4 minute read
SAM AIREY / HANGLANDS
INDUSTRY EXPERTS SAM AIREY / HANGLANDS
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WHO ARE YOU?
Hi! I’m Sam - I work at Hanglands in Leeds; a creative communications agency specialising in music PR, events, social media and marketing. I’m also a songwriter and musician, DJ, and terrible pun enthusiast. I moved to Leeds many moons ago from Ynys Môn (the isle of Anglesey) in North Wales. It’s a beautiful part of the world and since living in the land-locked county of West Yorkshire I definitely miss being by the sea, but Leeds is ace - I really fell in love with the sense of community in the local music scene and that was a big part of deciding to stay put here. sad songs and eating pasta.
WHAT ARE YOUR JOB TITLES?
At Hanglands, my loose title is Creative Lead. There’s 3 of us here now; Harry, myself and Jasmine. As a client-facing agency, our work tends to vary a lot from day to day, which tends to keep things pretty interesting! I’ve worked a bunch of other industry roles over the years too across labels, promoting and repping, artist management,
and some other bits.
WHAT DOES THAT ENTAIL?
At Hanglands our clients include UK music festivals such as Deer Shed Festival and Long Division, an evergrowing music roster that includes brilliant artists like Low Hummer, Elanor Moss, Far Caspian, Jake Whiskin and more. We’ve been lucky enough to work with some brilliant labels too, both locally in Dance To The Radio and Come Play With Me Co, but also further afield including Secretly Canadian, Dead Oceans, and more. On the music side, PR is a big part of what we do here. We’re mostly office based but we get out and about a fair bit too - we’re all looking forward to being at Deer Shed Festival this summer, where we’ll be on hand to look after press and socials for the duration.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?
When I started out as an artist I began to release my music via Hide and Seek Records, a
DIY label/promoter I helped to run with my friend Dan O’Dell. Dan is a great guy who has always been super passionate about platforming and supporting new music. It began as a means to release compilations for festivals and as a way of putting out my early releases, but soon grew into something bigger - we got to release some truly amazing records, and put on some shows I’ll never forget. Alongside all that, I’ve had some great experiences as an artist, getting to play shows and festivals in the UK and Europe and tour with some of my musical heroes. With Hanglands I started freelancing for Harry in 2019, and since then I’ve been able to play a part in growing the business and bringing in new clients. We’re still a very young company which to me is really exciting - it means there’s real scope to shape the business from the ground up in the exact way we want to, which I think is a really cool thing.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OTHERS?
First and foremost, try to be nice! On a local level, speak to as many people working in music as you can - if there are visible pathways available to you that can lead you into the industry roles you’d ideally like, then great. But if not, try starting something of your own you can build yourself. Setting up an independent label is a great way of understanding the mechanics of releasing music. There’s a lot of trial and error involved but it’s really rewarding and means you quickly learn to work in house across lots of aspects of the industry, whether that’s artist management, product management, PR, radio, A&R or elsewhere. I think having a ‘portfolio career’ is a good way of describing my route into all this stuff - I’ve always had to have multiple income streams but working multiple jobs isn’t a bad thing; often those different roles can overlap and benefit each other, so try not to worry too much if that’s what you have to do to get by - it just means you have more to offer!
Words by Sam Airey Photography by Tom Martin
DEER SHED SPECIAL WITH YARD ACT
JOHN GRANT / KATY J PEARSON + LP / SYLVAN ESSO
NIA WYN / LOOSE ARTICLES / REGRESSIVE LEFT A.O. GERBER / SNIFFANY & THE NITS JEMIMA COULTER / SPROUT
AND LOTS MORE...
COME PLAY WITH WALT DISCO
