Image via Nicole Wyskoarko
A secret to navigating the music industry is learning that there is no one proven formula or method for achieving success. It’s a field that’s as unorthodox as it is complicated, and there is no singular roadmap.
Nicole Wyskoarko, executive vice president and co-head of A&R at Interscope Geffen, understood that concept early in her career and has embraced being adaptable as she’s reached astounding heights. Entering the industry as a business and legal affairs intern at Universal Music Group, the University of Southern California and Brooklyn Law alum ultimately became the senior vice president of business and legal affairs for all east coast labels at the company during her time there. But while Wyskoarko started her career on the legal side of things, her passion for music and aiding in artists’ creative processes led her to transition to A&R work.
“For me, it wasn’t about being a lawyer, it was about being close to the music and figuring out how I could have an impact in my own way without being an artist,” Wyskoarko tells Complex. “So I was always looking at it from a broader perspective, so I think each step of the way it was always expanding upon that experience.”
Wyskoarko knew that the legal department was a central team at UMG, so she was able to work with different departments and learn how various facets of the music industry machine worked. After aligning herself with the music law firm Carroll, Guide & Groffman LLP in 2016, Wyskoarko eventually made her way to Interscope in 2018, adding a unique level of experience to their A&R department. In this role, she helped the company forge important relationships with massive artists, including Playboi Carti, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and H.E.R., who was her first client.
Now in the role of guiding a talented group of A&Rs herself at Interscope, Wyskoarko says that one of the greatest lessons she’s learned about leadership is the importance of building out a strong team. “One person might be able to get a few wins, but if you really want to have that long-term sustainable success, you have really strong team members,” she explains. “You want to be in rooms where you don’t know if you’re the smartest.”
As a Black woman in a position of power in a white male-dominated industry, Wyskoarko recognizes how she stands as a model to help other women of color navigate this space. “As a woman of color, when you see someone that looks like you in certain positions, it gives you that extra hope that you can do that, too,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, there’s something that looks like me that’s doing this. That’s an option.’
As part of our Black Music Month coverage, Complex spoke to Interscope’s executive vice president and co-head of A&R Nicole Wyskoarko about her climb through the music industry, how she balances gut intuition and data analytics when it comes to discovering new artists, and importance of representation and differing perspectives in this space.
What was the transition like going from a very legal-centric senior position to overseeing all A&R at Interscope?
I feel like the prior position was preparing me for this the whole time. When I started, I always felt like we were kind of at the center of things, even though the business and legal affairs team weren’t necessarily at the center of it creatively. They weren’t picking the signings, but you started with the legal signings, so we were in on it with the A&Rs before the rest of the company knew about new artists coming in. Then once you got the deal, you had the whole company coming to you for strategy and council. Anything that someone didn’t quite know how to navigate, they would come to us for, so I felt like it was a really good space to learn from the perspective of the overall label and business.
Sometimes you can start off in different spaces and you get laser-focused on that one area, which can be really great as far as specializing and being an assassin in a particular space, but I thought this would just allow me to see everything early in my career. I saw how we were interacting with radio and how the radio department interacted with other departments, and the A&R’s role and the video team’s role. I saw it all come together, so it was kind of building to my position now, even being a counselor and advisor.
But on top of it all, I came into music because I love music. For me, it wasn’t about being a lawyer—it was about being close to the music and figuring out how I could have an impact in my own way without being an artist. I was always looking at it from a broader perspective, so each step of the way it was always expanding upon that experience. As I transitioned first into working outside of legal as an attorney, that was the first step of getting more involved in the A&R direction, because that gave me the opportunity to go out there and look for clients that I believed in creatively. Because I was a part of their teams early on and someone who loved music, they would let me into their creative process and ask me if I had ideas or who they should feature on tracks. It started to transition in that direction at that point.
When Interscope called me to think about coming to the label, it was from the perspective of, “Well, you have all of this broad experience, you understand the business, you built the relationships, you have an understanding of the creative, and you’ve made some solid bets.” Because at that point I had started to work with H.E.R. really early on—she was my first client. I brought in Playboi Carti as a client, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, too. I signed Lil Mosey to Interscope and was calling and saying, “Hey, we’re talking to the labels, what’s up guys? Let’s not miss this one.” That was the in-between phase, and with that level of experience and seeing everything, they said they needed someone like me to come in from this angle. When you think about it, we haven’t seen it a lot, but Clive Davis was always a great example of lawyers who transitioned into more of a creative A&R role.
I see the role of A&R as being half data analytics and the other half trusting your intuition. How have you found a balance between the two?
You have to find a balance between the two. I’m sure there are people out there who are just on the data analytics side of things, but in the time period that I was an attorney, the A&Rs that I saw in 2001 didn’t have real analytics. Everyone was basically going off their gut, like, “I believe this artist has the talent.” Fortunately, I have that experience and exposure and saw that you can make the right bets on who to develop based on your gut and intuition. As time progressed and we got the benefit of having really great data from moving into a digital space, it’s something that you can use to inform your gut and instincts.
