Our Advisors
Whiskas
Samuel Nicholls or whiskas as he is mainly known in the music industry, is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Leeds Beckett University, founding the BA Music Industries Management course and the founder & director of Music Local, responsible for Music:Leeds and Launchpad.
Previously, whiskas has run a music venue and live promotions company, founded the Dance To The Radio record label and was guitarist in the band ¡Forward, Russia!, signed to Mute / EMI Records in North America as well self-releasing in Europe, achieving two UK Top 40 singles.
Managing projects such as Live At Leeds Unconference and Under The Owls, a free music & live art festival in Leeds, led him to be appointed as an advisor for organisations and groups such as Yorkshire Festival, Leeds 2023 Artistic Programme, PRS Foundation and Yorkshire Sound Women Network.
Specialist Subject/s :
Approaching Record Labels / Booking Tours / Building Your Brand / Contracts & Legal / Direct to Fan Releases / Funding / General Release Planning / Merch / Neighbouring Rights, PPL (royalties related to owning a recording) / Personal Career Development / PR & Radio / PRS, Publishing & Syncs (royalties relating to songwriting) / Spotify & Streaming Economy
Angharad Cooper
Angharad is a consultant-producer and coach experienced in developing experimental music projects with and for diverse clients. She has worked at Sound and Music, the national organisation for new music, leading on national experimental music archive the British Music Collection and artist development projects. As a consultant and coach, clients include Somerset House, Creative Europe, the British Council as well as individual artists across art forms including music, poetry and literature and visual arts. She is Chair of Soundmix, music-making charity for young unaccompanied refugees and asylum seekers which delivers weekly drop-in music sessions at the Refugee Council.
Angharad is a qualified and experienced coach, who can offer coaching sessions for those encountering 'stuckness' with projects, or issues related to confidence, in addition to the specialist subjects listed below. Angharad can also advise on producing projects and events.
Specialist Subject/s :
Approaching Record Labels / Booking Tours / Building Your Brand / Funding / Personal Career Development / PR & Radio / PRS, Publishing & Syncs (royalties relating to songwriting) / Spotify & Streaming Economy
Jenessa Williams
Jenessa Williams (she/her) is a Leeds-based music journalist with ten years experience in print and online press. Bylines include NME, The Guardian, DIY, Dork, and the Forty-Five, where she writes a weekly column surrounding the sociopolitics topics of the week emerging on music Twitter. Jenessa's work has strong intersections with race and gender, which supports her PhD studies at the University of Leeds. She can also be found running Pennycress, a Leeds-based zine designed to celebrate POC creatives, hosting on the [Edit Radio] podcast, and chairing various events and talks around the city.
As a music journalist, Jenessa can offer advice on how best to self-PR and identify potential journalistic outlets to contact.
Specialist Subject/s :
Building Your Brand / Personal Career Development
Aaron Casserly Stewart
Aaron is a jazz vocalist and former singer with the three time Grammy Award winning group the Sounds of Blackness. He is the former personal assistant to Morris Hayes (Prince’s keyboardist & band leader of the New Power Generation). Winner of the 2012 NAACP Image Award, Aaron is on the Board Of Directors at Leeds Conservatoire; a Professor of Music Business at the London Performing Academy of Music and is the Executive Producer at Supa Qween Records. Aaron is the Chair of the Black Lives Matter of Leeds and Guest Lecturer at the University of Bolton. He is also a PRS Foundation Advisor, Founder/Lead of Paradise Hill Productions and former City Commissioner/Mayor of Parsons, Kansas.
Specialist Subject/s :
Building Your Brand / Contracts & Legal / Funding / General Release Planning / Live / Personal Career Development / Recording Music Videos & Live Sessions / Songwriting, Production & Creative Arrangement
Lins Wilson
Lins is an artist, musician and project producer based in Leeds. As a guitarist, cellist and bassist she has written, recorded and toured internationally - including European tour support for The Pixies, performing at SXSW and at major UK festivals. Her garage-psych rock band, Magick Mountain, self-released their debut album in 2020 and have played Latitude Festival, shared stages with The Cribs, Wand, Meatbodies, and been supported by BBC Radio, Festival Republic/PRSf, Help Musicians and Launchpad.
As a co-founder of Buffalo Sound Design, she creates immersive audio-visual installations and composes cello-led soundscapes in collaboration with Jon Foulger and Tom Hudson. These have been funded by Arts Council England, Leeds Inspired or in collaboration with visual artists such as Lord Whitney and Play.Explore.Art. She was awarded ACE’s ‘Developing Your Creative Practise’ fund in 2020 and continues to work on her solo non-traditional cello compositions.
