About us / A propos
The Agency
Andrew Willis
Andrew Willis at Fondation Cartier, Paris. 2025.
Tough Alliance
represents premium talent on demand with confidence.
Tough Alliance was founded in 2025 by Andrew Willis after a 5-day stop in Paris inspired a future commitment to the premium brands and talent serving European and international markets.
Andrew Willis was born in Vancouver, Canada. In his teens, Willis became a fixture in the club scene producing and promoting events with a reputation for his friendship and bold, self-made costumes.
WILLIS:
In the early 2000s, Vancouver’s nightlife was a six night and day affair of electro, house, punk, dance and art events. There were nightclubs that played and hosted Justice, Diplo, Skrillex, Crystal Castles, Boys Noize, MSTRKFRFT, Digitalism, Tiga, Peaches, Chromeo, Simian Mobile Disco, Mr. Oizo, Mr. Flash, SebAstian, DJ Mehdi, Busy P, and it was all happening because the internet was bringing everyone together. And it was my friends creating these events and me showing up with my friends from highschool and partying all night long. In this same era, we had friends like Daniel Pitout (Orville Peck), Ed Gamuchian (BBNO$), Claire Boucher (Grimes), Mac DeMarco, Cyril Hahn, Taelor Deitcher (Felix Cartal), and artists like Tarrence Koh, Jeremy Shaw, and Andy Dixon, and we were out partying together every night and exploring our talents. It was a golden period that ended when rent became expensive, venues closed down, and this expedited the natural progression of my music and artist friends to major capitals where arts and culture have a large support network and market. But this was a time to experiment and collaborate and find our way with some of the best musical and artistic talent at the time.
Andrew Willis at Music Waste in Vancouver. 2009.
Polaroid of Willis at party with artist athena Papadoupoulos. 2008.
Andrew Willis interviewed in 2009 by Joe McMurray (Mac DeMarco).
Andrew Willis poses for event photographer. 2007.
In his early 20s, Willis studied digital design and new media at the British Columbia Institute for Technology and fine art Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Willis also studied. advertising and copywriting at Langara College. While in school, Willis worked in advertising and public relations, gaining a reputation for his forward-moving style and honest pitches that entertained press contacts and gained exposure for his accounts. Willis continued to practice photography, and grew a portfolio of portraits and drawings. Willis worked with modelling agencies Richards, Liz Bell, Boss Management, John Casablancas, and Family Management to cast models for campaigns and photograph new talent in development.
WILLIS:
By 2010s, Vancouver became unaffordable for artists to live in. More than half the venues had closed, and the remaining venues became regulated into oblivion over the following decade. It became necessary for artists to leave Vancouver to find a market to support their music and art. The City of Vancouver, and the Province of British Columbia, and Canada as a whole, became increasingly risk-adverse and heavily restrictive and pandering in its support of the arts, and this transformed it into a corporate waiting room that abandoned the agency that artists needed to thrive in Vancouver, and across Canada. While many of my friends moved outside of Canada to grow their careers in music and the arts, I stayed and worked in advertising and public relations. I found success in my work in Vancouver because I could anticipate the corporate and creative demands on every project, and I was hyperactive enough to juggle all stakeholders like friends. I became a very strong producer, publicist, and image maker for corporate clients. I also refused to sell bullshit, and grew my reputation for being direct and honest in my pitches. I would always pick up the phone and sell it straight without the "hooks" or "ledes" that make every other publicist sound corny. I was very good at sales because I would tell them what I had to sell, and sometimes say it was absolute trash, but I would then identify that they needed a story, so let's think of a way to sell it. That would get whoever on the phone laughing. The idea is to make your connections friendships, because when you are forced to sell shit, or you're in the shit, you can at least have a laugh with someone.
Willis studies at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. 2011.
Andrew Willis at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, Paris. 2025.
At 27, Willis decided to return to university to pursue a bachelor’s degree in communications and attended Capilano University. While in school, Willis was president of the pre-law club, hosted a weekly punk/rock radio show, was Vice President of the Student Union, planned and hosted college events, and voted best student politician by the student body. Willis graduated with honours and distinction and continued in a successful career as a human resources business partner.
WILLIS:
I spent five years at university learning communications and business administration. I always found more satisfaction ‘doing things’, so I made my classes an opportunity to intern for companies and create special projects that allowed me to connect with others. I interned for a few radio radio stations and worked in film and television and learned the ropes of executive producing, which carried over from my days in events, marketing, and public relations. I started hosting my own weekly radio show which allowed me to play punk, rock, and electro from around the world and interview celebrities and musicians. I was not ready to move from Vancouver when I graduated, so I continued to work as a human resources consultant where I enjoyed recruiting and empowering employees in their careers while consulting with numerous industries on their organization’s growth. I was still, and always, a total nerd for business with a creative heart.
Caption fo this photograph featuring WILLIS
Upon graduating university, Willis maintained a successful career for several years as a senior human resources business partner and skilled mediator. In 2024, Willis decided to take a break and go on an open-ended trip through Europe to return to Canada and decide his next move.
WILLIS:
Human resources is nothing more than being an agent for commercial enterprises. You are writing contracts, handling legal, regulatory, compliance, disputes, mediation, recruitment, training, organizational change, and finances. I did very well at this, but if you do not feel connected with the culture around you, you need to move. In 2024, I was going through a very challenging time with the death of my mother and looking for a connection to the creative side of me that was not being supported in Canada. I have loved this band called La Femme who are from France for many years, and they were playing a show in Vancouver. While I was at the show, I saw Marlon Magnée giving it his all to an audience that was hands in their pockets and standing still. I felt a revelation before me that captured perfectly my dilemma. I figured that if Marlon was from Paris, then Paris was where I needed to go. I booked a one way ticket to Paris that night and left the show early. I knew I would somehow get the rest of the show I left that night in Paris. I just knew it.
