Vijay Mistry

Vijay is a musician, songwriter and producer based in Leeds, UK. Entirely self-taught, he is best known as the drummer for Kaiser Chiefs, a role which has seen him perform on the world’s biggest stages as well providing opportunities to meet and work alongside hundreds of people from creative industries as well as those within the music industry.

Prior to Kaiser Chiefs Vijay spent over a decade on the DIY music scene playing in various bands. During this time he worked on all aspects of music and creativity from writing, recording and playing live to planning album releases, video shoots, organising tours and promotion.

Vijay’s relentless passion for music and creativity together with his wide breadth of experience from local to worldwide level gives him the ideal vantage to view projects from all angles.

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Ella Kuijpers

Ella, with her background in the Dutch cultural sector and over six years of experience in crowdfunding (mainly at www.voordekunst.nl) for arts and culture, has guided hundreds of artists and cultural organisations in launching their crowdfunding campaigns. In 2023, she co-founded Crowdable, the UK’s crowdfunding platform for music. At Crowdable, Ella and her partner Remy van Leeuwen support artists in funding their next music project by offering a platform and personalised guidance for running successful crowdfunding campaigns.

Remy has a background in cultural economics and music management, with several years of experience in both the UK and Dutch music industries. He has worked for record labels and music venues in London and Amsterdam, with a focus on helping (grassroots) artists bring their music projects to life.

Together, Ella and Remy combine their expertise to advise artists not only on how to set up and execute an effective crowdfunding campaign but also on developing entrepreneurial and fan engagement skills.

Since launching Crowdable, they have run several successful campaigns and partnered with organisations like Come Play With Me to offer crowdfunding advice to artists.

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Maddie Morris

Maddie Morris is an artist who strives to make a difference in the world. Bold, insightful and refreshingly unique, they take traditional song in new directions to shine a light on contemporary issues.

Folk songs have always told stories, but how Maddie makes their mark is by turning this storytelling into action. Described by Jim Moray as “leading the next generation of socially conscious songwriters”, they use their work to highlight inequality, challenge viewpoints and provide an inclusive space for shared experiences.

Whether they’re turning a centuries-old ballad on its head or writing something new, Maddie places their focus on drawing out true meaning rather than being true to tradition. Their debut studio album, Skin, (release February 2024) is a beautifully crafted collection of songs which amplifies the stories of those often marginalised by society.

Passionately political, yet gently understated, this is music that deftly treads the path between art and activism.

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Sarah Dray

Pronouns: she/her

Sarah is senior radio producer with 16+ years experience in the broadcasting industry. The majority of her career has been spent working at BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra, where she worked across a range of specialist music and daytime shows. She produced programmes such as Radio 1’s Live Lounge with Clara Amfo, Trevor Nelson, David Rodigan, DJ Target and MistaJam. She has a passion for supporting new artists and throughout her career has created many features and opportunities on shows she’s produced to champion their talents and build a journey and fanbase for them at national radio. This is best demonstrated with her most recent role producing Radio 1’s trio of BBC Introducing shows with Jess Iszatt, Jaguar and Alyx Holcombe. As well as listening to hundreds of new tracks weekly to select artists for airplay, she was also a key decision maker for the BBC Introducing Tune Of The week slot, a member of Radio 1’s Future Artist Of The Month panel and a panellist for BBC Sound of 2024 and 2025.

Recently becoming a freelancer, Sarah wants to continue to support new artists using her insights and experience of the radio and music industry.

Building Your Brand, PR / Radio, media training

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Remy van Leeuwen

Pronouns: he/him

Remy has a background in cultural economics and music management, with several years experience in both the UK and Dutch music industries. He has worked for record labels and music venues in London and Amsterdam, with a focus on helping (grassroots) artists bring their music projects to life. In 2023, he co-founded Crowdable, the UK’s crowdfunding platform for music. At Crowdable, Remy and his partner Ella Kuijpers support artists in funding their next music project by offering a platform and personalised guidance for running successful crowdfunding campaigns.

