‘Within the first assembly, she principally instructed them to f*** off and that she didn’t want them – however they got here again for a second assembly.’


All managers ought to discover themselves a shopper who appears to be like at them the way in which Becky Hill appears to be like at Alex Martin.

As Hill picked up her Artist of the Yr prize on the 2022 Artist & Supervisor Awards, she gave Martin, her supervisor for over 10 years, maybe the best endorsement an artist has ever given the individual taking care of their profession.

“You’re a shining instance of precisely the way to work on this trade, placing your ethical compass on the forefront of every part you do, and it’s been inspiring to observe you’re employed so tirelessly at making this fucking factor work,” she enthused.

“You had been the primary man I wasn’t associated to that confirmed me true belief and loyalty. I’ll always remember that day you stated you’d fund me dwelling in London out of your individual pocket, as a result of nobody else noticed your imaginative and prescient for this. I couldn’t have finished any of [this] with out such an trustworthy, loyal and bold individual.”

“We obtained off stage and somebody stated to her, ‘Jesus, it was like being at you and Alex’s wedding ceremony!’” laughs Martin a couple of months later, as he meets MBW at Polydor, Hill’s label. “I requested to current that award to her as a result of I actually needed to publicly recognise her achievements. However I didn’t anticipate the speech that she gave again. She’s an absolute pleasure to work with.”

Hill has made a behavior of endorsing her supervisor on such events – she famously obtained an especially reluctant Martin up on stage at BRITs 2022 when she gained Greatest Dance Act (“The most important second of her profession and she or he selected to share it along with her supervisor – wow, true class,” Martin marvels) and shouted him out once more in February when she gained that BRIT for the second 12 months in a row.

However the duo’s path to the highest wasn’t at all times rooted within the glitz and glamour of awards ceremonies; in actual fact, it’s been one, lengthy, odds-defying slog.

Alex Martin’s music profession started as a boy chorister at Westminster Abbey, however, after learning music at Newcastle, he determined extra modern sounds had been the place his true passions lay. Within the 2000s, he utilized for a job on the Marquee Membership, then present process one more relaunch in London’s Leicester Sq., even travelling again from Greece for his interview.

“I assumed it was my huge break,” he laughs. “However it was truly an interview for bar workers!”

Nonetheless, he took the job and it proved to be his manner in. Quickly, he was selling nights with Charles Baybutt on the Marquee after which throughout London below the identify Curious Technology, that includes the likes of Ed Sheeran, Tinie Tempah and Jessie J, and launching branding and consultancy divisions.

After realising the enterprise wasn’t fairly geared up to step as much as the highest stage, Martin moved on and launched his much-less-imaginatively named administration firm, AM Music. He had some success with French digital wonders Caravan Palace after which sought out some extra skilled companions, linking up with former Island Records boss Marc Marot, then at SEG. Marot launched him to Talvin Singh, who Martin began managing, and when Marot moved to the Crown Expertise & Media Group, he introduced Martin over and launched him to founder Mark Hargreaves. 

AM partnered with Crown in a JV and right now Martin praises Hargreaves and Marot for “exhibiting unimaginable belief” in his imaginative and prescient (Crown and AM stay companions to today). However, again then, Martin was nonetheless searching for “a younger expertise that might change the chart of my profession”. And at some point in 2012, he discovered her. Though, admittedly, so did thousands and thousands of different individuals, as Becky Hill’s powerhouse vocals captivated viewers of the primary UK collection of The Voice (she’s nonetheless by far the present’s most profitable graduate).

“The most important second of her profession and she or he selected to share it along with her supervisor, true class.”

Martin obtained so far as writing ‘Name Becky Hill’ on his to-do record, however – nonetheless brief on contacts and music trade information – had no actual concept of the way to pay money for her. Till Hill – who was being mentored by Crown shopper Jessie J – simply occurred to ring the Crown workplace and a receptionist requested a passing Alex Martin how she ought to direct the decision.

“I couldn’t consider my luck,” he laughs. “I stated, put her by way of to me and, 11 years later, we’re nonetheless working collectively. It was a Sliding Doorways second – if I’d gone for a piss 5 minutes later, she would have been put by way of to a distinct individual!”

