Jazzy has been one of the most exciting stars to have emerged from the dance music scene in recent years, but that’s not enough for the Irish artist. She wants more. Her debut album Peace & Patience represents the latest stop on her journey away from featured guest spots and towards solo glory. It is, she tells Music Week, time she got recognition for talents that are hers and hers alone. Here, joined by Polydor Label Group president Ben Mortimer, Chaos Records, Attention Management and collaborator Mark Ralph, Jazzy talks EDM culture, the merits of experimentation, the perils of AI and her enduring love of “a little rave cave”… WORDS: CHARLOTTE KROLCOVER PHOTO/PHOTOS: SEB LUKE-VIRGO As Music Week enters the recording studio in North West London in which Jazzy has made some of her many dance hits, the welcome distraction of the day is a baby. “Oh, she’s gorgeous,” the Irish artist (whose real name is Yasmine Byrne) effuses about her manager Jo Eales’ daughter, who accompanies the Attention Management exec. “I love babies,” Jazzy tells us moments later, as we wind our way through the warren-like recording base that belongs to her producer and close collaborator Mark Ralph. That her immediately friendly demeanour matches the bright, late summer’s morning outside is no surprise given that she is soon to release her debut album Peace & Patience, out October 23 through Polydor dance imprint Chaos. Even still, she is buzzing to the extent that you begin to wonder where she gets her energy from. “It’s all the jumping around,” Jazzy says, taking a sip from her espresso, filling us in on what sounds like an exhausting schedule. “I haven’t been back to London in a little while because the touring has been so busy.” It makes sense that Jazzy is in high demand. Last year, she was the most-streamed female DJ globally on SoundCloud, while her top singles on Spotify, Giving Me and Somedays, have more than 265 million plays each and she has more than 11m monthly listeners. Her imprint on social media is impressive, too, with 7.5m likes and 324,000 followers on TikTok and 252,000 on Instagram. What’s more, Jazzy boasts three million-selling singles in the aforementioned Giving Me (which topped the charts in Ireland and hit No.3 in the UK, where it has 1,236,608 sales, according to the Official Charts Company), Sonny Fodera & DOD collab Somedays (1,314,964) and Belters Only hook-up Make Me Feel Good (1,469,148). Her array of feature spots and collaborations also includes Satisfy with Calvin Harris (136,549) and No Bad Vibes with Kilimanjaro (478,949). But Peace & Patience is all about cementing Jazzy’s position as a bona-fide solo hitmaker, a feeling she first tasted when Giving Me topped the Irish charts while she was still working her day job in Tesco. The ambition and desire to build on that is why she is “so excited” to share her debut full-length with the world. “The album’s been in the works for a while so I’m so curious to see what everyone else thinks,” she says with a big smile, also revealing that some of the material was written two years ago. It checks out that Jazzy is keen to be at Ralph’s studio today. She’s ready to make fresh music, though today’s session is purely for “vibing”, with no specific project in mind. That adds up, too, because as Jazzy reminds us frequently, she lets her life and her music “happen organically”. Such authenticity lines up with the moment Jazzy finds herself in now. She’s a dance star in her own right, kicking back against the featured artist tag she is sometimes narrowly labelled with. Making music, she says, is a collaboration most of the time anyway. And when she does link up with other DJs and producers, she debunks any preconceived ideas that she’s purely a vocalist. “I’m my own artist and I don’t want to be known as a ‘feature artist,’” she says. “So when I go into the studio, I make sure that it’s going to be a collaboration and not just, ‘Oh, you want me to come in and do a vocal for you?’ I very much want to be involved in what the song sounds like and how it’s built.” Having autonomy and remaining true to herself and her roots is at Jazzy’s core. A Crumlin native, to this day she still lives in Dublin county, where she recently purchased her first home. A racing green holdall placed at Jazzy’s feet on her new album’s cover provides a fitting metaphor for a life lived mostly on the road in recent years. “I bring that iconic bag with me as I travel the world, and it represents all that stuff,” she explains. “The album is a big ‘thank you’ to the people who’ve built me, made me the way I am, kept my feet on the ground. I’m glad I’m not getting too big for my boots!” She needn’t be so humble. Ben Mortimer, president of Polydor Label Group (PLG), praises Jazzy as “a brilliant example” leading the charge for Chaos. “I’m incredibly proud of what Chaos has built in such a short space of time,” he tells Music Week. Chaos launched in 2023 and achieved a chart breakthrough with its debut release, Giving Me, which was also Jazzy’s maiden single. “Within its first few years, the team has established a label with real weight in dance and electronic music, rooted in great A&R instincts and a real understanding of the culture around artists,” Mortimer adds. “Jazzy is a brilliant example of that. The label has become an important part of PLG, and combines a great