describe their own roles as “a thrilling opportunity”, but acknowledge that they are experienced, relative to many.
Cappelletti started out in her native France, before taking various PR roles in the UK. She was drawn to Ninja “because working in the international department means doing everything, marketing, promotion, distribution… I’ve learned so much from my colleagues along the way.” Ives has worked at Ninja Tune “for nearly nine years” he says, checking the date on his computer. He started out at Brighton-based indie FatCat, where he and another intern took care of 12” subsidiary Palmist (“all these DIY punk garage bands who weren’t quite big enough for the main label”). He joined Ninja Tune as a digital assistant and worked his way up to his current role. Both acknowledge the opportunities and experiences created by others: the new iteration of Big Dada is their chance to pay it forward to the next generation.
Queen Bey: New Big Dada signing Yaya Bey
I’ve just not seen much. I hope it’s happening behind the scenes.” Big Dada, then, is stepping out as a force for change. Ives is calling for the “cross-pollination of ideas between majors, indies and other companies” so that education and building towards new standards takes place across the whole industry. Cappelletti agrees wholeheartedly.
“Although it’s difficult to think it took a whole civil rights movement for it to rise, it’s reassuring and empowering to know this community exists,” she says. “It is there for professionals and executives like us from now on. Young people starting their careers know they have a community of like-minded individuals behind them.”
The label’s team, working across London and Los Angeles, are just as passionate (see box, right). Project manager Ashley Yun says the industry needs a shake-up and wants Big Dada to, “build an ecosystem where people are genuinely in this to help each other, put out great music and do what we love without being held back by out-of-date standards.”
S
promoting, it’s about creating structures of support”
isn’t just “This
Alex Ives Big Dada
What they are trying to do with Big Dada, says Ives, is create upward mobility by putting employees in roles where they can make decisions and gain experience, to bring about long-term change. Within the world of indie labels, Ives believes, there are entry-level jobs, but then the funnel rapidly narrows: there are fewer senior roles, making progression difficult.
“Say company A has three executives, but they are the three people who started the company,” he says. “That creates a barrier.” With Big Dada, Ives continues, “You can come in and learn your chops in a real-life situation. It’s not a training programme, it’s real, you can make decisions, and you can affect a campaign.” The aim is to create opportunities for growth.
“Part of the joy of an indie can be that the label has the same ethos it had 25 years ago, but it’s also what can make change slower,” Ives says. “You could have everyone at the top quit and replace them with a bunch of new people, but that’s not really what people want. It isn’t just about promoting, it’s about creating structures of support.”
Ninja Tune employs around 70 people, with 17 of them working at least some of the time on Big Dada. There are six execs, including Cappelletti and Ives, who have “hands-on campaign experience”, including social media and A&R. The others come from areas such as accounts and publishing. “If we have an accountant who wants to learn project management, then that’s great, they can start here,” says Ives. The hope is that staff will use their experiences to move on to senior roles in the wider industry. Cappelletti and Ives
68 | Music Week
et up in 1997, the label has always skewed towards hip-hop, the hip-hop-influenced and electronica. Founder Will Ashon, then a journalist, convinced Ninja Tune boss Peter Quicke to release Misanthropic by Alpha Prhyme, a collaboration between DJ Luke Vibert and MC Juice Aleem. “It was just an experiment,” Ashon told The Guardian in 2009. It worked and Big Dada started to grow. Although its roster was varied, the label gained a reputation for acclaimed releases by artists who wanted to talk about the world beyond dancefloors and love affairs. Roots Manuva’s Run Come Save Me made the Mercury Prize shortlist in 2002 and Ty’s Upwards followed in 2004. In 2009, Speech Debelle’s Speech Therapy won outright. Although there was a contretemps between artist and label over its promotion, they reunited for 2012’s Freedom Of Speech. By 2014, Kae Tempest (then known as Kate Tempest) was nominated for Everybody Down and Edinburgh band Young Fathers won with their debut Dead. Such critical attention was impressive.
“I think it’s the ability to find artists that are doing something groundbreaking, that are really able to express themselves,” says Cappelletti. “But that doesn’t have to be out there, to be obvious, it can be subtle.” A groundbreaking artist, she says, can remain groundbreaking when they are five years out of the underground if their creativity and right to self-expression are championed by the label. A label should “do something that is tailored and sensitive to the artist’s world and just add some industry expertise to it.”
Our fathers: Young Fathers
musicweek.com
PHOTOS: Andres Norwood, Getty, Shamil Tanna
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