Music can break down many barriers and unite creatives who share a passion for making something special, it can be a beautifully rich and diverse industry to work in.
However, from the outside looking in, it may feel like it can also be a difficult industry to break into. Bitesize has teamed up with 成人快手 Music Introducing LIVE to find out how some big names from the world of music and beyond took their first steps to stardom.
This 成人快手 Music Introducing LIVE Backstage session looks at the key talking-points around being LGBTQ+ and making it within the music and media industry. Our host, Jaguar caught up with musician, Lava La Rue, DJ Jodie Harsh and CEO of Gay Times, Tag Warner to chat about their experiences growing up, how they have overcome any setbacks in their career and what inspired them when they were younger.
Jaguar
Hey, everyone. I'm Jaguar, DJ and broadcaster from 成人快手 Music Introducing. I host 成人快手 Introducing Dance every Sunday night on Radio One as well as 成人快手 Introducing in Beds, Herts and Bucks. Thank you for joining us. This is the 成人快手 Music Introducing LIVE Backstage area with 成人快手 Bitesize Careers and we're going to be talking to you guys all about careers in the creative and music industries. It's great to have you here today. And of course, we've got our wonderful guests who are going to give us the lowdown on what they do and how they got started. Huge welcome to our panellists then Lava La Rue, Jodie Harsh and Tag Warner. So when you were younger, who or what inspired you to do what you do. Lava, let's start with you.
Lava La Rue
I definitely grew up very inspired by Prince, Grace Jones and Joan Jett. Um, yeah. Those are the three people who growing up, I looked at them and I was like鈥 I鈥 I wanna exude that same kind of like that energy and always kind of related to their stories and a lot of things they said. But, yeah, like鈥 I was also just really lucky to come from an area that has, like a huge like first generation Caribbean like community and you know, they kind of mix with like the local working class like British people to create fusions like Scar and like Two-tone and you know. I grew up around like a lot of that sort of like reggae and Dub enthused with like Punk and stuff. Yeah that really sort of like inspired me as a person and I ended up just making stuff that was like a fusion of like鈥 My queer idols and then, like my local like Jamaican, Caribbean, British sort of like music, all in one sort of melting pot. Yeah.
Jaguar
Sick. Jodie. What about you?
Jodie Harsh
I loved Madonna when I was growing up and Grace Jones as well. Like strong powerful women were my role models. And also what I liked about them, they were so multi disciplinary: films, music, creative projects, fashion things they were involved in. I was always quite interested in people that do tons of things and I think I've sort of taken that on with my鈥 my career as well.
Jaguar
Tag, what inspired you to do what you do?
Tag Warner
Um. So, I'm a bit like Jodie. I think I was inspired by people that did loads of different things. I love the fact that in my role, I get to do like editorial, music and then like loads of business stuff and then I get to speak to people in the community and I do loads of stuff with the charity I found called AMPLIFUND, which is all about LGBTQ communities in different global environments in places like Irak and Jamaica. It's so varied. So for me, I was always inspired by people I think I could see were interesting in lots of different things. So I was a bit of a weird kid like I loved like actors and musicians, but I never felt like inspired by them in the way that my friends would always talk about, like, Oh, my God, don't you just love this person and I could never get my head around that the obsession with the famous celebrities, but I would like weirdly look at like my brother and be like he's so good at doing that particular thing and like also being academic and like doing good at sports. I found like my inspiration came from people closer than me which I really enjoyed and I think that did so much good for me. I always felt a bit weird at school because everyone else would just talk about their favourite like actor was on TV or like Disney Channel.
Jaguar
Um Tag, what were you like at school?
Tag Warner
Oh. Oh, my God. I was so quiet. I'm quite like weirdly introverted as a person. I can be super confident on this and when I'm talking to people. But when I'm in my own space, I'm really really quiet and at school, I didn't speak a lot. And I was the only out gay kid ever in my school's history according to one of the teachers that had been there for like fifty years. So, I was in a school about one thousand five hundred boys and was the only gay out kid and I came out when I was fifteen and it was a really awful experience. I'm not going to dress it up, but I also don't love the whole pity party for myself, cos I'm鈥 I'm good鈥 and that it made me who I am today. And it's probably one of the reasons I do what I do.