team with exciting, creative new artists.” That appreciation of where Jazzy is from is part of Chaos’ approach in honouring her heavy involvement in Dublin’s club and hip-hop scene (she formerly fronted the rap collective Powerful Creative Minds: PCM). It’s a strategy spun out of Jazzy’s ethos – which has been “Dublin to the world” from the start – shares Chaos GM and director of dance marketing, Silas Howison-Waughray. Putting Dublin on the map has taken “a lot of graft and continues to do so,” he adds, but she is “well on her way to making it a reality”. Howison-Waughray puts that down to the fact that Jazzy is a “unique” artist. “Being an Irish singer-songwriter and touring DJ, with all original vocals on her own records and a strong creative vision, puts her in a totally different space to a lot of acts in dance music,” he explains. “She’s able to put herself both visually and sonically at the forefront of every aspect of the campaign, which removes the limits of success in our minds.” Jack Duckworth, A&R director at Polydor and head of A&R at Chaos, signed Jazzy after a lunch in Dublin four years ago. He knew from the off that it was imperative to recognise her background as a singer, songwriter, DJ and raver. “It’s always been about making sure she’s had one foot in the underground and the other in the crossover world,” explains Duckworth. “We wanted people to know Jazzy was coming from the culture. When we signed her to Chaos, she was well rooted in the D12 [postcode] Dublin house scene, which was popping off. She’d just come off the back of Make Me Feel Good. We knew we needed to be fluid and nimble.” And, as is the case in electronic music, fans expect a steady stream of releases. “We set out a regular flow,” explains Duckworth. “Some tracks would cater to Jazzy’s club audience and others to her crossover one.” Those crossover tunes include No Bad Vibes, her 2024 collaboration with Zambian-British DJ Kilimanjaro, which takes its cues from the slow, protracted beats of amapiano as well as Afro house. It marked a shift from Jazzy’s punchier dance hits like Giving Me or Somedays. No Bad Vibes, Howison-Waughray adds, became one of Universal Music Group’s biggest-performing sounds on Snapchat. Securing the “right” collaborations, including High On Me, a No.18 single released last year with Rossi, has been key to “really super-charging the project”, Duckworth adds. “To quote Paddy McLean,” he says, nodding to the Chaos co-GM, “we wanted ‘to be everywhere, anywhere, all at once’.” Howison-Waughray echoes those sentiments. “The primary goal for both the label and Jazzy from the outset was long-term artist development,” he says. “This album is the biggest moment in her journey and we have high expectations in the UK, Ireland and globally, but it’s another milestone in a long career that will stand the test of time and continue to evolve.” Belying their company’s name, Attention Management’s Jo Eales says that she and founder Iain Watt prefer to work “quietly” behind the scenes, but are “happy to be loud about our pride in Jazzy”. “She’s one of one: a phenomenal DJ, a brilliant writer and most importantly, genuinely a fantastic human being,” Eales says. Eales remarks that Jazzy’s success so far is down to her “genuine credibility” in the dance music space. “In an age where anyone can be a DJ, being a curator is the true epitome of what it is to be a DJ,” she says. “Jazzy eats, sleeps and breathes dance music. We joke that she wakes up and goes straight to 140BPM, which is unbelievable for a person with such a chilled demeanour. Maybe it’s that dichotomy that keeps the wheels on when everything is as hectic as it is for her.” Eales also pays tribute to the “amazing” team at the label. “Chaos has been the perfect label home for us, and to have a team that understands the artist and the culture around them like Paddy, Silas and Jack do is a blessing,” she says. She also shouts out Mark Ralph. “To describe him as Jazzy’s writing and production partner would be to do his role a disservice,” Eales explains. “His mark on the project undeniably stretches into A&R territories, and I know Jazzy feels lucky to have him as a mentor, too.” Jazzy herself calls Ralph an “absolutely amazing” creative partner who has vocally produced her on the vast majority of her songs – features or otherwise. “He’s been such a good mentor who has taught me so much over the years,” says Jazzy. “I’m very blessed to have him musically in my life.” She doles out the same phrase – “absolutely amazing” – when praising her management. “Honestly, I’m so glad I have them because it’s hard to find good management,” she says, emotion clear in her voice. “They’ve done so much for me over the years, protecting me from stuff I shouldn’t be around. I want to say thank you for all of it, and that I hope we can always work together because they’ve been absolutely amazing.” Mark Ralph has been zipping in and out of his studio’s various recording rooms this morning, though still finds time to be on tea duty. Music Week gladly accepts his offer of a drink and grabs him for a quick chat to get his side of the Jazzy story. “She has been able to establish herself quite early on,” Ralph explains as he pulls up a swivel chair. “And to think where she has come from – working in a Tesco in Dublin four years ago to now – is quite the stratospheric