Meet Ayla Kress of Brain Candy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ayla Kress.

Hi Ayla, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Brain Candy was born out of my many years of first-hand experience in the music industry. I’ve worked for, or with, many of the greats: George Strait, Chance The Rapper, Eric Church, The Chainsmokers, Luke Bryan, Austin City Limits, Electric Zoo… the list goes on.

In my early years in the industry, I got to see both the good and sadly lots of the bad. It was years of seeing artists reap no rewards while “executives” lived lavish lives, and years of putting blood, sweat, and tears (literally) into projects only to see no credit passed along to those who were actually doing the heavy lifting.

After writing several papers on trend-spotting and disruptive revenue streams in the music industry during grad school, I fully recognized just how archaic the business side of the music industry was.

This was reiterated by one professor, in particular, using the age-old excuse “that’s the way it’s always been done, so that’s the way we do it” and well, those were the perfect ingredients to start the fire for me to launch Brain Candy – an artist services company that assures artists are getting their fair share and credit is being given where credit is due.

Essentially, we’re putting the music back in the music industry. I then brought on my co-founder and fellow Audio Arts grad student, Tony Chiarella, to help represent the “artist” side while I represented the “business” side to make sure we formed our company, pricing, and contract structure in a fair manner for both parties.

Over the years, we’ve grown our team tremendously, worked with dozens of artists as well as companies, and recently purchased/finalized renovating our creative co-working space on the east side of Nashville, all while sticking to our three “Laws of Brain Candy”: ​

1) Safeguard Creatives’ Control.
2) Inspire Human Camaraderie.
3) Encourage Industry Collaboration.

We’re extremely proud to help keep independent artists independent and to stick to the “majorarchy” which we define as any major entity that does not properly pay, support, and help their artist/clients on a daily.

If I’m not busy putting my all into disrupting the music industry you can then find me at a show, on the trails hiking, on Percy Priest boating, or in my 80 y/o home doing DIY projects or baking!

I’m also proud to be General Partner of Scrappy capital where I focus on seed-stage investment in the entertainment/digital media as well as the Vice-Chair of Fundraising for Women In Music – Nashville.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s not been a smooth road by any means, but if you’re truly passionate about your dreams that won’t matter. I started my career in the industry working 16+ hour tour days, with perpetually blistered feet, and hustling pushing lighting cases across stadiums.

I made myself known to the higher-ups, showed them my potential by going Beyond The Traditional (now Brain Candy’s tagline), and kept on rocking the boat. After undergrad, I was given the opportunity to either tour with Muse internationally, or accept an offer to attend Syracuse University for grad school.

I knew I didn’t want to get stuck as a “road warrior” for the rest of my life, I already had back problems, but loved the rigor of touring and traveling. I ultimately made the decision to continue my education. It wasn’t the easiest decision, but I think that being able to properly weigh the pros and cons, looking five or ten years down the road is one of the most important skills you can have.

Doing so has changed my life for the better. Making that tough decision opened up opportunities for me to step beyond my comfort zone, and take on the challenge of disrupting the industry, something I truly don’t think I would have been able to do as a production assistant on tours, even the biggest ones.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Brain Candy?
Brain Candy is a non-traditional artists services firm, with four main departments: Audio, Creative, Development, and Marketing. We help artists of all sizes and genres take control of their careers, explore their creativity, and make informed decisions to maximize their potential and achieve their goals.

We pride ourselves on fair pricing and contracting approaches versus other labels or artist service companies that will gouge artists, promise major playlisting placement, and then leave the artist broke with no new fans. We don’t own the master recordings of our roster artists, we’ll never take away an artist’s creative control or sell their rights to their art without their consent.

I think even those outside the music industry in recent years have become very familiar with the contract issues in this industry from the Taylor Swift x Scooter Braun incident to recent claims by artists about labels requiring virality prior to being able to release their own music. These issues have been around since the get-go and need to be addressed, hence our “Fuck the Majorarchy” slogan.

We’re most proud that we’re developing a company and culture that encourages creatives to take control, stand up to the majorarchy, and educate themselves on the plethora of predatory practices that run rampant in the music industry.

Regardless if you’re an emerging artist looking to make the leap to the next level or an artist previously signed to a major label who wants to take back control, we’ve helped artists in both situations and will always be here to champion our clients and the change this industry so desperately needs.

Beyond artist services, we recently opened our creative co-working space we affectionally call Candyland which features a 1,000+ SF photo studio, writers room, monthly suite rentals, and more. The photo studio and writers room are available for hourly rentals and our suites, when available, are rented for 6-month terms.

The photo studio offers a distinct, half-white and half-black design for clients to unleash their creativity in, while the writer’s room offers a cozy space for artists to write and cut demos.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Three things:

Don’t be afraid to take chances – If you don’t step outside your comfort zone, you’ll never know what you can achieve.

Never stop learning – Don’t get lazy, keep your brain sharp and learn something new every day. This industry moves fast, and being smart as well as at the forefront of new technologies and opportunities will open more doors for you than ever before.

And last, but certainly not least, lead with your heart. If you do things with truly good intentions no one can fault you and if they do that says more about them than it does you. Be good at being good. People recognize when someone is genuine and kind.

This is a VERY small industry, and if you develop a reputation as a jerk, it WILL stay with you and impact your success.

Pricing:

• Photo Studio Rental – Starting at $100/hr
• Writers Room Rental – Starting at $30/hr

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.braincandymgmt.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braincandynash/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrainCandyNash/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrainCandyNash
• Other: https://www.avvay.com/nashville/space/18362/photo-studio/photo-studio/black-white-photo-studio-candyland-brain-candy-hq