When Hill was eradicated within the semi-finals, Martin steered she didn’t use the present as her calling card, however as a substitute went again to fundamentals. It labored, and after changing into the featured vocalist and co-writer on large hits akin to Wilkinson’s Afterglow and Oliver Heldens’ Gecko (Overdrive), Hill was able to launch as a solo star.

Besides her single flopped and she or he was swiftly dropped by Parlophone. Martin and Hill rebuilt her profession as an unbiased artist till she was able to re-enter the main label system at Polydor in 2017. Since then, Hill has been unstoppable, changing into the third most-streamed UK feminine artist on the planet (behind solely Adele and Dua Lipa), scoring smash singles, successful album (Solely Trustworthy On The Weekend) and an absolute streaming monster of a compilation (Get To Know); and taking part in stay in all places from Studying Competition to the ultimate of the ladies’s Euro 2022 match.

Martin – a supervisor with an uncommon openness concerning the errors he’s made alongside the way in which – says AM Music will at all times stay a boutique firm, however it’s additionally been rising from its one-man-band origins, with extra workers and massive plans for shoppers akin to fast-rising singer-songwriters Alex Hosking and Beren Olivia. However, finally, Becky is the Hill that Alex Martin is ready to die on.

“As I grew a little bit bit extra astute in my older years, I started to know that unfold betting wasn’t going to be an acceptable manner ahead,” he says. “I made a decision to essentially focus on discovering distinctive expertise I needed to work with and that needed to work with me, after which focus in
on that.”

Need to know extra? Look this fashion…


How did you assist Becky make the leap from having hit songs to being successful artist?

We simply adopted our noses. Once we had been doing quite a lot of collaborations, they weren’t actually the finished factor, they had been sniffed at. On Afterglow, we intentionally didn’t credit score Becky on the file, as a result of we needed individuals to listen to that voice and go, ‘Who’s that?’ Wilkinson’s staff, who had been implausible to work with, had been very comfortable to go along with it as a Wilkinson file. 

I bear in mind listening to it on Radio 1 and the calls coming in – ‘That’s a tremendous tune, Wilkinson’s implausible – however who’s that vocal?’ Possibly that was a naïve play, however it actually paid off – and you’ll by no means get that now. You’ll by no means not credit score somebody on a tune since you needed to get that noise round it, however that was OK to do again then.


What went incorrect with Parlophone?

We’d had large success throughout the summer time [of 2014], and we had a tremendous tune that everybody was a long-standing admirer of, known as Dropping, that Becky had written with MNEK. We’d launched a taster single [Caution To The Wind] and had been trying to launch Dropping as her first correct single. 

We launched it in November, and I look again at that second with a little bit of unhappiness from a managerial viewpoint, as a result of actually I ought to have been stronger and stated, ‘That ought to come out prime finish of subsequent 12 months, when the bottom’s much more fertile.’ I’ll be trustworthy, I simply didn’t have that have. So, we went with it in November, it slunk into the chart at No.56 and from that stage on, it was a wrestle for no matter cause. 

Parlophone had spent a good amount of cash at that stage. I ought to have had a stronger technique lined up for my artist, so I apologise for that to Becky publicly now. It’s not simply that after all, there are many totally different components as to why it didn’t significantly work at that second, however that might’ve helped. However in a perverse manner, I’m glad it turned out like that.


It should have been robust to come back again from being dropped?

It was actually exhausting to offer her that information. It was simply earlier than Christmas and I stated, ‘They’re not going to be shifting ahead, however we’ve obtained some actually nice music, I’m going nowhere.’ And I’ll always remember what she stated to me: ‘I effing nicely hope not, I by no means even thought you’ll! Now you’ve put doubt in my thoughts…’ [Laughs] I used to be like, ‘I shouldn’t have stated something!’ 

So it was Becky, myself and a few of my staff actually flying by the seat of our pants and simply doing it. That’s the music trade: you at all times need to assume in your ft and learn to do issues. I do know lots about plenty of issues, fortunately, however I don’t know every part and I’m not an skilled in something. I might by no means consider my very own press to assume I’m, as a result of the tempo of change within the trade occurs so rapidly. You at all times need to study
and adapt.