rise.” A steadfast commitment to making music that’s uniquely hers has cemented Ralph and Jazzy’s partnership. “It’s always got to be authentic,” he explains. “You’ve got to believe in and really love what you’re doing – and Jazzy does. You also need really good management, which Jazzy has in Jo and Iain. They’ve really helped steer her in the right direction – also on an emotional, personal level because it’s really important as an artist to keep your feet on the ground.” The theme of needing to feel grounded amid the swirl of fame is a key touchstone of Jazzy’s album. It’s why she chose to open Peace & Patience with a snippet called Intro, which leads into the joyful, house single My People. Intro contains dozens of voice recordings of family and friends at a pub back home, while the chorus of My People (‘You’re my people/As long as you’re here with me/That’s all I’ll ever need’) is Jazzy’s thank you to everyone in her life writ large. The album is home to plenty of the kind of house bops you’d expect, topped with her husky, soulful tones, but there is some experimentation, too. On Genuine, she sings over a crisp, 2-step beat co-produced with UK garage legend MJ Cole. “I’ve explored quite a few sub-genres of house in my music before, but I wanted there to be more variety,” says Jazzy. “MJ Cole is obviously iconic over here, and it was great to have him. We sent Genuine to him and he just really put that 2-step magic into it. It was something I hadn’t really tried before.” Deeply melodic, bouncy basslines occupy much of the album’s latter tracks including Get Me Started and the Chris Lorenzo collaboration, Invisible. Elsewhere, amapiano, funky, ’90s rave and hip-house can be heard on tracks ranging from Fantasy to Funky Flow and Elevate (feat. Reggie). If that’s a dizzying array of dance, that’s business as usual for Jazzy. Dance music is, as Eales reminds us, what consumes her. She has an “amazing talent”, says Eales, not only as a songwriter and a DJ, but also as a curator. “I really do love it so much,” says Jazzy, chuckling. “From the minute I started listening to it, I felt like that, and I still feel like that now. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” Music first took hold in Jazzy’s life when she started violin lessons at school, before she began developing her singing voice. In her late teens, she taught the violin to pupils at her old primary school. But a night out in Dublin aged 18 changed everything: a lightbulb moment in which she fell in love with dance music. She was soon getting behind the decks belonging to her now-fiancé at home and playing small bookings. This was all while balancing her work with PCM, whom she’d made several songs and videos with. It was “a connecting of the dots”, says Jazzy, when Belters Only saw one of the music videos and got in touch, which led to Make Me Feel Good. Chaos Records were hot on the case. “Being a born and bred Dubliner, Jazzy’s initial audience was very localised and heavily driven by SoundCloud,” reflects Howison-Waughray. “We signed her first single with Belters Only after seeing it move quickly on the platform.” Since then, he says, Chaos has “fuelled the platform and the Irish fanbase” as much as possible. Jazzy acknowledges the label’s knowledge and resources. “I’m really close to them; it’s a good relationship,” Jazzy says of the “sound people” at Chaos. “They’re really hands-on, give me a lot of creative control, and they don’t dictate things, which you hear a lot at other labels. It all comes down to the people behind the label; I got very lucky with a good team.” With Chaos based in London and Jazzy living in Dublin, lots of group chats, calls and Zooms keep the wheels oiled – not to mention jokes about possible future collaborators. “We joked for years about getting a Calvin [Harris] collab one of these days, and then it actually came true!” Jazzy laughs. “I need to make a new mood board because Calvin was at the top.” Theo Hutchcraft, songwriter and one half of the band Hurts, linked the pair, and she flew to London without hesitation. “He was so lovely to work with and he had the vision,” Jazzy remembers. “It all got done on that day and he actually went home and got his ‘One Kiss’ microphone [used by Dua Lipa on her 2018 single with Harris] for me to record on, which was fun!” This summer, Jazzy supported Harris at his Ushuaïa club residency in Ibiza as well as in Belfast at an open-air show. Those moments still feel “surreal” and she can’t quite believe that music is now her full-time focus. But she stresses that her career “hasn’t always been a straight line”. “It was definitely a rocky road at the start,” she reveals, sinking a little into the sofa. Reassurance came from her A&R, Jack Duckworth, who told her about the benefits of signing to Chaos, even if it took some persuasion to jump in with both feet. That included Jazzy leaving behind her job at Tesco. “Cash flow-wise, it wasn’t a great time for me,” Jazzy says. “It was terrifying; my money was getting lower and so I ended up getting another job at a pharmacy, which was basically beside the same Tesco!” Understandably concerned, Chaos came to the rescue. “Two weeks went past and the label was like, ‘No, look, we want to support you,’” she explains. “They came in straight away, swooped me up from that job and gave me what I needed to