the audience, the artist and their team need to have a very specific vision for what they want to have fans experience.
Nick very quickly put together a concept and plan for what he wanted to do at Sphere, and through many conversations and presentations with Sphere’s team, we found we were aligned on how to create a first-of-its-kind and unique experience for fans, not only his amazing show, but also the incredible venue that Sphere is.
Anyma was of course the first electronic artist to do a Sphere residency. Assuming you saw that show? What did it do in terms of bar setting? Was there a sense of having to match or beat that residency given that it was also electronic?
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend an Anyma show due to schedule conflicts, but I was able to attend multiple Dead & Company shows as well as Backstreet Boys. All of the acts that performed at Sphere prior to us, including Anyma, set the bar very high for anyone who wants to play the room. Our team went into creating this show wanting to build and expand upon all of the amazing things everyone before us was able to accomplish in the room and find ways to tap into parts of the facility that had not been used yet and to bring things in that have never been done before, like pyro and other special experiences I don’t want to spoil. You’ll have to see a show!
Other artists’ teams have said that there’s a pretty steep learning curve with Sphere, given all that it can do. How did you guys learn how to “use” the venue, and how long did that take? What were the biggest challenges?
Our team spent a lot of time working with Sphere at the venue and their practice facility, as well as building a lot of the show in VR. It was a very unique and cool experience, and one I’ve never seen happen in this way before. We’re still learning and making little changes to the show every day, even after the residency’s start. The possibilities of what you can do in Sphere are seemingly endless, and it’s such a fun and cool experience watching the team learning and developing technologies and new experiences in real time.
Who is the core Illenium audience, and are you finding that Odyssey is drawing crowds beyond that audience, given how interested people are in the venue? In other words, how does this show widen the Illenium audience?
We’ve certainly seen a lot of people attending Odyssey that are not “core fans.” It’s exciting to see, and even more heartwarming to see many of them having emotional experiences and then buying jerseys [Illenium’s signature merch item.] Seeing all of the jerseys and merch being repped across all the hotels has been a very special experience. It’s only up from here, and we want everyone to be able to enjoy and see this incredible show!
How did you and the team celebrate after the three opening nights?
Everyone had a good hang backstage, hugs, high-fives and lots of water! We all celebrated an amazing first weekend, but we have more to go! Ask us after we get through them all!
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I’m grateful to be continually surrounded by great people doing great things. There’s nothing more special than seeing your team’s vision come together in such an incredible way. Can’t wait to see what else these amazing folks continue to do!