Anyone might second-guess their gut, no matter how many wins they’ve had, but when you see data with your gut involved, you’re like, “Alright, I know I’m on to something.” But it’s also informative as to where to place things, and what direction to go with it. Data can tell you how an artist is engaging with their fans. You can see an artist that you believe in, but that data is showing that their engagement is a little bit low, and that’s a conversation that you can have with the artist. You can just tell them, “Hey, you might benefit from engaging a little bit more directly with your fans, and they might connect with you more.” I think you can use the data in that way, but it’s really important to have that gut in all of this, because it is art at the end of the day. It’s creative. We’re not manufacturing widgets, so you have to combine both.
What have you learned about leadership during your rise to your current senior position?
I’ve had the benefit of working with a lot of great leaders, all with different leadership styles, and I think my biggest takeaway is that it’s about the team. If you have a really great team around you, you’re going to win. The notion is that “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team.’” One person might be able to get a few wins, but if you really want to have long-term sustainable success, you have really strong team members. You want to be in rooms where you don’t know if you’re the smartest. Maybe you’re not the smartest person in the room and you’re learning from different people and pushing each other. If you put together really strong teams and you let those people also lead and give them those opportunities, then you’re going to have much greater success.
I’ve also had the benefit of having really great mentors that may not have even realized that they were mentoring me, but there was always someone who may have taken me to the side and given me advice. Even if it was just one conversation, they could have given me a gem that stuck with me, and I have many that I’ve compiled from different people. Or sometimes I was just watching them from their example and feeling like I was being mentored in that way from being in their proximity. But I think that it’s really important to mentor, because that’s also a part of building your team. People need to have an opportunity to grow, and if you’re mentoring them, then you can help get them to that next level of greatness that will help the overall team and be a win for everyone. I’m grateful for the people who have been around me when I came up.
Speaking of mentorship, how important is representation and being a mentor for you, especially as a Black woman in a male-dominated industry?
It’s of the utmost importance to me, because representation is about perspective and having other voices in the room. So when situations come up, you have someone else in the room that can say, “I know from my own personal experience that this is how I view this.” Otherwise, everything is going to be very singular and it’s not going to represent all of the diverse perspectives on how you can approach an issue. And as a woman of color, when you see someone that looks like you in certain positions, it also just gives you that extra hope that you can do that, too. It’s like, “Oh, there’s someone that looks like me that’s doing this. That’s an option,” and it’s really hard when you don’t see those options in front of you, because sometimes you rule out different things you can do with your life.
It’s always important for me to be an example, so that another young woman who looks like me can say, “Hey, I hadn’t thought about that. I hadn’t thought about being an entertainment lawyer. I hadn’t thought about being an A&R, but she’s doing it. That means I can do it, too.” I can say from experience, going back as an attorney, if you look at the growth of the team that I worked with at the time, we started off with little to no women, and by the time I moved on, we outweighed the department—not only as women, but as Black women attorneys. I know that was an impact that I had, and it’s the same now on the A&R side. You constantly hear, “There aren’t a lot of female A&Rs out there.” Well, our department started out with no female A&Rs, and now we have several and we have several that are coming up as coordinators that will be the wave of the next Black female A&Rs, so I think that it’s vitally important, and I stand by it with action.
What is your favorite thing about your job?
I feel like this has been a constant favorite for me, no matter what side of it I’ve been on at different stages of my career, but I get so much enjoyment out of meeting artists that have not yet broken. Maybe they haven’t even put music out yet. The world doesn’t know yet, and when you see something and see their excitement and vision, and you get it and are there with them, that journey is so fulfilling and exciting for me. When you get to be there early and be a part of the dream. Whatever that artist is dreaming of, you go through the journey and their milestones start to be reached, and I take so much enjoyment out of that. It might just be because I enjoy the journey of life. I’m just a part of the team on the back end, but for the artist, this is their everything. It’s their art. So to be able to watch their enjoyment is an indescribable feeling.
What’s some advice that you would give your young intern self?
There’s nothing I would say to myself in hopes to change anything, because I feel like every step of the way has been my unique journey. Even when I veered off what I thought was the path, it all contributed to where I’m at and who I am now. But I do feel like I would tell myself not to be so hard on myself. At the same time, though, I think because I was hard on myself sometimes, that was a part of that grind of not giving up and putting that extra work in. You don’t know where you’re going to go, so you’re just working hard and taking everything in. While I would tell myself not to be yourself up, I would also tell myself to keep grinding because it’s all going to pay off. Don’t take your foot off their necks.
Is there anything else that you want people to know about yourself or what you do?
I think it’s important for people to not get caught up about how they enter the industry and what that foot-in-the-door is, because it is a sort of unorthodox industry and there is no one set path. Even when you look at people and admire their career, you can’t necessarily follow what they did, because most people didn’t know what they were doing. For me, law was just a door I saw. I was music, do or die, but I saw maybe that was a pathway in, because I saw business and legal affairs credits and these are people who had these jobs and thought maybe that was my way. I couldn’t figure out a pathway from the other angles. I don’t know if people think that I just knew it was law all the way, but I think the changes in my career and the reason I was so nimble with it was because I was never dead set on law. I saw it as one pathway in, and once I get in I’ll learn and see where this journey takes me.