I started as a DJ in a bowling alley — proper start. Moved on to a local bar, then to booking the early shows for artists like Kate Nash, Bastille, Example, and Bombay Bicycle Club before they broke.
That got me to Barfly and Mama Co, where I booked and promoted for years. FKA Twigs, Rizzle Kicks, Soko, Darwin Deez, Lianne La Havas, Bear's Den, Anna Calvi — those were the rooms I was running.
Then Rob Hallett brought me into Robomagic. That's where I worked with Craig David, Nile Rodgers, Christy Moore, Loudon Wainwright III, and others — a different scale of artist, a different level of decision-making, and where I really learned what a properly structured deal looks like from the inside.
I took a sabbatical and trained as a counsellor — which sounds like a swerve, but it's the training that most changed how I work. You learn to listen carefully, ask better questions, and separate what someone is saying from what they actually need. More useful in dealmaking than any spreadsheet.
I came back through Bakery Boy Music, then RUN in 2024, and started Changing Tides Music in July 2025.
The through-line: I've always been on the artist's side of the table, and I've always been independent. I've never worked for a major label. I've never worked for a fund. I've never worked for a company whose commercial interest was different from the artist's. That's not marketing — that's the actual job history.
Distribution was the missing piece.
Working directly with artists, managers, labels and catalogues made something obvious: distribution can still feel either completely self-service or unnecessarily corporate.
Wavy grew out of that work. It is the distribution side of the same approach — independent, hands-on and built around actual conversations. The aim is not to force every project into one package. It is to understand the music, the catalogue and what the artist or label is actually trying to build.