Jamie Lawson
About Jamie's career
Please briefly outline what you are doing now
I work in the sync team at Universal Music Publishing, so my day-to-day is licensing and pitching our writers’ music for various medias (TV/Film/Ads/Online uses etc).
No one day is the same as we work across such varied projects, it’s also a massively client facing role so we’re always working with new agencies, meeting new people and generally (hopefully!) creating fantastic new moments tying together the screen and great music.
I also still play jazz piano at events and a few pubs in London, and guitar with my band Louis and the Shakes - we’ve had a pretty electric few years playing at Isle of Wight festival, releasing an album and bringing the rock n’roll spirit to the crowds of London!
About Jamie's career
What did you like most about your music degree?
Everything about the music degree at Newcastle was varied, which I loved – modules ranged from performance, to calligraphy, to creative improvisation, to recording techniques, so the breadth of what we learnt was huge.
Also the demographic of our course matched this, with incredibly talented classical, jazz, pop, R&B musicians plying their trade, some of which I’ve made lifelong friends with.
I know other students studied abroad or took on larger projects, but for me the 3 years I spent on the Music course really elevated my playing to a new level, gave me a good well-rounded knowledge base to work out what I wanted to do next, and as I mentioned, gave me connections with like-minded musos that I value hugely!
In what ways did your music degree at Newcastle prepare you for your current role?
I’ve continued playing music professionally since my course, and the skills I learnt in jazz piano (from the fantastic Stuart Collingwood) have been invaluable since I graduated.
I have also ended up working in the industry working in Sync, and the social aspects of our course (collaboratively working & getting up to perform in lunchtime concerts/watching other performers) have helped put me in great stead for the face-to-face aspects of my current job.
Not to mention being surrounded by other students with such wide-ranging music tastes, this really expanded my musical ‘palette’, if you can call it that, which has been hugely important in my current job.