Ella, with her background in the Dutch cultural sector and over six years of experience in crowdfunding (mainly at www.voordekunst.nl) for arts and culture, has guided hundreds of artists and cultural organisations in launching their own crowdfunding campaigns. Together, Ella and Remy combine their expertise to advise artists not only on how to set up and execute an effective crowdfunding campaign, but also on developing entrepreneurial and fan engagement skills.

Since launching Crowdable, they have run several successful campaigns and partnered with organisations like Come Play With Me to offer crowdfunding advice to artists.

Specialist Subject/s :

Funding (e.g. PRSF, Help Musicians, Arts Council), Crowdfunding, Fan Engagement, Entrepreneurship

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Thomas Stabler

Thomas is a freelance promoter rep who works delivering events nationally for several of the UK's largest national and independent promoters. Some of the many artists he's worked with include Florence and the Machine, Take That, Little Simz, Chase and Status, Confidence Man, Peter Kay, Run the Jewels and Caroline Polachek.

Working in Live Events for 15 years and having worked tirelessly early on to forge a career in the field during and after University he has via both lecturing, mentoring and through general advise helped create opportunities for people who share the same passion to go into the events industry or indeed any sector within music.

Although a hugely competitive and at times probably quite intimidating industry to try and get into, success within it is built on the most basic of principles and with the right level of application people can have one of the most unique and exciting careers around.

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Emily Savage

Emily is an A&R, artist manager, music journalist and publicist, with a focus on early-stage artist development.

Based in Manchester, Emily works both in the local emerging music scenes and on a wider scale. As an artist manager, she facilitates and develops aspiring artists in the North, with day-to-day experience ranging from managing artist brand-building and release schedules to liaising with labels, PR, producers, booking agents, and more. In her A&R Scout and Artist Services roles at US-based Greater Than Distribution, she collaborates with a global team in identifying and onboarding talent from across the world.

Additionally, Emily is well-versed within the press scene. Having initially started out in the industry as a music journalist, (current bylines in DIY, The Line of Best Fit, and When The Horn Blows), she seeks to platform upcoming artists through providing comprehensive reviews, interviews, and feature pieces. Emily is also a Publicist at Liberty Music PR, running campaigns to empower and champion independent musicians. She has further freelanced in writing artist biographies and press releases, with previous work for Universal Music Group.

Uplifting artists who are underrepresented within the industry, specifically female and queer artists within the pop scene, is a driving factor throughout all of Emily’s work. Alongside her various roles, she regularly creates resources for artists and aspiring industry professionals, offering informative and accessible breakdowns of industry topics.

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Ed Heaton

Ed is a producer, mix engineer , sound designer and songwriter who has worked across the music industry for 25 years continuing to manage a diverse portfolio career. He has written and produced records that have been played and synced globally. He is a director of 4 & North Publishing that helps songwriters maximise the potential of their music. Ed is passionate about music and the industry that supports it, attempting strike the balance between creative and business with a hope that one can continue to inform the other.

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Janine Ellis

Janine is a fully qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor with a master’s degree in Integrative Counselling. She is a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. As well as her private practice, Janine works as a relationship counsellor for Relate Bradford & Leeds.

Completing her master’s at Leeds Beckett, her research explored music industry therapists' experiences of clients affected by sexism and misogyny. As a feminist, Janine's therapy practice is trauma informed, anti-racist, LGBTQ+ aware and inclusive. She adapts her approach to meet each client’s individual needs by working pluralistically. She believes we are all unique and complex beings, so collaboration and client preference are key within her therapeutic approach.

Before re-training, Janine worked in the music industry in London for twenty years at various cult independent record labels such as Wichita, Rough Trade, PIAS and Warp Records where she worked on several top ten album campaigns by the likes of Bloc Party, Belle & Sebastian, Temples, Mystery Jets and Squid. Therefore, as well as working with a wide range of people, cultures and experiences, she now provides specialist counselling to musicians and music industry workers, as she understands the unique nature and distinct needs of the music community.

