James Lightfoot is an Artist Manager and A&R at Fine Group and Bigger Picture Entertainment, whose clients include Digital Farm Animals, Alaina Castillo and ieuan.

Here's our recent chat with James to discuss his favourite campaigns in 2020 and talk about the overlaps between visual creativity and music.

I’m currently working on lots of exciting things. We are developing new artists, writers, producers and shooting an exciting music video next week with one of our clients - a video you’ll definitely hear about when it’s out!

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Creatively at the moment I’m loving Beabadoobee as she is creatively perfect and bringing back the feeling of mid-2000s teen grunge pop. The videos, photos and socials are so cohesive and really tie together the world they’re creating.

Favourite video

My all-time favourite music video is Garbage’s The World Is Not Enough and this was a hard one to choose! I went for this because I remember being shown it for the first time as a child. I was captivated by the concept and story - I’d never seen anything like it. I was horrified by the ending, which made it all the more exciting. I also love the warm, cinematic feel of it.

Best artwork

I’ve always loved the album art for Lana Del Rey's Born to Die. There’s something so breathtaking about this photo. It’s almost serene in quality. I had the pleasure of working with Nicole Nodland a few years ago, who took this photo. I think they shot it somewhere very average in the UK, but they’ve managed to capture the pristine-suburban-nightmare vibe.

Campaign of 2020

The best creative campaign this year has been the album and single campaigns for Chloe X Halle - they’re putting some money into these girls! Visually stunning videos and performances. The sets are fairly simple but look and feel so expensive and classy. They’re really bringing old school R&B pop back.

Best collaboration

The most recent brand collab that caught my eye was Travis Scott and McDonalds. This was long anticipated and it was impossible to ignore when they dropped the commercial. It seems like Travis only does brand deals with brands he really loves, and that definitely comes across in the campaign. Thought this was really fun.

Video of the year

For me, the most creative and original music video of the year is Rina Sawayama’s XS.

I’m not 100% sure what’s going on in this video but it doesn’t really matter because it’s so entertaining. It’s weird and wonderful and so interesting. You can tell Rina has a very solid vision. Really like the execution of the effects and how they’ve pieced each part (tv show, choreo, prison) together.

Logo love

I wish I’d designed the artist logo for My Chemical Romance as this logo is etched on my mind from being a teenager and I think it epitomises that chaotic, dark, and enticing experience you have when you listen to a My Chemical Romance song or watch one of their videos. Text logos are very linear nowadays and I miss the illustrated style.

Go follow

The one artist you should follow on Instagram is Doja Cat. I don’t think her creative has really spilled over onto her Instagram but it’s just so entertaining. It seems like she really gets it, knows how to use it and can be so funny on socials.

Iconic

The most iconic music photograph has to be Michael Jackson and Madonna, taken at the Oscars after-party in 1991. It was such a fleeting moment - the King and Queen of pop together - and never to be repeated. The two biggest blockbuster artists of the moment and arguably two of the most important artists of all time.

Creative Corner, in association with The MMF