Behind The Rolling Stone Cover’ is sponsored by Shure, affordable, durable, and exceptional-sounding microphones you can rely on. Available to watch and listen on Rolling Stone AU/NZ, and to stream on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms.
When Tash Sultana first launched onto the scene, it was thanks to a video of them performing in their lounge room: it starts like just any other teenager with a guitar and amplifier, but then it builds over the first couple of minutes into a multi-faceted soundscape controlled only by the artist’s loop pedals and understanding of what goes into making a complete song, minus the (normally) requisite band.
Sultana’s approach to their profession is no different, with the now-global superstar helming their own suite of businesses, brands, and philanthropic endeavours – without ever losing focus on the bigger picture.
In the latest episode of ‘Behind The Rolling Stone Cover’, sponsored by Shure, Rolling Stone AU/NZ Editor-in-Chief Poppy Reid sat down with Sultana to peel back some of the many layers that comprise their working life, and find out how making it in the music industry is harder to do on your own terms.
“The music industry is literally the fuckin’ wild west,” Sultana says. “There’s (sic) cowboy after cowboy in here, and everybody’s makin’ up the rules.”
“Even at major labels it’s cowboys making up the rules?” asks Reid. “I think so,” they reply.
Sultana’s personal recipe for success? Look at their heroes and figure it out.
“A lot of the time I’ve looked at something or someone [successful] and go, ‘Well, they’ve gotten here – let’s work backwards from that point.’
“That’s what I’ve done with Lonely Lands Enterprises. It’s a charity, cos I wanted to give back. It’s time to really move the dial on this level of success and there’s social status that comes with that. If you’re not doing something big then you’re kinda wasting your time.
“So there’s I AM ME, which is the charity. There’s Lonely Lands Agency – we’ve got like 75 artists on there now, which is fuckin’ awesome.
“I’ve also got Lonely Lands Studio Records which is only me – I’ve only signed myself – to keep my independence by being a buffer to any label that comes along. Because they’re not signing Tash Sultana – they’re going into a partnership with Lonely Lands Records and that’s how I distribute my music… I’ve been independent my whole career.”
Listening to Sultana’s conversation with Reid, it becomes clear that the musician has spent more time doing than ideating, and after ten years, the spoils of hard labour and dedicated self-learning are really flourishing.
“I feel like you were destined to become this multi-business owner, CEO, that you are now,” Reid posits.
Sultana’s matter-of-fact reply suggests it’s more decision than destiny: “I envisioned the path that I’m at.”
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