During this year’s Women In Music Awards, we inducted a host of trailblazing industry executives into the Roll Of Honour, in association with TikTok.
They join a huge list of previous honourees, including some of the leading names from across the business like Kanya King, Sarah Stennett, Emma Banks, Charisse Beaumont, Rebecca Allen, Stacey Tang, Shani Gonzales and Mary Anne Hobbs, who have been selected since the awards began in 2014. The Roll Of Honour aims to shine a spotlight on the variety of individuals who are leading the charge in the music industry and consistently using their platforms to support women, or focus on empowerment and gender disparity.
Following the Women In Music Awards ceremony, Music Week is running Q&A interviews with all of this year’s Roll Of Honour inductees.
Cherish Kaya began her career as a teenager playing keyboards in Essex group Ipso Facto, who were signed to Mute Records and played shows with the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Korn, The Horrors and The Last Shadow Puppets. At the same time, she worked behind the counter at Rough Trade West on Portobello Road in West London, where she expanded her industry network.
Following a stint playing Florence + The Machine during the Lungs tour, Kaya joined the A&R team at Columbia, before partnering with XL to launch the Kaya Kaya Records imprint, which later became fully independent, releasing music by Glass Animals, Show Me The Body and Rejjie Snow and more. Kaya – who would also play bass in Juce – later signed Jockstrap, taking on management duties at the same time. She started managing Self Esteem after meeting Rebecca Lucy Taylor in 2017, consulting for a range of artists and labels at the same time.
She joined Dirty Hit as A&R manager after meeting founder Jamie Oborne in 2021, and has since signed Saya Gray and Kelsey Lu and played a key role in the launch of dh2, The 1975 drummer George Daniels’ new dance imprint.
Today, Kaya’s work spans artist development, creative direction, strategic A&R and management, with a focus on grassroots values and championing voices from the margins and stories that need to be heard. Here, in celebration of winning a place on the Roll Of Honour, she talks to Music Week about building long-lasting careers, being guided by instinct and her deep respect for artists.
How do you feel about joining the Roll Of Honour?
“I’ve always felt like a bit of an underdog and I’ve never had any recognition through awards or nominations, so it feels very exciting and emotional that it's finally happened! I was recently watching Ladies First: A Story Of Women In Hip-Hop and an interviewee said, ‘I know I’m dope, they’ll catch up’ and it resonated! [Laughs]. Thank you for adding me to a whole host of so many other inspirational and brilliant women!”
How do you look back on your early years getting into the industry?
“I saw the industry from so many angles in the first five years of my now 15+ year career: shop worker, session player, artist, manager, scout... it was total chaos. But I wouldn’t change it for a thing, because it was full of passion and great music. I look back impressed I survived but also with a real feeling of gratitude that I got to experience London when it was brimming with great venues, club nights, music scenes and culture. There was a club night nearly every night back in 2009, if you know you know [laughs]. I felt like I was really part of something and it formed who I am, taste wise and personality wise today.”
Did you have a mentor at that stage?
“I was very lucky to work at a record shop where so many icons, both artists and label heads, came in to buy, listen and talk, music. Nigel House, Sean Forbes and Chris Summers from Rough Trade West let me be my fabulous self and spend most of my working hours chatting and absorbing all the legendary personalities and stories that came through the door. Richard Russell who started XL, Paul Jones, A&R at Rough Trade, Ed from the Chemical Brothers, Frank Tope of both DJ and industry fame, Philippe Ascoli who gave me my first A&R job, Goldie when he was filming Celebrity Come Dine With Me… I wouldn’t say they were mentors per se but definitely people who gave me opportunities and inspired me over the years. What I will say is, sadly, it felt like a very male dominated space!”
This event shines a light on inequality and deep-seated issues around this area in the music industry. Can you share any personal experiences or points of view on this topic?
“I find it quite tricky to talk about this for a few reasons. I fear that focusing on ‘being a woman’ further separates us from the fact I’m a great manager and an A&R – I want to be recognised for my work, not my gender. But I totally appreciate that yes, sadly there is still inequality and misogyny everywhere I turn. I am so lucky to work with so many artists and colleagues speaking openly and honestly about this, and slowly but surely, things that were not okay and were completely normalised say, 10 years ago, are now being spoken about and challenged. There are too many personal experiences that come to mind, I’ll save those stories for my book – and my therapist!”
