Meet The Mentors for Abbey Road Equalise 2022

Meet The Mentors for Abbey Road Equalise 2022

We’re offering you the chance to sit down with a member of the Abbey Road team for a special 1 to 1 session as part of this year’s Abbey Road #Equalise festival for International Women's Day!

You’ll be able to ask questions and gain invaluable insight on getting started in the music industry. Just send a short video to equalise@abbeyroad.com explaining who you’d like to meet, the reason why, and what you’d hope to get from the session.

 

Meet the Mentors:

Isabel Garvey

Managing Director

After many years in senior executive positions at major labels, Isabel Garvey joined as managing director of Abbey Road Studios in 2014.

Named by Fast Company as one of their Most Creative People in 2019, Isabel has led a complete transformation of Abbey Road Studios. During her time at Abbey Road, Isabel has been instrumental in modernising the Studios and bringing in the next generation of studio talent - with the addition of three new studios, the launch of digital production services and Abbey Road’s educational branch, Abbey Road Institute, whose London school is now based at Angel Studios in Islington.
 
Isabel also led the launch of Europe’s first music tech incubation programme, Abbey Road Red, which has seen over 15 successful music tech businesses graduate, which between them have raised over $90m and have a collective post-money valuation of more than $450m.

 

Fiona Gillott

Studios Manager

Fiona took over as Studios Manager in 2016, inheriting the infamous studio bookings diary and pencil. Having worked at Abbey Road for two decades, Fiona knows the studios and their loyal clients inside out, working with artists such as 1975, Dua Lipa, No Rome, Hamzaa, Coldplay, Madonna, Bon Jovi and Kendrick Lamar and on various films such as the Star Wars and Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings trilogy through to the more recent News of the World, Chicago 7, Midnight Sky and the new Marvel blockbuster, Black Widow to name but a few.

Fiona has been integral to the development and launch of a new era at the Studios, with the addition of an award-winning Mix Stage for film sound post production and two new recording studios, designed to make the magic of Abbey Road more accessible to emerging artists and exceptional talent.

Studying Media at the University of Brighton, led Fiona into a career in music working across international music press & promotions and artist management. Walking through the hallowed doors of Abbey Road allowed her passion for recorded music to become part of her every day.

 

Karim Fanous

Innovation Manager

A seasoned music tech specialist who's spent the last nine years navigating the leading edge of the music industry, following a decade cutting his creative teeth as a self-taught engineer, producer and performing artist. Karim has stood at the line where technology meets music his whole life, observing how it all fits together, experimenting, learning and helping others navigate the changes.

Karim heads up Abbey Road’s incubator programme, Abbey Road Red, and feeds into the wider innovation initiatives at the studio. At Abbey Road, he is marrying a thirst for exploring cutting edge technologies in music with a long career studying music, musical instruments and the music industry. He feels lucky and that his journey to Abbey Road Red has brought him full circle in his life.

Prior to joining Abbey Road, he was Head of Research and Insight at music business strategy and information company Music Ally, where he lead special projects initiatives and fed into all non-editorial activities from research and due diligence projects to strategy and digital marketing workshops and training to business development for tech companies, labels, PROs, management companies, artists and other music industry stakeholders.

Through his work at Music Ally and via invitation he has presented keynotes and moderated and sat on panels at major music industry events from SxSW and Midem to by:Larm, Resonancia Colombia, Amplifica Chile and at academic institutions including New York university.

He has consistently worked with executives at all levels of the industry from artist, engineer and manager to founder, C-suite and board level.

 

Lucy Launder

Head of Mastering

Lucy began her career in the music industry with Zomba / Jive Records, based in a portacabin in Willesden before making the journey to the next door portacabin to join Silvertone Records, who had just signed the Stone Roses. She started helping out and quickly found herself working full-time for Andrew Lauder and Judith Riley. Working with the Stone Roses, Lucy watched them grow from pub venues and Manchester’s Hacienda through to London’s Alexandra Palace and Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom before ending in Spike Island.

Lucy also worked on John Lee Hookers’ The Healer album, Buddy Guy, The Men They Couldn’t Hang and an eclectic mix of artists, before moving to This Way Up, another label started by Andrew Lauder, financed by Polygram Records. At the new label, Lucy worked with Otis Rush, Ian McNabb, Redd Kross and Tindersticks, before taking a year out to travel the world.

After a spot of temping, in 1997 Lucy started at Abbey Road Studios in the role of Mastering Bookings, with a brief to improve efficiency, services and pricing. She inherited a team of mastering engineers led by Chris Blair, one of the Top 3 engineers at that time and since then has built a department with a reputation for quality. Over the years, Lucy has launched the studios’ online mastering service, as well as developing internal talent, promoting Christian Wright, Alex Wharton and Alex Gordon, and enticing experienced mastering engineers such as Geoff Pesche, Miles Showell and Frank Arkwright to Abbey Road.

