Latch Explores: British Asian Identity in the Music Industry with Dog In The Snow
Continuing on our series exploring some experiences relating to British Asian identity and representation in the music industry, we had the pleasure to speak with Helen Ganya Brown, better known by her musician moniker Dog In The Snow. Already, we’ve spoken with musicians Asha Gold and Hilang Child, as well as Managing Director of Killing Moon, Achal Dhillon, so be sure to check those out for more essential opinions and findings of our research.
One of the reasons that we wanted to create this interview series is because last year we launched our companion record label, Bad Key, and after a little bit of brainstorming, we decided that it would be the perfect home to platform British Asian creativity. As the label’s manager Alex Treharne shares, “I started Bad Key in order to platform contemporary sounds from artists across the Asian diaspora in the UK. I want to show that the audience for Asian artists isn’t limited and that you can have multiple Asian artists on your roster without compromising on opportunity. I’m also really passionate when it comes to international audiences, fans are incredibly valuable regardless of their location and yet Asian audiences have been viewed as ‘other’ traditionally in the West. I grew up with a genetic connection to both the UK and Malaysia, and I want to explore that culture blend in all its beauty and complexity through Bad Key.”
Coincidentally, Dog In The Snow also started her radio show Mixed Tapes with the intention of showcasing music from people of colour in the independent music world, which she’s also a part of as a Thai-Scottish artist signed to indie label Bella Union. The weight of Ganya Brown’s frustration comes down to “othering” of certain groups, such as people of colour or British Asians or women, across the industry. Even as we’ve embarked on looking for research and statistics for this series, we quickly came to a halt in being able to access readily available materials, aside from a few useful, but not specific, Guardian articles and the vague bulked-together findings of UK Music’s workforce diversity survey. This lack of nuance and broad statistics has the danger of communicating to British Asian musicians, producers, professionals, venue owners, music journalists etc. that their experience is perceived as invalid or at the very least shoved to the side of what is deemed important by the industry’s decision makers. Surely, many people in this community already feel that way, one of the most out-spoken of whom is Japanese-British pop star Rina Sawayama who has vocalised her experience in several interviews, including Time Out, where she cited a myriad of microaggressions, and in NPR, where she also talks about the lack of Aisan pop artists that could could name or relate to in her early years.
As Simon Frith, Tovey Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh, so wonderfully outlines in his Live Music Matters paper: “Music is now tied up with people’s sense of self. Listening to music has become a way of laying claim to one’s own physical and emotional space. We therefore make both a new demand on music (to meet our personal needs) and a new commitment to it, as a symbol of our individuality.” While our personal access to music needs to be as diverse and representative as possible, so do group and community events, such as festivals. In a paper studying UK–Asia music business collaborations by Haekyung Um, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music and the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool, we are shown that “Live music, place and identity are often inextricably linked to each other, bringing the culture, economy and geography together. For example, live music venues, according to, play a vital role in creating localised place-specific music scenes because these music venues facilitate opportunities for the musicians to connect with one another, with the music industry and with their audiences. These spaces also contribute to the cultural and creative identities of the communities and cities in which they operate.”
While the aforementioned UK Music survey suggests that there is the greatest increase of diversity at entry-level positions, amongst younger groups and for lower-income roles, it’s well recognised that more often than not a white, straight, cis-gender man holds a senior position, is on the highest wage and sees more longevity in their career. As we can read in the survey’s report, “The number of those from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background decreases as the age of respondents increases, with only 15.7% in the 45-64 bracket coming from a minority background and falling again to 13.6% for the over 65s.” In response to the lack of representation within sectors of the industry that have the greatest influence on our mainstream radio broadcasts, on the acts booked for the biggest festivals, or on the albums most widely promoted, artists like Dog In The Snow are creating spaces for themselves and those who share this experience of being unfairly “othered”.
Tell us about yourself and your role in the music industry.
I am a Thai-Scottish musician who plays under the moniker Dog In The Snow currently based in Brighton. I also run a radio show called Mixed Tapes which plays music from POCs in the independent music world.
What do you think about the representation of British Asian people in the music industry right now?
It's really poor. In general the representation for POCs in independent music is lackluster and it's not because there isn't any great music out there (there 100% is), but it's because the gate-keepers in the music industry are still white older men and this then reflects the lack of diversity in record labels, festival line-ups, BBC 6 Music (presenters and music played), music journalists, record shops etc. POCs are "othered" and generally not given the same opportunities as their white contemporaries, and if they are given the visibility then they are usually seen through the lens of their heritage. I think for British Asian people specifically, there's usually an unwanted narrative of how our Asian identity is linked to our music. For me (probably being a woman as well) my "Asian aesthetic" is usually used to define my music. Whether that's quotes such as "the mixed race look is really in right now" or "you have a really asiatic look on stage" or the classic "where are you from??" which completely distracts from the actual music itself (!!)
Which platforms do you think are doing a great job at highlighting British Asians in contemporary music culture?
gal-dem are amazing, plus Daikon Zine and the musician Bishi who runs Witcih is doing great things for British Asian women in tech and music.
Click for the Mixed Tapes episode featuring Lex Low
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