Besides her work as a therapist, Janine also co-runs a monthly radio show called Buzz playing choice indie/punk/shoegaze/stoner rock cuts on BCB 106.6FM in her hometown of Bradford.

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Angharad Cooper

Angharad is a consultant, producer and coach working with artists, creatives and organisations internationally to develop projects, increase impact and facilitate change. Her specialities include experimental music and sound art, traditional musics, fundraising and music policy. She is Director of Operations at the Center for Music Ecosystems and a board member at the Daphne Oram Trust. She was elected as board member of the European Music Council in 2023, and works as coach and mentor at Sound and Music, Help Musicians UK and Non Classical, supporting artists to make their ambitious creative ideas a reality.

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Tanya Vital

Tanya Vital is a performer and Creative Producer. Trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Tanya brings over two decades of experience in the entertainment industry.

Since 2020, she has successfully delivered 40+ live productions, both online and in person, creating platforms for Northern artists and has been recognized as one of the UK's top 100 #CreaTech companies by the Creative Industries Council.

Tanya's portfolio includes producing interactive digital content and immersive experiences. She collaborated with XR Stories to develop an immersive, live-action crime thriller game for Twitch. Her passion for cultural productions and live events has led to features at venues like The British Library and nominations at various film festivals.

Additionally, Tanya is a seasoned content creator with extensive experience in social media management for corporate clients. She has a proven track record of building brand awareness and engaging audiences through strategic digital marketing.

Tanya continues to push boundaries, fostering inclusivity, and providing a platform for diverse voices in the arts. Her commitment to merging technology with creativity sets her apart as a visionary in her field.

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Lily Sturt-Bolshaw

Lily is a producer/songwriter, mix and mastering engineer, Project Manager and one half of Alt/indie band, Sunflower Thieves.

She graduated from Leeds Conservatoire in 2018 with a BAhons in Music Production and went on to work at Stylus as a Front of House/Monitor Engineer/Stage Manager. Alongside being employed by Leeds Uni Union, she also worked as a freelance sound engineer in venues around Leeds such as Oporto, Hyde Park Book Club and Headrow House and has toured with Clean Cut Kid.

She has since moved away from working in live sound, but she hasn't strayed too far for her work with Come Play With Me. Lily runs CPWM's Come Platform Me: Introduction To Sound programme for people from marginalised backgrounds who want to become live and studio engineers. With help from Eiger Studios and HPBC, the first round of this programme has been an incredible success and is to be repeated later this year!

Lily's band Sunflower Thieves are an independent, self managed and self produced project formed of Lily and childhood friend Amy. They have been writing, producing, performing and releasing together since 2016 and have been played on Radio 1 + 6, BBC Introducing, Radio Scotland and more. They have toured and gigged with the likes of Flyte, Lewis Watson, Memorial, Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly and Siv Jakobsen and will be releasing their second EP this year!

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Katherine Cantwell

Katherine Cantwell - Heavenly Recordings (Social Media Manager)

Heavenly Recordings - Independent record label est. 1990

Current Roster includes Kneecap, Baxter Dury, Katy J Pearson, The Orielles, David Holmes, Revival Season, OneDa, Halo Maud, Lynks, Pip Blom and Tapir!

I have been living in Manchester for the last two years, previously living in London for 9 years where I graduated from Goldsmiths College with a 2.1 (Media and Communications) and then started my job at Heavenly. I have been at Heavenly Recordings for 11 years.

In 2023, I started the year doing a workshop all-dayer at Future Yard in Birkenhead and have since done one for Brighter Sound, Beyond The Music and a panel discussion in Barrow-In-Furness. In previous years I have done workshops at BIMM and also spoken at panels for The Quietus (City of Culture Event) & Unconvention Festival.