 

Mark Robertson

Head of Brand & Communications

Mark has built a career in brand strategy and marketing communication, primarily for entertainment brands. Ten years leading the brand marketing team at HMV, Waterstones and Fopp, led to a move agency-side as brand development director, planning creative strategy for film studios including Disney and Warner Bros.
 
After moving to Abbey Road Studios in early 2016, Mark set the first ever brand strategy for the iconic studios during a period of significant transformation. He introduced a new brand vision designed to challenge perceptions and reposition Abbey Road, alongside new programmes such as Abbey Road Lock-In, Amplify and Equalise. He has been responsible for creating a new era of accessibility and inspiration, adopting a content strategy, placing artist and studio insights centre-stage, and establishing closer artist relations including the appointment of Nile Rodgers as Abbey Road’s first ever Chief Creative Advisor.

 

Hannah Fitzgerald

Head of Marketing at Abbey Road Institute

Hannah joined the team at Abbey Road Institute in 2016 and heads up the marketing for the flagship campus in London as well as working with the Institute’s international schools across Europe, South Africa, Australia and America.

Having grown up in Newcastle, Hannah moved to London after graduating and gained experience in an ad agency before moving into sales and marketing in education, working at some of London’s prestigious art and design schools. Always looking for new opportunities she moved around before joining the Abbey Road team to follow her ambition to work in the music industry.

In her role at Abbey Road Institute, no two days are the same, from events and studio sessions, working with prestigious GRAMMY award-winning guest lecturers, capturing content and creating campaigns to web development, SEO, CRM and supporting and training colleagues overseas. What is consistent across her role, is working with up-and-coming creatives and championing the work they do.

 

Jo Changer

Studio Bookings Co-ordinator

Jo Changer is now the bookings co-ordinator at Abbey Road. Her previous roles were studio manager of Sarm, Westside and Lansdowne Studios and she also worked for over a decade as an orchestral contractor for Isobel Griffiths Ltd. Having started her career as an assistant engineer she has a wealth of experience from the ground up on all sides of the studio recording business.

 

Rachel Holmberg

Senior Head of A&R for Decca Records

"I first started out as day-to-day manager of Jamie Cullum after a short internship at his management company. I then moved to Quest Management (now known as Maverick) where I was an artist manager of Marina & the Diamonds as well as some other development artists.

An opportunity then came up to become the Producer of BBC Introducing, the new music initiative at the BBC, that gives opportunities to unsigned and under the radar talent. I was desperate to get back into working with new talent again and especially in a role where you could make people’s dreams come true by getting their music on the radio for the first time, or booking them for the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury. I worked my way up to Production Manager and then to Editor, which ran the department.

Now I am responsible for the department that finds and signs new talent at Decca. We oversee the process of writing, recording and delivering music to the wider label. Managing the team of A&R’s including the A&R coordination team, as well as leading projects of my own.

From exciting development acts such as Steam Down through to heritage acts such as Dame Shirley Bassey. No day is the same!"

From zoneout.com written by Paul Dougherty

 

Jack Lintorn

Brand & Communications Manager

Jack developed a passion for the art of songwriting and production when studying Music Production at University. Since then, his music has been played on BBC Introducing among other shows.

He currently works at Abbey Road Studios managing social media and advertising, working with artists and producers to capture insights about the production process. He helped establish the Production Hub as a space for musicians and producers to harness Abbey Road’s expertise and services as well as playing a key role in Abbey Road’s Equalise and Amplify campaigns.

 

Jay Picasso

Artist Relationship Manager

Jay joined the Abbey Road team at the start of 2022 to lead our artist relations work.

An established producer and songwriter, Jay has a deep understanding of the creative process having worked with artists and producers at all levels. After early involvement with JUMP OFF & ILUVLIVE, Jay was quickly embraced by the UK Grime, Hip-hop & RnB scene.

His early placement of the theme song for Charlie Sloth’s Rap Up show (BBC) quickly escalated Jay’s involvement within the UK television industry. With current placements on Netflix, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Networks, Jay has become a well-established composer and bespoke music producer.

His role at Abbey Road involves establishing and maintaining relationships with artists, managers and labels along with being an ambassador for the studios, championing Abbey Road as the ultimate creative & inspirational destination for new and existing talent. Jay is currently developing an artist hub, leading on artist relations within brand partnerships and continues to provide a personalised service for clients across the studios.

 

Send a short video to equalise@abbeyroad.com explaining who you’d like to meet, the reason why, and what you’d hope to get from the session.

 

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