Jaguar
Jodie, what were you like at school and yeah were there any subjects that you loved that have helped you do what you do now?
Jodie Harsh
Yeah, I was definitely the different kid when I was at school. I was into sort of things that everyone else in school was not into and I was very much into like drama and creative things and things like that which my school didn't really cater to at all until later on. But while I was at my first secondary school, I just put my head down and got on with the work. I was thinking how was maths ever going to be relevant. I'm gonna be fabulous when I grow up. How's maths? How's English gonna help me? Trust me. I use maths and English and all the really basic things, so much in my everyday life and I think I probably use everything that I studied apart from home economics because I still can't cook. I can't even put a salad together. So not great at that subject鈥 and then when I was thirteen, after a couple of years of begging and pleading and probably crying. My parents actually got me to a full time stage school in London, which I was, which I was boarding at, which was my saviour because it gave me the space where鈥 we've got a grant by the way because I didn't grow up with any money around. So luckily we managed to get me into this school and I could finally鈥 I was around kids that were like me. I kind of found my tribe, as it鈥 as it were. And I could just be creative all the time for the second half of the day. First half of the day, we had to do the boring subjects which I use more than I use the other half of 鈥 the ballet, no鈥
Jaguar
Ah ah ah.
Jodie Harsh
Um. I was brought to this place where I was able to be, um, to sort of grow my creativity which I'm very, very grateful for and also as an LGBTQ person, I was put in a space where I was able to be a lot more my authentic self at school.
Jaguar
Nice. I'd love to see you doing a ballet is it called a "pirouette" where you turn around whilst was DJing.
Jodie Harsh
A "pirouette"?
Jaguar
A "pirouette" Yeah.
Jodie Harsh
I'll work that in.
Jaguar
Next. Next live stream. Ah! Ah! Um Lava, what were you like at school and yeah, any subjects that you particularly enjoyed that鈥
Lava La Rue
No, I just go off what like Jodie said I think it's so important to create like grants and bursaries in the鈥 in creative schools for people who don't come from those backgrounds because I think one thing that's really difficult, especially if you're a queer kid that comes from a working class background, is being in the spaces that can facilitate because creativity is quite expensive. When you're at a young age you know, a lot of creative courses, whether you are doing like art or like or media or whatever, a lot of it can require you to bring in鈥 you need, you know, like the paints, you need the resources or you know if you want to go to a stage school like. That's actually quite extensive and what that often means is that a lot of the queer kids who thrive in those fail are creatives who come from better backgrounds, do you know what I mean? They come from like more middle class backgrounds which means the ones that do well later on life. It implements that cycle and I definitely think I saw that like growing up when I was in school. I did like Media, English Lit for GCSES. I really wanted to go to like some sort of like performance school, theatre school, but I didn't really have any kind of support or money or anybody there who could sort that out for me. So I ended up not having to do. Well I couldn't do that either though I really wanted to. Luckily, that meant later on when I started doing my like when I'd just finished my GCSES, I created my own little like community of other artists, our age and we'd just done our GCSES and we were like all right, let's just all put in and do our own little thing. Do you know what I mean? And create for ourselves. But before that I was a bit of a drifter in school, really. I like went from one group to another. I wasn't鈥 I was a bit too like boyish for, like the group of girls and then 鈥 chilling with all the boys. But then the moment, I started developing two lumps on my chest, suddenly, they'll oh you can't chill with us now. You're鈥 You're different and I was like, Oh, where do I fit in with all of this, then, yeah, I just kind of did my own thing, really, but because of that I really got into poetry. And English Lit really helped that because when I studied that in GCSES, I really had to break down a lot of old poetry books that I wouldn't necessarily be drawn to and made me realise how much power was in words and a lot of these people we were studying in English Literature I looked into them and a lot of them actually came from quite queer backgrounds, but they never told us that in school and a lot of the people you study, you'd be surprised what their actual backgrounds were and some of them were a bit, you know, rock and roll but like in the Victorian times. But yeah no English Lit was wicked and Media really helped. And it's funny, I actually used to revise on Bitesize as well so. Yeah. Full circle!