Andrew Willis posing like Carine Roitfeld at Club Silencio, Paris. 2025.
Andrew Willis and Marlon Magnée at Folies Bergère, Paris. 2025.
Jean Biche and Andrew Willis at Folies Bergère, Paris. 2025.
Caption fo this photograph featuring WILLIS
On Willis’ first night in Paris, he attended the Folies Bergère Theatre where he saw ‘Fantasma’ hosted by Allanah Starr and guest starring Marlon Magnée (La Femme) and was deeply moved by the experience. Willis cancelled that night his European trip and decided to stay in Paris on a hunch.
WILLIS:
If you are a monkey, you go where the bananas are. And for me, that was Europe. I originally planned to go to Paris for a few days and then do London and circle around the EU. The weeks leading up to the trip I was making this Marie Antoinette costume with no idea where I would wear it. I thought I would wear it at some some punk bar. The first night I arrived in Paris, I saw this ad on my Instagram for Marlon Magnée guest starring at Fantasma at the Folies Bergère. I bought a front row ticket and wore my Marie Antoinette costume. I was going to get the second half of my La Femme concert I left behind in Vancouver. And then the night introduced me to Allanah Starr, and Jean Biche, and all these talented performers who pushed the edge of art in a way I had never experienced. It was so moving that I trusted my instincts and cancelled the rest of my European plans that night. I knew at that moment Paris had an entire world of Dodo birds waiting for me to meet.
Andrew Willis at the Hotel Crillon, Paris. 2025.
Andrew Willis eats a burger at his hotel suite in London. 2025.
Andrew Willis at Giulia Club in Champs-Elysées, Paris. 2025.
Andrew Willis at Giulia Club in Champs-Elysées, Paris. 2025.
Andrew Willis and Mathis Chevalier at Galerie Obsession, Paris. 2025.
In Paris, Willis attended numerous galleries, clubs, restaurants, foundations, and retailers, and met an enormous network of talent who needed representation in their work, and who struggled to find agencies to make a move and represent them.
WILLIS:
I knew right away that I had found a solution to the problem artists and brands face in Europe which was connecting fast, and it relied on my skills of balancing the world of art and commerce to serve stakeholders fairly. Talent needed a modern agency to give them equality in their negotiations with brands. And brands needed to connect quickly with premium and emerging talent who had their business affairs in order, and could deliver reliable work on demand. My collective experiences created this opportunity tangible. So I returned back to Vancouver immediately and began my return to France and opening of Tough Alliance agency to serve the roster of talent and brands I had discovered. I chose the name Tough Alliance because it represented my personal style of being resilient and no bullshit, and moving forward together as a group.
Willis knew that being an agent for creative talent was no different than human resources for corporations. And Willis felt that his obsession with “clean business” and the administrative overlapped with his unmet desire to work in creative arenas. After many encounters with professional talent in Paris ended with creatives asking Willis to represent them in their work, Willis knew that his return to Paris was to serve French talent to connect with premium brands and provide premium creative services with the confidence of an agency to support them.
WILLIS:
My mother before she died told me that I was like a Dodo bird and that I needed to find my other Dodo birds or else I would go extinct. And this is a very loving way of acknowledging the pain and existence of artists as they struggle toward agency and acknowledgement. And Paris was filled with Dodo birds. I would go to Silencio, L’Arc, Club Montaigne, Le Klub, Les Bains, Le Carmen, Raspoutine at night and meet so many musicians, DJs, skateboarders, dancers, designers, artists, creative directors, production assistants, and models discovered and models undiscovered. I visited The Louvre, Fondation Cartier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Musée des arts Decoratifs, and saw how art and commerce was contained in these buildings, but extended into the restaurants and retailers driving modern culture and events. And none of this was exclusive to the night. The day in Paris could be just as exciting as the night. And during the day, you would be surrounded by creatives all working and supportive of eachother. I felt completely supported in Paris in a way that I had not felt since my mother died. I felt an excitement to explore and a curiosity that I had not felt since I was a teenager starting out in the clubs in Vancouver. It felt like a total return home to where every part of me — the art and the commerce — could combine with my human experience to protect creatives and brands with my professionalism, and personal experiences. And while I was discovering this, I was meeting an international set of talent who were all telling me they needed the same thing: an agent.
Andrew Willis at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. 2025.
Andrew Willis at an apartment in Place Vendôme, Paris. 2025.
WILLIS:
What makes Tough Alliance different is that we believe in clean business. We do not fuck around. Unlike many agencies, our artists are paid as fast as we are. We don’t believe in holding onto talent's money and dicking them around. We want our talent out there working and feeling supported. We believe that our clients are valuable and our relationships with them are as important as those with our artists, so we act fast to supply their demands with talent who are happy to show up because they are getting paid, being allowed to focus on what they do best, and our clients can be sure their projects are completed so they can move on to the next. Our services are pretty simple. We have great talent that is ready to perform for our clients. We can work with clients to build events and promote their products and services. We don’t fuck around with complicated add-ons. Our client’s know who they are and what they need, and so does our artists. Tough Alliance connects the two to activate these experiences. We may be young as an agency, but we are ready to start a new wave in the way models, make up artists, photographers, DJs, and musicians are supported by premium brands. And we’re going to have lots of fun doing it!