Oct 15, 2019
Member Spotlight #19: Maddy Salvage, Senior A&R at Ninja Tune, Los Angeles
Maddy Salvage has made her own place in the electronic music industry, and is now playing a key role in the ongoing growth of leading independent music label, Ninja Tune, from their office in Los Angeles. [Interview by Alix Vadot]
Growing up in Brighton, UK, Maddy was surrounded by DJ culture early on. “I always knew that I wanted to work within labels or on the business end of the industry,” she says. Studying history in University was just a detail for her, and she entered the music business as soon as she could. After a “Foundations to Music” course at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, and a few internships in public relations and marketing during her university years — the first of those being at Skint Records, Maddy landed her first job with Ninja Tune at the young age of 22. The path was not as smooth as it seems, she recalls.
“I remember a point where I was just new to London, I think I was interning at a very early Vice, in their digital department from 9 to 5 (where nobody would talk to me for hours). I would leave there and head up to Camden to work a bar until 2 in the morning, after which I’d get the N29 night bus back to my house. It was tough; I didn’t have any financial support”.
But all worth it. Maddy now describes Ninja Tune, who she has kept close ties with since this first job, as family.
Maddy has seen this family grow since she joined them in 2008. Back then, the label was still a quite small independent label, with no more than 10–15 people in the office. Even now, with more than 80 staff worldwide, the family feel has not disappeared. Maddy did spend some time away from Ninja Tune working with Universal Music and Red Bull Music Academy, but quickly realized that the large corporate world was not for her. “I get emotionally attached to my work, and I wanted somewhere that would appreciate that side of me, where I could really make a difference.”
“I get emotionally attached to my work, and I wanted somewhere that would appreciate that side of me, where I could really make a difference.”
Maddy is now a leader within the label and speaks with great pride of the label’s achievements over the past five years. With four Grammy nominations this past year, a #3 record in the U.S. Billboard, 2 recent Mercury Prize wins, the label has defied the sudden changes that have come with the digital age and has remained dedicated to being, first and foremost, a label by and for artists. The fact that “it never really feels stagnant” is an important factor behind why Maddy has stayed there so long. “It’s a good time to be part of the team.” Her evolving relationships with the artists and staff at Ninja Tune have helped her land a position as Senior A&R today.
Such relationship building is indeed crucial to a successful career in A&R. According to Maddy, this is both exciting and one of the hardest aspects of being on this side of the industry. “I think it’s incredibly hard […] to have boundaries between your work and your personal life,” she says, especially in A&R, which “requires [her] to be out at unusual hours, to form relationships with people constantly, to create bonds and maintain trust with artists.” Maddy describes herself as a very social person but, even for her, creating these boundaries has been difficult, particularly before the #MeToo era. It’s only now, eleven years after first entering this world, that she feels she has found a way to do this.
“Despite all the noise surrounding mental health, particularly with women and music, in today’s climate, […] there are significantly less senior female A&Rs than men, and I still feel like I run in to issues because of my sex on a fairly regular basis.”
An ability to say no, a general confidence in one’s worth, and an awareness of the need to detach oneself from one’s work, says Maddy, is crucial to mental health, and absolutely necessary for a balanced career in A&R. To give an idea of how much times have changed, exactly, Ninja Tune started with very few women on the team, and now has a North American branch ran, essentially, entirely by women (the staff is also roughly 75% women). “As someone who has suffered with anxiety and depression, I’m thrilled that people are talking so much more openly about this topic now than they were ten years ago.”
Another tip for a career in this industry? Confidence in your own abilities, trusting your own decisions, and questioning yourself. As a woman growing in this profession, this can be more difficult than it sounds. Maddy has struggled with this and only realized how truly talented she is about three years ago. “When I was 16 and living in Brighton, I used to be terrified to go in to record shops and buy vinyl for fear of the shop owners mocking my purchases; I used to pretend that they were for my boyfriend or male friends.” But taking a look at her track record and the artists she’s signed, Maddy came to the conclusion that she was indeed very good at what she does, and that a trust in her own taste was essential to her success. This did not come immediately, though. “For a number of years, when I was still junior, I felt like my taste and my opinion didn’t matter, that I didn’t know enough about music, I wasn’t enough of a music nerd, which was of course utter nonsense. Knowing to trust your own taste, your intuition and your own decisions is so key.”
“Knowing to trust your own taste, your intuition and your own decisions is so key.”
At the same time, Maddy says A&R professionals need to question everything. She ties this philosophy back to her studying in history in University — “I’ve always really relied on hard evidence.” Passion is important, of course, but looking at hard facts is also part of the decision-making process. “You need the ability to detach yourself from your own tastes and look at what is happening outside of the industry and the tastemaker press.”
In the time Maddy has been with Ninja Tune, the label has taken deliberate risks with its roster, helping it successfully evolve into the label that it is today. Starting as a left field label focused on core electronics, it now represents a variety of genres, from artists like Bonobo and Floating Points, to Sampa The Great and Little Dragon, to Young Fathers and Thundercat (via Brainfeeder Records). Maddy, a fan of all kinds of music (not just electronic), from jazz to classical to pop, is particularly excited about this evolution. She also sees it as a move that was necessary in the new music era, where digital download and playlist culture have completely changed the landscape that labels work in. As Senior A&R residing in the U.S. branch, she is excited about finding artists from all across the world, and continuing to craft the unique roster that has made Ninja Tune a stand-out label. The label continues to sign left field artists like Octo Octa, Minimal Violence and Yu Su, but, according to Maddy, “having artists like Young Fathers and Sampa alongside Jordan Rakei, Maribou State or Leon Vynehall feels not only natural, but exciting,” given the label’s eclectic history.
Maddy has also had to adapt her own working style in the digital age. In what she calls an “unglamorous” reality, she spends a lot of time on the Internet searching for new and emerging artists. “Anybody can make music in their bedroom to a really high level,” she says. Because of this, her success in finding promising artists is even more telling. Her secret? She looks for passion, most of all, but also a dedicated and organic fan base, and a strong desire on behalf of the artist to participate. Live performance is also crucial. And, of course, her great taste in music helps.