We forget how brave we have to be to navigate this industry and thrive
Cherish Kaya
You’ve worked in the independent sector for much of your career – what does the idea of independence in music mean to you personally?
“I work in music because I love music. I love art, I love artists, I love culture, I love to be inspired. Independent labels get to nurture all of the above without having to worry too much about market share and numbers! [Laughs]. I of course want success for all of my artists, it goes without saying how important it is that as many people as possible hear the music we’ve all worked on, but absolutely never would this be at the expense of the work and creative itself. Culture first, commerce second! And of course being independent gives me more freedom to sign the weird and the wonderful, the boundary-pushing artists – without having to worry about cutting it down to 30 seconds for a TikTok moment or worrying about whether ‘that old guy from that label that time’ thinks it’s gonna make him richer. I’m doing my job to work with legacy, life changing artists.”
What are you looking for in new acts as an A&R?
“I am looking to learn. I want to hear something I’ve never heard before. I want to be furthered and inspired every day at work. Otherwise I’d have stuck to being an artist or session player myself. I want to work with the true greats. Artists and songs that in 50 years I’ll be listening to with my great grandchildren. It sounds so simple, but with the way that social media is changing how people discover and consume music, it’s important to remember that at the core of the greatest artists of the past 100+ years, are extraordinary people. I’m reaching for the artists who are hyper intuitive, pioneering, ‘voice of a generation’ type artists.”
How does your work as a manager inform your role at Dirty Hit and vice versa?
“Everything in this industry is all encompassing. I feel very involved in the A&R of my management clients, I’m a creative manager – I’m not so good with admin sadly! – and have wonderful artists who want to collaborate and respect my creative opinion. Dirty Hit has been such an amazing space for me to grow into my taste even more, and luckily Jamie Oborne and I have similar taste and ethos so are very aligned on what we want to sign and what kind of artists we want to develop. I think in general, they’re both very emotional jobs as its artist facing and all about relationships and trust.”
Can you tell us your biggest achievement so far?
“That’s like asking if I have a favourite child! Project-wise, I’m proud of them all. I’ve signed a few artists to Dirty Hit we haven’t announced yet which I’m beyond excited about. Watch this space. But my biggest achievement is surviving! There were times I thought I wouldn’t make enough money to pay my rent, or no one thought I was any good at my job, or I got fired… It’s been a journey to say the least. Taste is objective and in a white man's world, it's hard to continually back yourself when, a lot of the time, people want you to fail. Self Esteem spoke much more articulately about this during her Ivors speech. We forget how brave we have to be to navigate this industry and thrive.”
What advice would you offer young women entering the music business?
“Trust yourself! Doubt is real! Keep going! We work with creatives and opinions and lots of men [laughs], and it takes a second to get to know how you work and how to fully back yourself in a male-dominated industry. That, and work really hard. Live and breathe the job, we’re lucky to work in music, it’s a dream. Appreciate it.”
And what’s the best advice you’ve ever had?
“Maybe it's not advice but Madonna once said, ‘I think you can be defiant and rebellious and still be strong and positive,’ and that really rings true.”
Is there a young woman you'd like to shout out who you think is a rising star in the industry?
“All of the women of Dirty Hit, Amber Chen and Perdi Higgs to name just two. Such a strong team, I love working – and drinking cocktails – with them all so much.”
Similarly, is there a female artist whose music you're enjoying right now?
“I signed Saya Gray to Dirty Hit a few years ago and I’m still so, so obsessed with her work. She’s a generational artist, her music sounds like an entire universe in a song. She's the whole package too, producer, master player, witty lyricist, cat lover. I still feel very inspired listening to her first project, 19 Masters.”
Finally, what’s your biggest lesson from this year so far?
“The world is a shit show, music is a gift. Even when things are hard and you don’t think it’s worth it, it is.”
PHOTOS: Louise Haywood-Schiefer / Panni Renner