put my time into the music.” A grin spreads across her face as she considers the memory. “I’m glad that I stuck it out, left Tesco and gave it a go,” she says. “I’m just so happy to call this my job – being an artist in the music industry is absolutely amazing.” Shortly after our interview, Jazzy will close out a busy summer festival season at Creamfields ahead of standalone shows in Europe and North America. This autumn, she brings her Peace & Patience headline tour to the UK and Ireland, with a homecoming show at Dublin’s 13,000-capacity 3Arena. In amongst all of that are more underground-leaning bookings coming up, such as London’s The Cause in December (“I love me a little rave cave,” she says). It’s all part of the masterplan to spread Jazzy’s music and live shows as widely – and smartly – as possible. Howison-Waughray says that Jazzy’s success on the global stage has been amazing to witness. “The audience she’s built out of the US in the last 18 months has felt like a stepping stone into international stardom,” he adds. Stardom or not, there is no sign of Jazzy’s passion for club culture dimming any time soon. “Right now, there are probably only two clubs in Dublin that are credible – Index and Block – and they’re basically running the whole club scene,” she laments. Jazzy calls for “solutions and support” from the authorities and, although she doesn’t get to go raving as much, she remains passionate about Irish talent, namechecking Tyge, Kayleigh Glynn, Jimi Latifi and ETC. “With the club scene in Dublin, there’s literally so much talent, but they don’t have anywhere to play,” she says. It’s striking how much Jazzy wants to thank or lift up the people around her. Is that, we ask, a core tenet of who she is? “That’s me in a nutshell,” she says. “Being a good person is very important to me, so is having positive messages in my music. People often tell me how it’s helped them through hardship.” Jazzy also contends that being nice doesn’t mean she’s a pushover. “I’m very easy-going, I play ball, but I do not take any shit,” she says of working with others. She also notes that, thankfully, she hasn’t felt undermined at any point, but says, “If anyone did, I’d be sure to deal with it.” That stance has been shaped by years of studio sessions, and Jazzy offers a message to her younger self. “I would literally give myself a kick up the arse, to be honest, because I remember there being a time when I was going into sessions and being afraid to open my mouth, having ideas in my head, but just being afraid to let them out,” she says. “Seriously, you can say things. Who cares? I feel like there was definitely some loss in those stages when I was so shy and stuck inside a shell.” Jazzy has developed a measured relationship with the reality of her career in general. “Being in the spotlight can be hard,” she sighs. “The world and the internet aren’t nice places, so you have to take it with a pinch of salt.” When it comes to social media, she limits her own usage and has a private Instagram account so that she doesn’t “really have to be in that world”. If social media can feel overwhelming, so too can AI and its slow seep into music-making. “I don’t like it at all,” Jazzy says. “It’s cheating; it’s lazy. If you want to be an artist and you want to make music, why are you letting a computer do it for you? It should come from the heart.” As we return to the themes of authenticity and identity, Jack Duckworth chimes in. “There’s a fine balance in electronic music between being ambitious and crossing over and maintaining credibility,” he says. “Dance music is global and we wanted the sonics to reflect that, while making sure we started and ended the album back in Dublin.” And what do Jazzy’s family and friends back home think of the pretty wild ride of her success so far? “Oh, they’re absolutely delighted,” she smiles. “But I struggle a bit with imposter syndrome, which is a big thing in the music industry. Even though I can see that I’m constantly growing… I do still struggle sometimes and that’s completely normal.” It’s why she always loves going home after touring. “You go back to your family, they chat to you, egg you on, but also bring you back to reality,” she says. As we wrap up, Jazzy remembers being asked earlier in her career if she would ever move to London. “I’m such a homebird, man,” she emphasises. “I just couldn’t do it. This album is an ode to home. Now I want to grow my name across the globe.”

“I have the itch, and I love the idea of finding something new and breaking it,” says James Wright, who was recently upped to co-head of UTA’s UK Music Group alongside Neil Warnock. In this exclusive first interview in the role, he gets to the heart of what makes the live industry giant tick, identifies the traits of a great agent and explains how the sector can solve the issues of cost, competition and the “bonkers” amount of tickets on sale... WORDS: JAMES HANLEY PHOTOS: LOUISE HAYWOOD-SCHIEFER In his new role as co-head of UTA’s UK Music Group, James Wright wears two hats – and he wouldn’t have it any other way. One sees him helping shape the future of the agency giant, while the other keeps him close to what got him into the business in the first place – finding and signing new artists himself. “I wouldn’t be able to do one well without the other,” he affirms. Wright, who was also made a