To support her artistic career, Lins works as a project producer, having delivered large-scale events for Music Local, Lord Whitney and Transform theatre festival; production work on music videos for Nikki Minaj, Corinne Bailey Rae and Pulled Apart By Horses and offers advice to emerging artists on fundraising.
Specialist Subject/s :
Direct to Fan Releases / Funding / General Release Planning / Live / Merch / Personal Career Development / Recording Music Videos & Live Sessions
CHAINES
CHAINES (Cee Haines, they/them) is an award winning composer, multi-instrumentalist and multimedia artist who writes surreal and fantastical electronica and electro-acoustic music. Their album, ‘The King’, was made Album of The Year by Robert Barry of The Wire Magazine, and was ranked in FACT magazine’s top 25 albums of 2018’s first quarter. CHAINES has also worked extensively with the London Contemporary Orchestra, premiering small and orchestral scale works at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms, 2018), Tate Modern (Uniqlo’s Tate Lates, 2017) and the Roundhouse (Ron Arad’s Curtain Call, 2016).
Lucy Woolley
Lucy is a Creative Producer and accredited Coach based in Manchester, specialising in live events and artist development across the jazz and improvised music sector.
Current roles include Festival Director at Lancaster Jazz Festival, an annual five day festival taking place in September, and as Network Manager for the Jazz Promotion Network, a network bringing together everyone working in the jazz sector across the UK and Ireland. Lucy has previously worked as Programmes Manager for Jazz North and Festival Manager of Manchester Jazz Festival.
As a freelance consultant, Lucy has worked with organisations such as Edition Records, Matt and Phreds, Attitude is Everything and Walk The Plank.
As well as the specialist subjects listed below, Lucy is able to advise on portfolio/freelance careers and work/life balance challenges.
Lucy is an accredited coach and a trained mental health first aider.
Specialist Subject/s :
Approaching Record Labels / Booking Tours / Funding / General Release Planning / Live / Personal Career Development
Simon Rix
Simon Rix has played bass for Indie Pop band Kaiser Chiefs for 17 years. Throughout their career Kaiser Chiefs have achieved two number one albums, a number one single, and countless top ten credits. The band have achieved many accolades including 3 Brit awards and a prestigious Ivor Novello for debut album Employment.
Alongside the band, Simon has been involved in several side projects, including the set up of small DIY record label ‘Chewing Gum’ from 2010 -12 and undertaking a range of songwriting projects from work with artists on sound pieces to the production of the theme tunes for TV.
Simon has recently started working with both Launchpad and The Ivors Academy on their respective mentoring schemes and has sat on funding panels for PRS Foundation. Beyond music, Simon is an active Labour supporter and is proactively involved at a local level, and as a passionate LUFC united fan, he gladly assumed the role of President of the Leeds United Supporters Trust In 2020. He now writes a monthly column for the Yorkshire Evening Post on his favourite subject - Leeds United (and Marcelo Bielsa). As perhaps his proudest commitment of note - Simon has been an active Amnesty International Ambassador since 2015.
Chris Sharkey
Chris Sharkey is a musician from the North-East of England. Based in Leeds since 1999, Chris has dedicated the last 20 years to making forward-thinking new music that blurs boundaries between improvisation, production, composition and the associated genres of these often separated fields. He is an active national and international artist, performing with Charles Hayward (This Heat) , Jack Wylie (Portico Quartet), Roller Trio, Anton Eger’s Æ, Joshua Blackmore’s SiZE, Acoustic Ladyland, trioVD, Shiver, The Geordie Approach, and as a solo artist. Chris is a also a producer and has recorded, mixed, remixed and mastered music for for Keeley Forsyth, Matthew Bourne, Seb Rochford, Oliver Coates ACV, Mole, Taupe, Troyka, World Service Project, trioVD, Shiver, Beyond Albedo, Session Fries, Lara Jones, J Frisco, The Geordie Approach, Roller Trio, The Orchid and The Wasp and more. His areas of interest are improvisation, composition, integration of electronics/ processing in live performance (hardware + software), recording and production, collaborative projects, artistic practice, learning & participation, group improvisation / conduction, cultivating innovation. Chris is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire specialising in jazz guitar, ensemble studies and performance with electronics. He is also Jazz Guitar Professor at London Performing Academy of Music (LPMAM) and a Guest Lecturer at NYJO Jazz Exchange & Aldeburgh Young Musicians.