Presumably she was fairly reluctant to return into that main system?

Fully. She’d been burned and it was painful. However the aspiration we each had for her profession was at all times to do one thing nice. You are able to do that with a label of your individual, however if you’re a feminine pop artist, it’s a problem to run your individual label and really get to the very prime by way of
world recognition. 

We would have liked the main label system to assist us get there. It was going to take a sure sort of persona and label to get us again on board and Polydor was that label.


What satisfied you it might be totally different this time?

Within the first assembly, she principally instructed them to fuck off and that she didn’t want them – however they got here again for a second assembly, in order that was in all probability it to a big diploma! They actually believed in her and recognised she hadn’t been given a good crack of the whip. 

It’s about who’s going to do an excellent job, however it’s additionally about trusting individuals. And having been by way of the expertise, we had been in a a lot better place to drive the ship ahead. We by no means felt we had been on the behest of the label, we had been true companions. 

“Polydor actually believed in her and recognised she hadn’t been given a good crack of the whip.

Becky and I really feel snug bringing our personal technique and concepts, but in addition take heed to their concepts and technique and we work collectively to make it occur. That didn’t occur on the earlier label, not as a result of they weren’t receptive significantly, however we by no means approached it like that. 

Once more, that’s in all probability my error. Becky has made a profession out of being shrewd and having the ability to see the best strikes, listening to the recommendation round her and I without end respect that. She’s an extremely clever lady and her capacity to see the wooden from the timber has enabled us to foster an excellent working relationship and belief, but in addition to progress her profession.


She says you’ve at all times been trustworthy along with her. Have you ever by no means even instructed a little bit white lie?

Properly, it’s about the way you talk sure issues, slightly than in case you talk them in any respect. And it’s about timing, if you talk sure issues. However I’ve by no means stored issues from her or lied to her. Full transparency has at all times been absolutely the hallmark of our relationship. 

There’s quite a lot of scorching air on this trade and I’m not eager about that. I want telling it how it’s and being extra black-and-white about issues. She likes element for her personal stage of consolation and to really feel that she is aware of what’s happening. 

It’s inconceivable for her to know every part – and that’s not her job; that’s for me to know. However she does know every part she needs to learn about her profession. We undergo each contract and, truly, that accountability makes you a greater supervisor. 

I can genuinely, hand-on-heart, say I’ve at all times taken choices in the most effective pursuits of her profession, each single step of the way in which. 

There have been some alternatives the place I’ve gone, ‘I don’t assume we must always try this’, and she or he says, ‘I don’t know many different managers who would flip that down’, as a result of they arrive with huge pay packets or no matter. 

And I’d say, ‘I simply don’t assume it’s applicable for you’, and, if she says she needs to do it anyway, that’s high quality! That’s a great basis for a
working relationship.


When you might change one factor about right now’s music trade, what wouldn’t it be and why?

It might be the burdens and pressures placed on artists to ship an infinite quantity of content material for a number of platforms. It’s not particular to 1 platform, however that’s an actual problem in the meanwhile. 

The music trade adjustments, it’s modified over the ten years I’ve been working with Becky and the 20 years I’ve been working in music and you progress with that. 

However what I’d actually wish to see is – for artists who aren’t native to sure platforms or aren’t snug with delivering the quantity of content material demanded of artists now – for us to restructure the narrative as to what a profitable or related artist is, if they’ll’t or don’t need to try this. 

You possibly can nonetheless achieve success in case you’re not doing that. It’s a systemic change that should occur however I’m undecided it can or can.


And the place does Becky go subsequent: world superstardom?

The MO from day one was at all times, let’s see how far we are able to take this, with out ever compromising on what she needs to do. 

Rewind 11 years and she or he had that voice, her writing, her exhausting work – all of these issues can take her to the very highest stage. We’re at an unimaginable stage now, however we don’t simply need to be within the prime 1%, we need to be within the prime 0.1%.


This article originally appeared in the latest (Q1 2023) issue of MBW’s premium quarterly publication, Music Business UK, which is out now.

MBUK is available via an annual subscription through here.

All physical subscribers will receive a complimentary digital edition with each issue.Music Enterprise Worldwide

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