partner in the company earlier this year, leads the London-based music team alongside long-standing UK co-head Neil Warnock. He joined UTA in 2015 following the company’s acquisition of Warnock’s The Agency Group (TAG). Wright moved to TAG from Elastic Artists, having served as A&R manager for jazz label Candid Records before making the shift to live music in 2009. He has only positive things to say about Warnock’s influence, noting his relationship with the Music Week Awards Strat winner runs deeper than the business. “He’s a friend first and a colleague second,” says Wright. “I’ve been with him since 2013. I was very fortunate to have a number of offers, and I decided to come to Neil because he was an independent entrepreneur.” The irony of what happened next is not lost on him. “I thought I’d never want to work for a multinational conglomerate and then, two years later, he sold the business to a multinational conglomerate,” says Wright with a smile. “But he’s a great, instinctive agent – the best I’ve ever seen. He’s a brilliant communicator, diligent, with great attention to detail on how to service artists, and treat colleagues and the ecosystem.” The appreciation is mutual: Warnock praised Wright’s “intelligence, self-deprecating humour and razor‑sharp instincts” upon his recent promotion. Does Wright recognise the description? “No, that’s too self-indulgent,” he responds. “But I am self-deprecating, that’s for sure.” At UTA, Wright’s roster includes artists such as Take That, John Legend, David Byrne, Jacob Collier, Lizzo, Underworld, The Marías, Rita Ora and Jon Batiste. A few weeks ago, he signed Laufey alongside the agency’s US team, and picked up a young Australian duo, Maden Lane, off the back of one live show. “I have the itch, and I love the idea of finding something new and breaking it,” he explains. “But I’m also incredibly conscious that it comes with a huge amount of responsibility that I take very seriously. I don’t need to do that, and I have a very happy career, but I recognise the opportunity here to do something different and build this business in a different way. I spend a lot of time helping the other agents, assistants and coordinators build their own careers.” The advice Wright dishes out is rooted in his own experience. “Without jinxing it – the longer you do this job, the better you become at avoiding the big mistakes, or at least spotting them before they arrive out of nowhere,” he reflects. “So much of what we do is down to good communication, with the artist and the business partners around them. Looking back, many of my bigger early mistakes came from avoiding difficult conversations, not listening properly, or leaving artists feeling unheard.” Wright contends that over time, he has realised that representing an artist well is really just one long, ongoing conversation with them and their team. “Most of the time, the most important part is simple: listen – and then listen properly – to what they want, need and hope to achieve in their career,” he says. The recent Laufey deal, meanwhile, illustrates the harmony between UTA’s US and UK bases. “It was a collaboration between me, [agent] Jeffrey Hasson and the rest of the US team,” says Wright. “We signed her together in one room – 14 or 15 of us in Los Angeles. We don’t look for one person to sign an artist and then distribute it out. We’re trying to build meaningful expertise around artists.” Live highlights for UTA in 2026 have included Bad Bunny’s record-breaking stadium outing, Rosalía’s acclaimed Lux Tour, Take That’s The Circus Live revival and a huge Sombr tour, as well as David Byrne’s international run – the latter representing a “bucket list” moment for Wright. It reflects a broader philosophy at the company: there is no such thing as a fixed ceiling. “I don’t think we view artists as ever peaking,” he offers. “For me, that gives the impression of sitting back and letting it all come to you. I’ve never been fortunate enough to work in that ’80s and ’90s era where you wait for a hit and then tour. I come into this asking, ‘How do you lean in and add opportunity?’ We’re always looking to grow, but we’re very fortunate. The acts that we’ve had out this year are at different parts of their careers, but are still growing in size, scale, capability and creativity. Being part of that is just incredible.” It’s a long way from where Wright started in the jazz crossover world: a decision he now calls one of the biggest risks of his career – but also the one that taught him the value of having a clear identity. “I say this to a lot of the agents here: have a USP, be distinctive,” he advises. “I certainly didn’t think I’d be working with Take That when I started off as the jazz guy. That was a risky move in my 20s. I was about the youngest person in the genre by about 40 years.” Although Wright’s roster has expanded far beyond jazz, the genre remains close to his heart. “Speaking candidly, jazz in the UK is struggling,” he opines. “There are incredible artists that come out of the genre – Laufey being one, and we grew Jacob Collier into an arena proposition across the globe, but they’re few and far between. But I am still a big supporter of it and I want to continue to sign artists in that genre.” UTA’s London operation now extends well beyond music, with investments including the acquisitions of literary