Nicole Raymond
A storyteller in her own right, Nicole is devoted to developing her unique practice as a DJ & Turntablist, sound artist/composer, producer, tutor, sound engineer and radio presenter. She is also a strong advocate for diverse representation in the music industry, especially within the DJ and music production realms, and musician wellbeing/mental health. Nicole has also performed at many festivals, supported other artists and can be found gigging in West Yorkshire solo and as a part of two bands: The Belgrave House Band and TC and the Groove Family. Having played on other radio stations such as Demon FM, Sable Radio, Worldwide FM and Balamii, Nicole can be found presenting each week on BBC Radio Leeds as well as being a project coordinator for Music:Leeds/Music Local.
Cat Park
Cat Park has been a key figure within the UK urban music scene for over a decade. Managing the seminal Channel U/AKA for 8 years, and spotting talent at a very early stage of their career, Cat promoted the likes of Tinie Tempah, Chip, Wretch 32, N-Dubz, Skepta, Devlin and many more to a huge network, giving them their first taste of TV support before their mainstream breakthrough. From writing video treatments for music videos and co-producing TV shows for MTV Base, through to releasing records and promoting them herself, Cat has a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the music industry. She managed the independent record label 360 Records for three years, overseeing and coordinating releases for Devlin as well as campaign managing Lethal Bizzle – POW 2011 and LOTM 3 release; both of which gained top 40 successes in the charts during 2011/2012. At the end of 2012, Cat started her own company, Ten Letter PR, designed to bridge the gap between the underground and the mainstream. In the first two years of starting Ten Letter, Cat had more than doubled her work force and employed four women within the industry. The team successfully ran the ‘Young Kingz’ mixtape campaign for Krept & Konan, which became a Guinness World Record breaker and was the key catalyst for their signing to Virgin EMI. Ten Letter then went on to run the campaign for Jhene Aiko which saw her break in to the UK and become the fastest selling E.P in Roc Nation’s history. Covering radio, online, TV and press, with a dedicated and passionate team, Ten Letter has played a role in the journeys of Mist, Bugzy Malone, Ocean Wisdom, Toddla T, The Late Cadet, Boy Better Know, Poundz and D Block Europe to name a few.
Jamila Scott
Jamila Scott has over twelve years' experience in the music industry, having worked at Polydor, Warner Records and management companies such as Method Records and Tileyard Music. She has signed and worked across artists like Lion Babe, Years & Years, Liv Dawson and Chaya. Alongside her A&R duties Jamila has run tastemaker blog Cruel Rhythm since 2011 and has worked with partners including Sonos and Hype Machine on events featuring artists such as SZA, Kelis, Dua Lipa and Stormzy at SXSW, Great Escape and more.
Specialist Subject/s :
Approaching Record Labels / Direct To Fan Releases / General Release Planning / Neighbouring Rights, PPL (royalties related to owning a recording) / PRS, Publishing & Syncs (royalties relating to songwriting) / Recording Music Videos & Live Sessions / Songwriting, Production & Creative Arrangement / Spotify & Streaming Economy
Emily Pilbeam
Emily Pilbeam is a radio presenter, producer, team assistant and DJ.
Emily first started working in radio when she volunteered at her local hospital radio station back when she was 15. Fast forward three years, she landed herself a job working as a team assistant for BBC Introducing in West Yorkshire and since then has gone on to work as a team assistant for BBC Introducing in Humberside, BBC Introducing in North Yorkshire and Radio 1.
Emily currently presents the BBC Music Introducing in West Yorkshire, and has presented shows on across other local radio stations, as well as shows on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 1. She puts on a regular night showcasing new music at Oporto in Leeds, is the resident DJ at Oporto on Thursday nights, and DJs across various other venues in Leeds.
Tanya Vital
Tanya Vital is a Bradford based Actor/Producer & has worked for 20 years in the entertainment industry. She is the Founder of award winning digital arts platform Vital Culture UK and has produced many events and digital productions to critical acclaim.
Tanya has extensive knowledge and experience of performing, social media marketing, events production, content creation, developing digital profiles and livestreaming. Having featured productions at The British Library and Hyde Park Picture House, Tanya has also worked with Creative Industries Council, Peel Entertainment, Bradford 2025, XR Stories, Bradford Music Network, Mill.tv and will be working with NME & Squarespace on an upcoming project.
