How Saffron is making music tech fully inclusive

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Saffron, a non-profit based in Bristol, is on a mission to make the music technology sector a level playing field. This cornerstone of the music industry – which encompasses everything from DJing to record production – is in desperate need of fresh talent to redress its woeful gender imbalance. At present, just 5 per cent of the music tech industry comprises women, non-binary and trans people, and less than 1 per cent of these are people of colour.

Education is key to spearheading change, so Saffron runs courses introducing participants in Bristol, Birmingham, London and online to four key areas of work: music production, DJing, radio production and sound engineering. It also lobbies for greater inclusivity and collaborates with music industry bodies to open doors for women, non-binary and trans people. Saffron’s founder and Director Of Culture, Laura Lewis-Paul, takes a positive and fundamentally pragmatic approach. “You don’t want to feel like it’s always an uphill struggle because that doesn’t help anyone,” she says.

For this reason, she is selective – and to an extent tactical – about the organisations that Saffron partners with. “There are people in the industry who are willing to make changes but don’t know how to go about it – we really want to be working with them,” Lewis-Paul says. “But I always think in terms of: ‘If we’re going to partner with five organisations, I’ll make sure four are willing and one isn’t.’ I think it’s important to work with people who are less willing because that’s how you identify the deep-rooted, systemic changes that are needed.”

Lewis-Paul founded Saffron in 2015 as a record label, but over time its objectives have evolved and expanded. “We’re really focusing now on how we support our beautifully diverse and inclusive group of creatives through the industry,” she says. “When a space is very dominated by a majority, that majority sets the culture. So it’s not just about helping women and non-binary people to enter this sector, but ensuring they can thrive and have their voices heard. Women and non-binary people of colour need to be able to enter a studio knowing they won’t have their hair touched or feel othered by the cis white men they’re working with.”

Because Lewis-Paul has a background in community development, she has always placed this idea at the heart of Saffron’s offering. In addition to the 369 workshop and teaching sessions it provided in 2023, Saffron laid on 23 live events where students could meet industry leaders and make connections. Last month, Saffron held a galvanising summer party at Bristol venue Strange Brew featuring performances from SHEIVA, a British-Iranian artist who is the latest Saffron Records signing, and alumni including Marla Kether and guest host and programmer Private Joy. “It was a really beautiful space where we showcased the artists we’ve been developing to the Saffron community and to the industry at large,” Lewis-Paul says.

Kether, a bassist, DJ and producer who joined Saffron’s artist development programme in 2021, is now making great strides in the music industry. In June, she performed on Glastonbury’s hallowed Pyramid Stage as bassist in Little Simz‘s band, an experience she describes as “incredible and really surreal”. She adds with a laugh: “When you look out at a crowd of 200,000, there are just so many people that they all become blobs!” Since then, Kether has been playing bass on tour with Loyle Carner while readying new music of her own to release through Saffron Records.

Kether has been a member of the Saffron community since 2020 and her journey with the organisation underlines its holistic approach. For a time, she worked as its digital marketing officer, but she can trace her current career trajectory back to a Saffron Members online workshop with DJ-presenter Tash LC. “I only started DJing in lockdown, so I was very new to it, but everyone at that session was very like-minded and really loved electronic music, so it pushed me to continue,” she recalls. Kether started making demos, attended one of Saffron’s Tech Dissect workshops where she was given constructive feedback, then applied for a place on its artist development course.

Since then, she has hardly looked back – she released her debut EP ‘All That We Have’ through Saffron Records last year, gets regular live work through her booking agent, and is planning a trip to Brazil so she can collaborate with her favourite baile funk musicians. “Saffron has given me so much confidence in going from just being a session musician – something I’ve done since 2018 – to having a solo career where I can really hone my own musical identity,” Kether says. “Without the artist development programme, I would probably still be on the fence about whether I should even do a solo project.”

Looking ahead to the near future, Lewis-Paul says she’s keen for Saffron Records to release “a lot more new music”. She is also enormously excited about the ongoing artist development programme, which continues with financial support from viagogo. But above all, she wants to make the music tech sector more welcoming to people from underrepresented communities. “It’s our responsibility to ensure the next generation can enter a positive working space,” she says. “I’d really love to organise a retreat where we bring music leaders and our creatives together so they can work on curating that space for the next generation. It’s about building change from the ground up.”

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