and talent agency Curtis Brown and football agency ROOF. Wright’s appointment lands at a pivotal moment inside UTA’s UK operation, coming just over a year after former CAA agent Darnell Strom was brought in to oversee the London business and continued expansion into key markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Wright is unequivocal about Strom’s impact in bringing those businesses together under one roof. “I love the energy,” he says. “We’re now working much more naturally across these businesses, and we are reflecting that back to our artists by working much more freely and collaboratively. And it turns out he’s a great guy as well, which is helpful.” Outside work, Wright’s spare time is dominated by his family. “I’ve got two kids under 12, so that’s what I spend most of my time worrying about, and a partner that very rarely sees me at the moment, but that’s only for the summer,” he says. “I spend a lot of time running, because it’s the only way I can clear my head.” His kids’ obsession with K-pop Demon Hunters has left a mark, too. “When I got my Spotify Wrapped [at the end of last year], it was an incredible Top 10, most of which I wasn’t listening to,” he says with a smile. Music Week catches up with Wright at UTA’s UK base in London’s Newman Street. A replica Champions League trophy stands in the background, courtesy of footballer Virgil van Dijk, a ROOF client, next to a table football game. Here, Wright previews UTA’s new phase, explains why instinct and data can go hand-in-hand, and shares his account of an unforgettable last-minute dash to Brighton… Earlier, you said you thought you’d never want to work for a multinational conglomerate. Did you get that wrong, then? “I was arrogant to think I knew better then. I thought I’d only ever work in independent businesses. The reality is the London agency landscape is phenomenal and finely balanced between competition and variety – large or small independents always have a place. For the agent I want to be and how I want my artists to be represented, the UTA global offering is second to none and industry-leading. And I think it’s the environment an agent in 2026 needs to be in.” What will your role be in shaping UTA’s next chapter, and what will that chapter entail? “We’re artist-first, so I’ll continue to grow my roster. The culture here is the thing that impresses me most, and what we need to keep getting right; the rest will fall into place. I want to grow our talented executives into great agents. Getting that right means they build their own ability and confidence, sign good artists we can break, and then [those artists] can become the new Bad Bunny, Rosalía and Take That. By getting the culture right, we’ll attract the agents who want to build their businesses here. We don’t want to be the biggest, we just want to have the best agents, the right culture, and the artists we believe in.” When your appointment was announced, you said your focus was on signing “exceptional” artists. Who do you want to sign? “We’re in a very privileged position that we don’t have a remit where we have to focus on one location or genre. Most agents, myself included, are looking for artists that are unique and are storytellers. Fundamentally, that’s what we gravitate towards, because having an artist that has something to say is the backbone of how successful they should be.” You’ve also spoken about building a culture that is “inclusive, collaborative and accountable”. Shouldn’t that be a given for any workplace these days, or does it hint that agency culture still has some way to go? “Oh, agencies are great places, but I wish it was a given. Being in this business now for 20 years, I guess, you see how businesses grow and how they build culture, and you learn what you do and don’t want from companies. What we’re building here feels unique, and it’s exciting to be around.” So why should artists sign to UTA? “Because there’s a real sense and a real belief that we’re at the cultural crossroads, and it feels like a genuinely global offering. A lot of people talk about that, but I don’t think it’s a reality everywhere. We’re incredibly connected across our businesses here, in the US and elsewhere, and we’re constantly thinking about how to be additive to an artist’s creativity, sometimes outside the reason they’re here. An artist might come to us for their touring needs, but can fit into other areas of our business, and we can help grow their profile there, too. We try to make people feel value from a global perspective and you really feel that in the team.” Is there a common thread in the acts you choose to sign? “Being unique is a big help. When it comes to signing, I’m also trying to look for the right agents to join us, as well as artists. Having a unique offering is always going to be attractive. For a long time, artist development was something that was seen as the responsibility of labels or managers. Being able to have a unique voice and communicate with your audience are really important attributes for artists these days, because of the sheer requirement of social media and how you engage with that. So having those things are really important: a strong artist proposition, good storytellers, good creators.” Maden Lane had only played one gig before you signed them. Were you there for it? “I wasn’t – it was a colleague of mine, Brooke [Newton], who tipped me off. A manager I work with, Scott Barkham, happened to be in Australia, saw them, started working with them, and we signed them 10 days later. They’re doing something different: they have an incredible vocalist and are at the beginning of their journey. I spend a lot of time talking to agents here about why we sign [an act], because you can get carried away. We all love music – we’re wired to want to be around it – but I try to think about whether I can add value and grow the artist. There’s an element of arrogance agents need, asking, ‘Am I the best person to do this?’ Sometimes, I love the music and know I’m the wrong agent for it. But with Maden Lane, the artists they reference as favourites are ones I’ve worked with, and I know I can build their career.” UTA also houses research, analytics and digital strategy division UTA IQ. What can you tell us about that offering and how it plays into signings? “I’m sure other competitors have something similar, but effectively it does two things for us. It’s an incredible asset for signing artists at any level. And it’s a group within UTA with insight into how artists are growing on social media and digitally, which we use to highlight areas of an artist’s business that are underdeveloped, whether we’re signing them or already work with them – gaps in touring or business they may not even be aware of. We look at fan data and trends, find synergies between artists and other areas, and use it to talk to promoters about where artists sit on festival bills, showing evidence when our data says they’re bigger in a market than the promoter thinks.” Have you been shocked by anything you’ve discovered through that? “I won’t go into individual situations, but it’s been instrumental in signing artists that are now at arena and stadium level because of information we found and shared with managers.” But do you still sign some artists purely off instinct? “Yeah. I think we should be signing artists for good reason, but it’s hard not to be an instinctive agent and to run with something you’re passionate about and to convince the world that you’re right and they’re wrong. I wouldn’t want to take that away from any agents here, myself included. We’ve just got to be smart about it.” Darnell Strom has said one of the biggest questions facing the industry is whether the age of the global superstar is fading. Is it? “I don’t think so – not from a touring or music perspective, which is the area I feel confident answering on. We’re seeing artists it’s hard to put a ceiling on – more and more pushing through large theatres into arenas, or missing arenas altogether and going straight into stadiums or headlining festivals. We’re not seeing a ceiling come into place at all.” What does Bad Bunny and Rosalía’s international success tell you about where music consumption is at right now? “I think those guardrails around what people listen to – and the way music is consumed – allow genres to naturally explode. Could a Rosalía or a Bad Bunny have had the success they enjoy today 20 years ago, when music like that needed editors to decide if it was worthy of listening to? I don’t know. So that’s one positive aspect of streaming – those guardrails have been taken off and artists can find their audiences.” Take That sold nearly 750,000 tickets for The Circus Live. How do you reflect on that tour? “The work that [Take That promoter and SJM Concerts MD] Simon Moran and [manager] Chris Dempsey and the team have done there is remarkable. We’re a small cog in a very big machine. To have a stadium show anniversary and bring it back to a newer and wider audience, I don’t think has ever happened before. It feels like a show that really started the stadium business here. Acts have always done stadiums, but when you look back at what that show originally was and what it meant to the UK, and then see what followed it, it’s truly amazing. Going forward, we’ve got a big plan that gets them out to the rest of the world hopefully next year and into 2028.” How healthy is the market for established acts? “It seems in a good place, but it’s about what you’re offering back to fans. Fans have more options, it’s noisier, and some older artists aren’t as connected on social media as younger ones, so that point of connection isn’t as sticky. You need a strong proposition to really connect – that’s why you’re seeing more anniversary tours or concept tours and things like that, which are mechanisms to re-engage the fanbase.” Do festivals still serve a purpose in building artists? “That point of discovery for fans feels like it’s drifting away a little, and more [towards] the algorithm and social media. You still get great ‘festival moments’, but using festivals to drive awareness seems to be less effective these days. If you can get the right artist at the right festival at the right time, you can change a whole arc of a career, but there seems to be a shift going on in where festivals sit in the ecosystem, which is difficult for the ones that are struggling.” What’s the single biggest issue facing live music now? “Cost. And competition. It’s bonkers how many tickets are on sale over summer. Attracting audiences to grassroots venues is going to be key. We need small venues, clubs, gig rooms in the back of pubs to craft an artist’s career, and I want the general public