Jaguar
And we got some questions from the Bitesize audience. So Lava, this one is for you what Halloween costume have you been most proud of?
Lava La Rue
That's such a good one. Um. Probably, I dressed as the鈥 one of the protagonists from Fifth Element, LeeLoo was really cool, it was the little person who goes mul-ti-pass I really enjoyed that because it was just like a crazy whole sci-fi adventure, but I probably think I do like a really good cowboy situation. Every year. And so that will definitely, that's either gonna be the vibe this year or the latter yeah.
Jaguar
I was going to say Halloween is approaching so. Ok, thank you. Jodie? What has been your most embarrassing moment on stage?
Jodie Harsh
Oh I've fallen off a stage backwards. Yeah. Where was I? I was in Australia DJing and behind the DJ booth, there wasn't much stage on it. So I'm a DJing in a pair of heels quite conscious that if I step back a bit I might go flying. I get lost in the music and I get quite in the moment. And I just toppled backwards. I felt flat on my back. I was fine. It was just embarrassing.
Jaguar
Oh, my God, I'm glad you're OK.
Jodie Harsh
Don't worry. Do you know what I think saved me? All this hair.
Jaguar
Yeah, you know what that probably did save you to be fair.
Jodie Harsh
I've got another鈥 That's for another time.
Jaguar
OK! Um Tag, what setbacks have you had in your career and how did you overcome them?
Tag Warner
Oh, that's a very good question. Um. So many and I think that it's so important to take any setbacks and what you might deem as failures as things that help you to understand what success feels like. And also to understand what you really want to be doing because sometimes I find myself getting disappointed by like a setback and just really focusing on the fact that I can do something or someone didn't give me that chance and maybe like, not even that long, a few weeks or months later I'm like, I don't even care that much, but you care so much about just doing it and overcoming something. So some setbacks are really helpful because you kind of take a second to go, did I actually mind if I like, if I wasn't either, you know, top of the class or get my cross country gold medal? And then you're like, maybe I don't care that much. Maybe I realise that I'm not a cross country runner and I think like for me that's really important because sometimes the idea of something is better than the reality. And so when you kind of go into different areas of your career and I get to do so many different things I see what other people do. And I'm like I should be doing that, I should be doing that. And constantly compare myself to other people. And sometime I do it and don't really do very well. Oh I didn't鈥 I didn't really need to do that anyway, so I think it is helpful, it should help you understand what you want to be doing for you.
Jaguar
Yeah, definitely. Really good advice there. Thank you guys for sending those questions. We've got one final question for all of you now. What advice would you give to your teenage self? It's a big one. Who wants to go first?
Lava La Rue
I think, literally, what Tag said I cannot agree with so much more like. When you do something wrong or when something doesn't go right is a real reality check of what you really want to be doing. You know and that can happen with you know getting something like in terms of like a test or something academic wrong that could do with your like social groups or wherever. When something goes wrong, it's like, OK, are these the right people I need to be around? You know is this sort of like routine I'm doing, is that correct is it always like a reality check and you know it will bring you to the place that you need to be you know. So I used to like, when I was younger, I used to look back at, like, loads of mistakes I was doing and like when you're like screaming into a pillow from embarrassment and kicked yourself and you're like Aaaah!! Now that I'm a bit older, I don't have those same regrets any more because everything that happens, was like that was meant to happen because it took me to that place and led me to these people. It made me understand and learn this and put me in that direction. So that's the best advice I could really give because it really helps me.
Jaguar
Brilliant. Tag?
