BRITs Critics’ Choice winner Jacob Alon has underlined the importance of the music industry’s responsibility to care for artists in a new interview with Music Week.
Alon was unveiled as the winner of the award earlier this week, seeing off competition from Sienna Spiro and Rose Gray, who are profiled alongside the Scottish singer/songwriter in our new edition – starring Leigh-Anne on the cover – out now.
Alon was speaking alongside manager Hamish Fingland and Island EMI president Louis Bloom, who led the team that steered last year’s debut album In Limerence to a place on the Mercury shortlist and widespread critical acclaim. Alon was heralded by BBC Radio 6 Music and became the first Scottish act to be named BBC Introducing Artist Of The Year.
“Under capitalism, artists are a commodity,” Alon told Music Week. “They are the product – or their work is the product – but you’ve got to protect the means of production.”
Alon noted that signing to a major label is something that contrasts with their “anti-capitalist values”, adding that Island EMI embodied exactly what Alon and manager Fingland wanted from their extended team.
“They understood and were sensitive to that, and they just completely trusted me and Hamish to do our thing,” Alon said.
Going further on their industry experience so far, Alon said: “I have a policy that I don’t work with arseholes, it’s good c**ts only and we’re constantly working to try to protect and to nurture that.”
“When an artist knows that they are backed fully, they’re able to tap into who they really are and bring their truest ideas to the surface,” Fingland added.
Island EMI president, Louis Bloom, spoke glowingly of Alon, saying that, “from the moment we first heard Jacob and their otherworldly voice and their mystical lyricism, we knew we were in the presence of an extraordinary artist”.
“Jacob deserves all the plaudits and accolades they are getting,” Bloom added. “I’d also like to give a big shout out to Jacob’s A&R, the brilliant Jack Greengrass, and Sam Flynn and Tash Cutts for their marketing prowess on the project.”
Fingland told Music Week that he sees “the most important part of artist management is creating an environment where artists feel genuinely safe and supported”.
“Breaking through comes not from pushing them in a certain direction, but from giving them the confidence and space to be themselves without hesitation,” the manager added.
Alon said that recognition from the BRITs “is a lovely thing”, adding, “it’s lovely that the work can be honoured in this way. Hopefully it’ll mean more people will discover it.”
The artist did, however, reveal how their heritage is prompting further consideration of the accolade.
“I’m conflicted because I’m Scottish and I’m Irish, not British,” Alon stated. “I’m an anti-Unionist. I want an independent and unified Ireland and I want an independent, unified Scotland. I always feel strange when things are labelled as British, or Scottish artists are put under the wing of being British.”
Speaking about the Scottish scene in which they nurtured their talent, Alon outlined ways in which it could unearth even more new talent.
“It’s like stray hairs at some points,” Alon said. “It’s not got a really strong pulse, which it could have. I found my community amongst the oldies in folk bars in Edinburgh, and they were so supportive. But in terms of playing live, there are two venues you can play in Edinburgh, really, if you’re starting out, and the bigger ones are harder to get gigs at… It could just be so much better.”
“There are so many beautiful people in Scotland creating and making music, especially within queer spaces,” Alon added. “There are a lot of really boundary-pushing, bad-ass people in the club spaces in Glasgow – like Ponyboy – doing really amazing things. I just wish there was more of a finger on the pulse of a music scene. I feel like it’s fractured.”
Alon – whose labelmate Lola Young got five BRITs nominations, as did Olivia Dean – also highlighted Edinburgh’s Knockwood Studio, a community hub for local grassroots musicians, as “a beautiful place that makes me really proud”.
Looking back on the making of In Limerence, the campaign for which also saw Alon perform on Later… With Jools Holland, the singer said the label “gave no notes”.
“I really respect and love a lot of the people there, and the history of that label, too, is one that’s important to me,” Alon added. “I think it maintains a lot of the values that it started out with, which I respect.”
Read the full interview in the new edition of Music Week, out now. Subscribers can read it online here.
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