Welcome to The Strategy Journal, a resource for aspiring creatives to get real advice from the most unique and experienced voices in the industry.
Today I’m in conversation with Tomas Fraser, former Grime and Dubstep editor for Mixmag (lockdown’s meant that the print version is currently on a hiatus), publicist for Atlantic Records, and big bossman at prolific record label Coyote Records.
Moving from Manchester to London at the age of 7, Tomas has been writing about music for a decade since graduating at Leeds University. He started a blog called Uncle Albert Says in January 2011 and would reach out to grime DJs and MCs to interview them in any way he could. At the time, not many writers were covering grime in long-form detail, but with enough persistence Tomas found his niche, and eventually publications like Sonic Router (an influential electronic music blog from the 2000s - 2016) and Clash magazine commissioned him to cover this UK-born music which was to enter it’s renaissance a few years later.
Inspired by labels and parties like Butterz, as well as being in contact with so many producers and DJs, he chose to start up Coyote Records in April 2012. Being sent so much amazing music with nowhere to go, Tomas took the opportunity to curate his own releases and took a small loan out to press his first record - Mella Dee’s ‘CTRL’ with fresh remixes from Mr. Mitch, Baobinga, MA1 and Grievous Angel. When you’ve got a project rolling, it’s very surprising - but insanely humbling - to realise how many people are willing to help you succeed. Music producer and DJ T Williams connected him with mastering engineer Beau Thomas, and South London Ordnance (now producing as Portrait) put Tomas in touch with Cargo Records who globally distribute Coyote’s output. The label is now 8 years old, 33 releases deep, and still going strong.
After being approached by Mixmag in 2013 to cover their grime and dubstep section, Tomas felt confident enough to leave his job as a teaching assistant in Mitcham to pursue a career in music full time. His story proves that hard work and consistency really does pay off, especially if your passion is never compromised. In December 2013 he got his first job in music PR for a company called Listen Up, then later joined WFS Communications in 2016 where he worked on publicity for artists like Denzel Curry, Riz Ahmed’s Swet Shop Boys and labels like Local Action. Most recently he’s joined the team at Atlantic Records to work with a range of super diverse artists from Twenty One Pilots to Lil Uzi Vert.
This lockdown, Tomas has been living a pretty quiet life: watching a lot of football, reading and writing, and trying to spend a lot of time switching off from work.
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In terms of thinking, learning and doing, what has lockdown allowed you to do?
It's allowed me to re-evaluate what's important, both in a personal and work capacity, but also reminded me how much time there is in a day. Office work can instil bad habits, but I was also massively impacted by my commute which is no longer an issue — removing that stress and having that time back has made a huge difference to my productivity and also my own state of mind. I also moved into my own flat just as COVID-19 struck and I'm now living on my own for the first time since university, which has been a big but welcome adjustment. It's been a very difficult time for lots of people, myself included at points, but it has allowed me to reconnect with myself and the person I am.
Lockdown's allowed a wealth of new content to be created - how do you keep up with feeling inspired and why?
I moan a lot but I do actually really enjoy working. I'm motivated by doing a good job, by doing things properly, executing things as best as I can and ultimately, helping people. I'm fortunate enough to have a job that allows me to work closely with artists and teams and over time, I can see the benefit of the work I've put in. It's a good feeling to know that you are part of someone else's story, a cog in a machine that allows artists to be successful and hopefully to flourish, both as musicians and as people.
In terms of new content, I think downtime affects people in different ways. For some, it can be intensely draining and suck the creativity right out of people, whereas for others, it has the opposite effect. With the extra time afforded to me by being at home and also, as I mentioned, actually really enjoying working (I know I need more hobbies), I saw a gap to start writing again and so I started a new website, Polymer, which I named after a track I released on Coyote Records last year ('Polymer' by Utah?, which was one of my favourite tracks of 2019).
I watched some YouTube tutorials, familiarised myself with Wordpress and bought a domain name for 12 months with simple hosting features and built a basic site which looks smart and functional. I had the idea to interview one artist or creative a week, as a way of rebooting my old blogging format but also as a chance to speak to somebody new each week, and then build long-form interview pieces from those conversations. Because it's agenda-less — I have no real editorial tone, in-house rules or other writers or editors to compete with — the interviews feel less 'promo run' and more authentic, because they are for the most part conversations you'd have in a pub or a cafe; it's essentially just story-telling I guess, which I really enjoy.
What advice would you give to young creatives looking to crack into the industry post lockdown?
I have talked to so many young creatives over the years and the majority have far more talent than me, but limit themselves because they're anxious about not getting it right or things not happening overnight. With that in mind, the biggest and most important piece of advice I can give to anyone looking to break into the industry is to go for it — what is there to lose? If you are good at something, have a passion for music and want to be a part of things, go for it.
Aren't getting commissions? Set up a platform, commision yourself. Aren't hearing back from your favourite label? Forget about it, do a bit of research and start your own. Aren't getting booked to take photos? Be creative, take your camera, start an Instagram page and go and take photos of your friends, of real life, anything. Find a niche and don't stop plugging away until people start paying attention, instil a value system in yourself that sees your art become the end in itself, not a means to adding followers or making money. If you're good enough and care enough, other people will start to see and feel that too.
Which brands/publications/organisations do you think are doing the most right now?
No Signal has been a phenomenon during lockdown and become one of the breakout success stories of this entire period. It's more important than ever that we listen to and amplify black voices and to know that a team of young, hungry, black industry creatives have clubbed together to create a DIY radio broadcasting platform so viscerally popular and culturally enriching is amazing. They have a fundraiser to help them find and run a studio space post-lockdown running at the moment, which people can donate to here.
BRICK Magazine have also been led by example recently, putting their latest issue on pause for three weeks to think about how best they could address institutional racism and the situation in the US. As a result, they've chosen to donate 100% of profits from Issue 09 to Black Lives Matter causes both here and in the US and have also been strong and decisive in their messaging.
I'd also like to shout out Plastician too, who spent the first few weeks of lockdown lifting spirits with his tri-weekly quizzes, DJ sets and production masterclasses via his Twitch channel. They definitely helped me feel connected to the outside world and part of a community, especially during those early weeks in April, and he put a lot of time into creating new and original content for each broadcast — they're still running on a weekly basis.
And one final shout must go to KXVU, a grime producer and DJ making waves with his YouTube channel, Cub Cam TV. He's been putting together daily schedules of bitesize radio-style interviews with DJs, producers, label owners, designers and creatives on a breakfast show he's run every morning for 14 or so weeks via YouTube, which is no mean feat. Props to him.
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