Tag Warner
Um, my advice would be I guess as you're running like through life, the more that you looked to your left and your right to see what everyone else is doing the slower you're going to travel and you might also look over your shoulder so many times that when you turn back around you've gone completely off course. And you're not actually running to where you want to go any more because you're running in a different direction without realising. And for me, that's like the advice I would have given myself at a younger age. I'm so happy that I feel like I carry a lot of that now and I think about that a lot, but I see so many people who I get to meet and they tell me so much about what everyone else is doing and not what they're doing. And what they're doing for themselves. And what they are excited about and what makes them who they are and constantly comparing themselves to other people. I think because of social media, that's so much going to social media there's brilliant things about it. I think that's when those sides that really can pull people in and they get so obsessed about what everyone else is doing all the time. So try as much as you can. Don't look over your shoulder too much. It's always good to see what's going on around you, of course and support other people, but don't get distracted by it to the extent that it just completely pulls you off your own course because we're all destined to do incredible things. So I would kind of give myself that advice.
Jaguar
It's really great advice there. And finally Jodie. What advice would you give to her teenage self?
Jodie Harsh
I would say never underestimate the power of hard work and putting in the hours. If you wanna make something really amazing that a lot of people see and that really touches people. Ooh. there's a lot of鈥 You have to really put in the hours. I kind of describe myself sometimes as a duck swimming along the water just putting this up and underneath, like paddling like this. Oh, my God. Trying to keep it together. Wherever you look up to and admire in the creative industry, they look like it's all just falling into their laps and they just making it be. They put in years of work and so many hours of work. I'm up to 3am sat in front of my computer a couple of times a week, you know. It's鈥 Never underestimate the power of hard work and I've also met so many people along the way who could have made so much more impact if they had just worked a bit harder and didn't expect it all to fall into their lap because it doesn't happen like that for anyone.
Jaguar
Yeah. Guys, thank you so much. That was brilliant. And that brings us to the end of our session. Hope you guys watching found that useful and interesting and inspiring. I certainly did. Remember, 成人快手 Bitesize is here to help you if you have any questions about school work, the future, careers exams. You can find us at 成人快手 Bitesize, using the #成人快手 Bitesize on the socials. Panellists, thank you so much for joining us today. And we'll see soon. Bye. Bye
Lava La Rue
Lava La Rue is a visual artist, rapper and musician from London. Founder of NiNE8, a collective of musicians, artists and creatives, Lava took a DIY approach to making music, releasing several EPs including LAVALAND and LETRA.
Everything that happens is meant to happen, it took me to that place, it led me to these people, it made me understand and learn this and put me in that direction. 鈥 Lava La Rue
Jodie Harsh
Jodie Harsh is a DJ, music producer and promoter. Famous for her DJ sets at clubs, festivals and A-list parties across the globe, Jodie has played alongside Diplo, Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia, bringing her unique energy to the dance floor.
I loved Madonna when I was growing up, and Grace Jones鈥 strong powerful women were my role models. 鈥 Jodie Harsh
In 2019, Tag Warner became the youngest ever CEO of global media brand, Gay Times. Tag is passionate about LGBTQ+ issues, especially for younger people, and hopes to amplify queer voices through new content initiatives and partnerships whilst in post as CEO.
As you鈥檙e running through life, the more that you look to your left and right to see what everyone else is doing, the slower you will travel. 鈥 Tag
成人快手 Music Introducing LIVE ran from Saturday 24th October 鈥 Saturday 31st October 2020 and Bitesize brought you five backstage discussions with special guests.
One of the UK鈥檚 biggest, fastest-growing and most exciting music industry events, 成人快手 Music Introducing LIVE supports and inspires the next generation of industry leaders, artists and creatives. The 2020 event took place digitally for the first time, with a week-long programme bringing audiences an array of live performances, masterclasses, talks and interactive sessions featuring high profile 成人快手 Music Introducing alumni, industry experts and special guests.
To find out more details and watch all the panel talks, check out the 成人快手 Music Introducing LIVE page.
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