to go to more of those shows [to ensure] they survive.” How about something that people aren’t talking about? “We’ve got a responsibility as an industry to make sure that we’re representing what fans want to see and hear. That means the continued effort to have diverse bills and make sure that we aren’t always just considering what’s going to affect the bottom line. We have to challenge ourselves and sometimes the audiences. Sometimes, we need to have an understanding that we have to take a risk and take an audience along with us.” Do you think ticket prices have reached a tipping point? “Most people I speak to are looking for shows to sell out, and the price point to be representative of the quality of the product. Meeting at that crossroads is what we try to do. But these shows are incredibly expensive to pull off – to tour the globe has never been more expensive. If you spend enough time working at it, getting the price point right, the evidence is there that these rooms are selling.” In the wake of success for Sam Fender, Olivia Dean and others, how do you see the landscape for new UK talent? “Seeing Olivia Dean and Sam Fender go comfortably into stadiums or multiple arena shows is great, but it’s noisy out there and it takes longer to break artists than ever before. It feels like a real slog, where some of the traditional avenues aren’t there and the choice available to the consumer is huge. But it’s great to see it when it happens. I’ve worked with Sasha Keable since 2015 – she’s still classed as a developing artist, but she’s got her biggest tour next February and March, and that will be a huge step up for her. It’s important that we keep trying to grow UK talent.” Do agents get a fair crack of the whip? “I’ve never experienced being cut out of a deal by one of the big promoters as an agent, and to be fair, I’ve never experienced it at an agency. I think there’s an element of uncertainty about it. But to me, agents are not necessarily paid for being the conduit a deal runs through; we’re paid for our expertise. We’re paid for our opinion, and I know from speaking to the artists I represent – and the way that we train our agents here – we’re the experts, and artists talk to us like that. They want to have our opinion. They need our opinion. They want our advice. That’s what we’re paid for. That’s certainly the feeling I get at the moment.” What is the deal-making world like at the moment? “Look, we’re in a great place. If you’re doing your job properly, you’re building artists’ hard ticket value – that’s fundamentally what we try to do. We’re building a direct connection between an artist and the fan, and that immediately gives an artist a good sense of their worth. By doing that, it puts you in a really strong negotiating position. But this is a finely balanced ecosystem: I want the partners that we work with to be partners on an artist’s career for as long as humanly possible. So I need promoters to make money from my artists. I need UTA to make money from our artists, and I need the artists to make money from their shows. Without those things happening, the whole system doesn’t really work. So it’s important that we have a robust and strong negotiation over fees, but it’s got to be something that works for the whole ecosystem.” Can you share your ambitions for the future? “To continue to sign and work with great artists and to grow the roster, first and foremost. But a close second, is the team here. We’re very fortunate to have people like Darnell, people like Jules [de Lattre, agent] as a partner in the business with us. We’ve got great young agents coming through. We’ve hired some great new agents. It’s about growing this team, growing the culture, being supportive of that, allowing them to grow their businesses. Make them feel that they’ve got a strong and long future with the company, and the rest will fall into place.” What’s the most surreal moment you’ve had in this job? “When you’re lucky enough to spend your time around creative people, surreal moments are never far away. Some of the more bizarre stories are probably best left untold, but there is one that started surreal and became genuinely rather special. I was at an intimate birthday dinner for an artist, which I was very fortunate to be invited to – we were all asked to stop what we were doing and make pasta necklaces. Not something I’d ever done before, but it turned out to be a brilliant leveller, and transformed everyone into giant kids for the evening.” To finish, tell us the funniest thing that’s happened to you on the road... “A couple of years ago, I was driving to an important show in Brighton. Thanks to my relaxed approach to time management and the decision to leave London at rush hour, I was very late. I arrived at Brighton Dome just as the show was starting, only to discover my name and credentials weren’t on the stage door. I expressed my feelings in what I’ll generously call an animated fashion. After a great deal of flapping – by me – they gave me an AAA pass and let me in. I navigated the backstage warren, failed to find the tour manager and went to the side of the stage to catch the end of the opening number – of a band I’d never seen before in my life. My band was playing the most important gig of their tour up the road at another venue.”

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