Most recently - I have become an official Line Manager to an apprentice as part of the inaugural Amplify Scheme with AIM, Amazon Music and Women in CTRL. Heavenly Recordings alongside 7 independent record labels were successful in applying for the scheme, the first of it's kind in 2023.

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Building Your Brand, Live, Merch Samuel Nicholls Building Your Brand, Live, Merch Samuel Nicholls

Joe Hubbard

Joe is a Promoter at Futuresound, where he promotes shows for artists from first steps through to Arena level across Yorkshire, as well as booking and delivering Festivals including Live at Leeds in the Park, Live at Leeds in the City and Gold Sounds.

With almost 15 years experience in the Live Music industry, Joe began his career in Hull promoting shows independently whilst at College/University until starting full time as in-house promoter at The Welly, Polar Bear and Fruit and working on Humber Street Sesh, which he has continued to do, before moving to Futuresound in 2018.

Joe has a keen on eye on new and emerging artists, he was a panellist for BBC Sound of 2024

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Jess Kangalee

Jess Kangalee is the Founder/Director of broadcast media promotions company Good Energy PR. With 15 years of cumulative experience working in promotions across artists, events and festivals, Jess founded Good Energy PR in 2019 with a specific ethos – a holistic approach to inclusion, creating space and promoting marginalised artists across broadcast media platforms.

Good Energy is the only QPOC run broadcast media PR company in the UK that prioritises multi-genre artists that are queer and/or global majority. Current roster includes acts like Big Joanie, Cakes Da Killa, Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul, Grove, Future Bubblers, The Linda Lindas, Nubya Garcia, Moor Mother, Mykki Blanco, Rochelle Jordan, TOKiMONSTA and Yazmin Lacey to name a few.

Throughout the span of her career Jess has worked across a large variety of acts, notably Bombay Bicycle Club, Caribou, M83, Metronomy, Moses Sumney, Phoebe Bridgers, Run The Jewels, serpentwithfeet and Sharon Van Etten + Lovebox, Green Man, Wilderness and Citadel festivals amongst other.

In addition to Good Energy, Jess has worked in a consulting/supportive capacity across several music industry organisations including AIM, Black Music Coalition, Women In Control, UK Music, Launch Pad and has mentored via ilikenetworking and Power Up.

As well as joining Music Week's Women in Music Roll of Honour last year, Jess was nominated for AIM’s Music Entrepreneur of the year in 2023, and was included in She Said So’s 2020 Alt List.

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Lily Blakeney-Edwards

Lily Blakeney Edwards is an Artist Liaison Assistant at Sentric Music, a music publisher which represents over 400,000 artists across the globe. With 5 years of experience working as a music journalist, as well as operating as a musical artist and vocalist, Lily has an extremely well-rounded background in Music and a truly unique perspective within the music industry. Within the year she has worked with Live Nation, Jazz North and Big Indie Records, and given talks at The University of Leeds, and Leeds Beckett University.

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Simeon Walker

Leeds-based pianist & composer Simeon Walker has quickly emerged as a leading light in the burgeoning Modern Classical scene, performing and touring extensively across the UK and Europe. He has supported S. Carey, Neil Cowley, LYR, Submotion Orchestra, Loscil & Erland Cooper and performed notable live sets at Latitude & Timber Festivals. In addition to his acclaimed first two albums 'Mono' and 'Winnow', he will conduct a 28-date UK tour in Autumn 2023 in support of his latest 'Imprints' release, whilst his piece ‘Reverie’ features on the first official Piano Day compilation by Berlin-based LEITER label, alongside Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds and Chilly Gonzales.

Regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC 6Music, BBC Introducing, KEXP and Scala Radio, his music has received overall listening figures in excess of 30 million streams across platforms. He also founded and curates Brudenell Piano Sessions - an intimate and varied live music series highlighting the diverse music being composed and performed on the piano, hosted at Leeds’ iconic Brudenell Social Club.

