Lisa Coley from Sontronics microphones is leading the way for women in the music equipment industry. She tells us about her journey, training, and the joys and challenges.

Tell us about your background, your upbringing, and your introduction to the world of music.

I grew up with parents who both loved listening to all kinds of music – my mum played piano and my dad had taught himself guitar – and I also attended a very musical primary school, where we listened to classical music at the start and end of each daily assembly. After falling in love with a James Galway album, I decided, at the age of four, I wanted to be a flautist! I studied flute and piano (also learning French horn and trumpet along the way), playing in orchestras, giving recitals, entering competitions, teaching and ended up studying Music (with French) at Royal Holloway Uni.

How did you get into the music industry?

After graduating, I was still intent on being a career flautist, so in between orchestra auditions, I did some unpaid work experience at Classic CD Magazine, based at Future Publishing in my hometown of Bath. Spending a fortnight buried in heaps of classical CDs, reviewing albums, researching news stories and writing articles, I got hooked on magazines and ended up spending over ten years in publishing, including launching a DJ Mag, running a publication for Korg and a stint editing Future Music, before moving on to travel magazines.

In 2005, my career path changed radically when I met up with some Future Music colleagues who were out for drinks with one of their advertisers, Trevor Coley, who’d recently founded the Sontronics microphone brand. Trevor and I didn’t stop talking that night (and every night since, actually!) and I ended up working alongside him on the marketing and promotion side of the business, firstly part-time and soon full-time (and all our spare time too!). 17 years (marriage and three children) later and we’ve built Sontronics up into a hugely admired worldwide brand with our microphones being used by many amazing artists, studios, composers, and content creators including Ed Sheeran, Aerosmith, Kings of Leon, Adele, Abbey Road Studios and Jamie Oliver to name but a few.

What were some of the barriers you experienced, or still do experience, as a woman in the music industry?

This space is too short to list all the obstacles I’ve faced over the years, but the most traumatic was, when, in the early 2000s, I became editor of Future Music. On a near-daily basis I received direct harassment and abuse via letter and online forums from readers (the readership was 95% male) and advertisers claiming I was out of my depth, I didn’t deserve the editor’s seat and I didn’t understand the music equipment industry. I’ve never admitted this in public before, but it was a horrific and overwhelming period in my life. While I didn’t let it get in the way of doing a good job of running the magazine, I can now acknowledge that this abuse started a chain of events that eventually led to me leaving the world of music magazines that I’d loved for so long.

Things have changed a huge amount for women in the music and music equipment industry since then, especially in the past five years. However, even now, I’ll be on the Sontronics booth at a show or answer the office phone and someone (not always male) who assumes I’m an assistant or a receptionist will ask the classic question: ‘Can I speak to someone who knows about the microphones?’ When I start answering their technical question or telling them about our hand-wound transformers or tightly focused supercardioid pickups, they soon realise I do actually know what I’m talking about (and often apologise for their assumption)! I don’t hold it against them, as I’m the only female owner of a microphone brand in the world, but the world would be a better place if these stereotypes became less commonplace. I’m working on it, believe me!

What would you say to your 16-year-old self about being a woman in music… what to expect, the difficulties, the excitements?

I think whatever career I ended up in, I would tell my younger self that the key to succeeding – in work and in life – is to study and work hard to become the best you possibly can in order to stand out from the crowd. I’d also advise anyone at any stage of their career (but especially those starting out) to widen their skill base so they can adapt and switch paths if their dream career isn’t immediately available… or isn’t working out. Soak up as much information and advice as you can and grab any experiences or opportunities that are offered to you. Even if that information or experience doesn’t seem useful right now, you’ll draw upon it in the future, I guarantee it.

What exciting things have you been working on lately, either work or personally?

One of the most exciting things I’ve experienced recently is visiting local schools and colleges to talk to young people (in particular girls) about the opportunities in the music and music equipment industries, as well as encouraging them to develop entrepreneurial skills. No school careers teacher would advise their pupils to run a business or design a microphone, and certainly I never expected, as a 16-year-old or even as a 30-year-old, to be running a microphone company. Hopefully my experience can show them that anything is possible.

What can we look forward to from Sontronics in the coming months?

We have a new microphone getting ready for launch at the NAMM Show in April, so at the moment I’m working on all the photography, marketing, promotion events and ad design in relation to that. It’s been in development for over three years (a lot of work was delayed thanks to Covid and Brexit) so it’s very exciting to see it coming out into the world at last. It’s a stunning mic and will be an amazing addition to anyone’s studio. We love it and the world will too!

www.sontronics.com