Her areas of interest are developing new methods of marrying technology with performance, creating digital profiles and presence, content creation, using digital platforms and livestreaming, social media marketing and raising the profiles of local, underrepresented artists. Tanya also runs the Bradford Black Artists Network.
Tanya can be found regularly producing livestream shows for her channel on Twitch.
Stewart Baxter
Stewart is a self-taught musician, composer, photographer and designer from Hull who alongside a lifetime playing music and running events, has ran a record label and studio, produced and mentored hundreds of artists, been a creative director across many releases, and set up the international music industry conference 53 Degrees North.
Stewart is the drummer for Hull band LIFE who’s self-released debut was awarded Album Of The Year on BBC Radio 1. Their second LP A Picture Of Good Health was BBC 6 Music’s Album Of The Day, BBC Radio 1’s Album Of The Weekend and was one of BBC 6Music's Albums of The Year; all four singles from the album were play-listed at 6Music. In France the band appeared on national TV - Arte - alongside Primal Scream & IDLES for Jehnny Beth's ECHOES show.
Stewart has recently released a podcast ‘Keep Talking’ tackling issues of a locked down music industry and encouraging artists to discuss music and mental health. He continues to work within artist development and is an advocate for the FAC - The Artists Voice.
Emily Marlow
Emily Marlow (she/her) is a creative producer and programmer, based in the North of England, working across music, art and film events and projects. With a special focus on equity, diversity and inclusion, Emily is passionate about supporting local creative communities and platforming marginalised people through her work.As part of the Music Local team, Emily leads the events programme, delivering conferences, gigs, workshops and industry socials to connect, inspire and empower people working in music across Yorkshire.Previously, Emily has been part of the Come Play With Me team, as their Diversity Projects Coordinator, was a founding member of Girl Gang Leeds, a non-profit set up to create fun, safe and empowering spaces for women and people of marginalised genders, and has worked with freelance clients such as Leeds 2023, Sheaf St and Wow Festival.
Ben McAvoy
Ben runs WMP, a music composer and sound designer agency in Leeds. He has many years experience on the creative side of creating audio to moving images as well as running a business. The team work predominantly in the television, advertising and museum installation / experience sectors and recent projects include “A Day In The Life of Coronavirus Britain” on Channel 4 and ad spots for Tanqueray, Guide Dogs and Cornetto.
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.
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.
Specialist Subject/s :
Songwriting, Production & Creative Arrangement
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 across Spotify alone, received huge airplay support from the likes of Radio 1’s Sian Eleri, 6Music’s Steve Lamacq and revered tastemaker, Tom Robinson. Sunflower Thieves have previously been long listed for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition, named as PRS’ Magazines ‘Ones To Watch’ and have shared the stage with Flyte, Say She She, Nell Mescal, Lewis Watson, Haley Blais and more.
Amy is also the Local Promoter for Sofar Sounds in Leeds, curating secret, intimate gigs in unique spaces across the city, supporting artists in all stages of their careers. In this role, she is responsible for artist and venue booking, social media marketing, partnership collaborations and curations, ticket sales, comms, team management and venue booking.
Additionally, Amy is an Artist Marketing Consultant for independent record label, sevenfoursevensix [Matilda Mann, Lexie Carroll, tinyumbrellas] and freelances as a Marketing and Events Assistant at a raw event space in Leeds, The Attic.
Amy has several years’ experience across event and venue management, music PR, social media and artist liaison. She is a member of the FAC BEAT Board, and has made numerous speaking appearances at industry events, including Abbey Road’s Equalise 2024, the Launchpad Talent Development Conference and Come Play With Me’s ‘I Know A Place’. With her experience as an independent artist, venue and promoter, Amy can advise on designing, booking and being creative with independent gigs and tours, with a special focus on nurturing a music industry where, above all, the artist experience is valued and celebrated. Amy can also offer creative guidance on merch, release campaigns and insight into personal career development.
Specialist Subject/s :
Booking Tours, Direct to Fan Releases, General Release Planning, Live, Merch
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.
Specialist Subject/s :
Booking Tours, Building Your Brand, Direct to Fan Releases, Funding, General Release Planning, Live, Merch, Personal Career Development, Recording Music Videos / Live Sessions, Songwriting / Production / Creative Arrangement, Spotify/Streaming Economy
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.
Specialist Subject/s :
Funding, General Release Planning, Neighbouring Rights / PPL (royalties related to owning a recording), PR / Radio, PRS, Publishing & Syncs (royalties relating to songwriting)