Having received funding support from Help Musicians, PRS Foundation and Arts Council England for his work as an independent artist, Simeon also performs regularly across numerous genres and contexts, whilst also working as a freelance session musician, composer & arranger, educator and consultant.

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Amy Illingworth

Amy is one half of alt-indie band, Sunflower Thieves, whose debut EP, ‘Someone To Be There For’ has surpassed 1.2 million streams, received huge airplay support from the likes of Radio 1’s Sian Eleri and 6Music’s Steve Lamacq. Sunflower Thieves were previously longlisted for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition, named as PRS’ Magazine's ‘Ones To Watch’ and have played shows with Flyte, Say She She, Nell Mescal, Lewis Watson and Haley Blais.

Amy is an Artist Marketing Consultant for 7476 [Matilda Mann, Lexie Carroll, tinyumbrellas], working to ensure successful delivery of artist campaigns across marketing, social, creative and A&R.

Amy is also Events and Social Media Manager for The Attic, a raw event space playing host to gigs, photo/video shoots, workshops, songwriting, rehearsals and various other events.

Amy has several years’ experience across event/venue management, music PR, social media and artist liaison, working with the likes of: Sofar Sounds, DocFest, Bradford Lit Fest, Hanglands, Live at Leeds, Superfriendz, Leeds BID, Leeds 2023, Fever, etc.

Amy is on the FAC Artist Council, and has made numerous speaking appearances at industry events, including Abbey Road’s 'Equalise' and the Launchpad Talent Development Conference. With her experience as an independent artist and promoter, Amy can advise on designing, booking and being creative with live shows, with a special focus on nurturing an industry where the artist experience is a top priority. Amy can offer creative guidance on merch, release campaigns and personal career development.

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Abi Rudd

Abi is a music producer, studio and live sound engineer whose work has been featured on Spotify editorial playlists and BBC Introducing. She’s the audio editor for violinist Joel Sunny, a social media musician, with close to a combined 2 million followers on Tik Tok and Instagram.

In Leeds, Abi is currently working at the Howard Assembly Room. Responsible for taking on positions from backline tech to lighting and sound engineer. Freelancing, she has previously taken on contracts with Opera North, Leeds 2023 and Giles Peterson’s We Out Here Festival.

Motivated to nurture young talent, she’s run studio engineering workshops for marginalised groups, with her previously Launchpad-supported project Not The Girlfriend (now @fortherecord_uk) at Eiger Studios, where she freelances as an engineer.

Abi is also a part of the most recent cohort of the Music Leader’s Network. During this programme, she engaged in peer-to-peer mentoring with women from organisations such as the MPG, AIM Ireland and Polydor Records. Discussions revolved around possible issues that women could face in the music industry, issues they do face, and how best these should be handled to make long-lasting change. 

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Samuel Nicholls Samuel Nicholls

Scott Fair

Scott is the Director of Woodwork Music Agency. Scott’s obsession with music, film and TV blossomed from an early age in a household filled with family singalongs, performances and movie nights. After high school Scott pursued these interests touring around Europe as a musician and sound engineer in bands, whilst working part time in video and music stores back home. This passion and experience lead him to pursue a degree in music production and introduced him to the world of music synchronisation. He began his career at Woodwork via an internship in 2014 and his knowledge and enthusiasm for music and film soon lead to a permanent position. He quickly worked his way up within the company and in early 2020 took ownership of the existing music agency. Scott’s experience includes licensing music into major advertising campaigns for brands such as Heinz, Pandora and O2 as well as hit TV series Dark and Cowboy Bebop, critically acclaimed films by Ben Wheatley and Jessica Hynes and video games including the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise. Scott is currently writing, performing and producing in the experimental Manchester based band Mandy, Indiana. In their short existence the band have already received praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NME and The Fader, earned several high profile fans including Sleaford Mods and Daniel Avery and have performed with The Horrors, Squid and Wet Leg.

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