I work with musicians, producers, promoters, directors, photographers, festivals and record labels in many different ways. I’ve never really known how to define what I do but I have always known that I wanted to work in and around music and I try to open doors for others. At university I started doing the door for club nights and by my 3rd year was director of the student festival Pangaea, booking DJs and bands, including the singer Jessie Ware’s first gig in Manchester, having persuaded her to drive up with DJ Oneman. 

 

I cut my teeth as a marketing assistant at the independent record label Ninja Tune, pleased to have found a job in music that was a short bus ride from my mum and dads house in Brixton. I was responsible for writing promo reports and servicing blogs with new music, when everyone had a blog. I made good friends with Dean Bryce who was an A+R at Ninja Tune. We started a club night in Brixton called ‘LOCAL’, with our friends Raine Allen Miller and Zezi Ifore, as we were sick of getting the 35 bus back South from East London. Josey Rebelle played the first party in a tiny basement club in Tulse Hill. 

​

I was promoted to Big Dada label manager by Will Ashon, the label founder. This was the UK rap label that released Wiley and my home town heroes Ty and Roots Manuva (and this song and video). I brought in the demos for Kae Tempest’s incredible debut album ‘Everybody Down’ which had been produced by my friend and neighbour Dan Carey. I was convinced it was the perfect fit for Big Dada. It was swiftly nominated for a Mercury award. ‘DEAD’ by Young Fathers was also Mercury nominated this year. At the time of the awards, most of my friends thought I was still interning at Ninja Tune so it was surreal to be just out of university and at a table with not one but two nominated albums. Young Fathers won with their incredible album, DEAD. . As a small indie label, we never had much money for music videos, so I would ask friends or young directors I liked to make budget videos (I once got my younger brother Felix to shoot a Wiley video in our family living room, you can’t say I wasn’t resourceful.). 

​

Around this time, I co-founded Ladies Music Pub, with my friend Tyson. We were both navigating a male dominated music industry with all that this entailed. If you’re a musician and you run into trouble (bullying, sexism, sexual assault, gender pay gap, the list goes on) you might be able to find help at the Muscians Union or Help Musicians. If you work at a small record label with no HR, we found that you don’t really have anywhere to go. We held monthly meetings at an eccentric pub in Kennington. People started to get jobs through the meetings. We were determined to advocate for a more equal industry. Nellie Owusu and Marina Garvey Birch have since joined LMP, massively expanding its reach and capacity. We still hold monthly meetings, and prgramme stages at festivals like By:Larm (Oslo), We Out Here and Hockley Hustle (Nottingham).  

​

My early work in music videos at Big Dada set me up for my next job as Head Of Music Videos at Somesuch production company. I think I got this job because the director Rollo Jackson used to ring me asking where Wiley was because he wanted to film him. I used to let Rollo use classic Wiley tracks in his films for free, as I naively didn’t understand how music licensing worked. It seems to have paid off as he put in a good word for me at Somesuch. I’d gone from commissioning £5k videos to helping create £100k music videos, I was working with major labels, big budgets and pop stars for the first time. I exec-produced music videos for Ed Sheeran, Rejjie Snow, Actress, Metronomy, Skepta, Skream and even Elton John, Taylor Swift and Frank Ocean. The Elton John video broke me. We went $10k over budget in LA and his manager would call up and shout at me. I quit not long after and I still can’t watch the video.

​

I’m proud to have spotted and signed two incredibly talented directors before I left, Tom Hardiman and Raine Allen Miller, the friend I was throwing parties with. Raine told me that she wanted to be a director and we made fun low budget music videos for Salute and Georgia and her career hasn’t stopped since. If you watch her debut film ‘Rye Lane’ you might spot my cameo. I signed Tom after watching Radical Hardcore, his video for Objekt, it’s still one of my favourite pairings of music and film. I introduced Tom to the producer Koreless, who soundtracked his brilliant debut feature film Medusa Deluxe. Which you should watch!

​

The week I quit the Swedish singer Robyn got in touch through a friend and I started working across the creative for her album HONEY. Anything that needed to look good we worked on together: posters, merch, music videos, artwork, photo shoots, live shows, mailouts, brand collaborations, record layouts, magazine covers. I commissioned wonderfully talented photographers like Heji Shin, Mark Peckmezian and Chantal Anderson working alongside the brilliant stylists Tamara Rothstein, Ib Kamara and Naomi Itkes. We commissioned the excellent designers David Lane and Braulio Amado on the album art, tour posters and merch. We made amazing music videos (my favourite is for Between The Lines directed by SSION in a heatwave in Ibiza). 

 

 Once the album was out, we went on tour. The Swedish band would cannily only stay in hotels with decent saunas. I started a running playlist inspired by the Planningtorock song that Robyn would end her sets with as the walk off music. if you've met me I've probably asked you to follow it. Live highlights were a sold out Ally Pally in London and Madison Square Garden in NYC, but also touring with ESG, one of my favourite bands. I loved programming the after parties and creating special moments for the super dedicated fanbase (and learning that you could advertise on Grindr).  We were very lucky as we managed a full four year album and tour cycle before Covid hit. 

​

During lockdown I got heavily involved in the 'Save Nour' community campaign to save businesses in Brixton Market from being evicted by the tech-house DJ landlord of Brixton Market. It was a campaign close to my heart that led to Lambeth Council eventually overturning a decision for the landlord to build a 20 storey tower in the heart of Brixton. You can read more about it here and here. I learnt a lot from all the other campaigners, it was essentially like a reverse marketing campaign. 

​

I’d started co-managing TYSON during lockdown, we self released her mixtape ‘Pisces Problems’ on our own Ladies Music Pub label, and made a music video for Tuesday with our friend the brilliant director Akinola Davies Jr. I met the musician Nala Sinephro at a Ladies Music Pub meeting, and helped her navigate her debut album release with Warp Records, for her phenomenal debut album ‘Space 1.8’. Her first London solo gig was at an LMP event in Tottenham. In 2023 I was accepted onto the Music Manager Forum's Accelerator Scheme for upcoming managers, funded by Youtube. This was an amazing opportunity that came with funding and training, and crucially a supportive peer group of other managers. I am indebted to the MMF for the skills and confidence that came with this. 

​

Alongside running Ladies Music Pub and curating events, I manage the musician Hinako Omori and co-manage TYSON with Marina Garvey Birch. I also consult for the wonderful director and musician Sally Potter.

​