What do you do?
I am a bit of a jack-of-all-trades music industry professional. Currently I work at Music Victoria as a Project Coordinator for the Music Victoria Awards (voting closes 6 November; winners announced 9 December), which is a role I have been happy to be in for the last two years.
I also work in label operations and bookings at Wantok Musik – not-for-profit record label which represents Indigenous artists from Australia and the Pacific. Lastly, I manage a post-punk band called Winternationale and am an announcer on PBS 106.7FM.
Why do you do it?
However overly sentimental it sounds, music and music culture has always been such a huge part of my life.
As a toddler, when my parents would play music I would obsessively ask them the name of the band and its genre. I realised about five years ago that working in the music industry could be the way I make a living and even when it's hard, I have never looked back.
What do you love about the city you live in?
The strong sense of community and the way that music is the lifeblood of the city.
As a state and a city, we have had a very difficult year but it has brought tears to my eyes seeing how everyone, even strangers, have come together and how musicians and music industry practitioners have kept up the energy and tried to move forward as best they can.
Where did you go for your last holiday?
The Victorian state of emergency was announced as I was in Adelaide for Fringe to see a play called 'Mullygrubs' that two of my friends were putting on there. I was very lucky to get that in on the last weekend we could leave the state.
What's your favourite item of clothing?
A brown leather jacket which was a gift from my grandad to my dad which he then handed down to me.
What was your favourite TV show when you were a kid?
'Rage' and 'Cheese TV!'.
If you could travel back in time for a day, where would you go?
New Year's Day 1977 to see The Clash's first ever show at the Roxy in London.
If we were coming over to your place, what would you cook us?
Vegetarian enchiladas. I learnt to make them from my Mexican friends when I was on exchange in Vancouver.
What's the best lesson you've ever learned?
My mother and father were staunch feminists and they taught me to push back on society's ideas of feminine limitations and the restrictions of archaic concepts of gender.
In a changing, but still male-dominated industry, I have been lucky to always innately feel that I and other female-identifying people are worthy of our place within it.
Tell us one thing about yourself that nobody else knows...
For a brief period of time when I was five, I wanted to be a professional soccer player.
Are you happy with your work/ life balance?
Most people working in music will attest that we all work incredibly hard and sometimes the lines between work and pleasure are blurred, but ultimately I am lucky to work in a field which makes me happy and gives me such a strong sense of purpose.
How do you define success?
Being happy, working on projects that I care about and being surrounded by special people.
Rosa Coyle-Hayward - scenestr of the day
