For more than three decades, Andrew Sunnucks has worked at the highest levels of the international music industry, building an extraordinary career as a music producer, entrepreneur and co-founder of one of Britain’s great global music success stories.
In 2001, Andrew founded Audio Network with Robert Hurst. From its beginnings in the UK, the company grew to become the largest independent music group in Europe, establishing offices across the world and receiving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise three times. At the heart of that success has always been the music. Andrew has spent his career working with world-class musicians, composers, artists and performers, producing music across an extraordinary breadth of genres and building relationships with some of the most respected names in the industry.
He has produced an estimated 4,000 tracks at Abbey Road Studios alone, alongside an extensive body of orchestral, choral, big-band and contemporary music. His work has taken him into studios and concert halls with exceptional talent from across the world, while Audio Network’s vast catalogue has taken the music he has helped create to audiences globally.
Andrew’s career has placed him alongside some of the finest musicians, composers and performers in the world, producing an extraordinary breadth of music and overseeing ambitious recordings on a remarkable scale. His work spans genres, generations and continents, with music created under his leadership reaching audiences across the globe.
Audio Network was sold in 2019, yet Andrew’s involvement with the company and his passion for producing music continue. He remains Chairman and is still actively involved in creating many of its major ensemble recordings.
Andrew has also brought his world of music home to East Anglia, creating School Farm Studios in a 17th-century barn at Little Maplestead, attracting musicians from across Britain and around the world to record in the region.
Next Saturday September 26, Andrew brings a lifetime spent at the heart of music together with another of his great passions: the countryside and British agriculture.
At St Edmundsbury Cathedral, the Great British Harvest Festival is an extraordinary celebration of music, farming, food and rural Britain. The phenomenal line-up includes Sir John Rutter, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Debbie Wiseman OBE, the National Youth Choir, musicians from the Royal College of Music, Grace Davidson, the James Taylor Quartet, Tim Garland, Nik Kershaw and Chesney Hawkes.
Bringing together internationally celebrated performers, the farming community and businesses from across the region, the festival will also raise funds for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, the Charlie Watkins Foundation and YANA.
It is perhaps the perfect meeting of the worlds that have shaped Andrew’s life: music, entrepreneurship, the countryside and a belief in what can be achieved when remarkable people come together around a shared purpose.
Here, the week before the Great British Harvest Festival comes to life at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Andrew Sunnucks talks to Gina Long about East Anglia, the extraordinary journey of Audio Network, more than three decades at the heart of the international music industry, British agriculture and the ambition behind this remarkable celebration.
What does East Anglia mean to you?
It’s home. I lived in London for a while, and couldn’t wait to get back.
Where did you grow up, and what are your strongest memories of childhood?
I grew up on Mersea Island as part of a hyper-active family. I was the lazy one.
How did your career in music begin?
I first went into a recording studio to record a song, (sung by a rabbit), for Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park. Eve Graham from the New Seekers sang it with Kevin, her husband (I think he was the rabbit). They became generous mentors. I ended up doing jingles for Steve Wright in The Afternoon on Radio 1 and that turned into doing music for adverts and TV shows.
In 2001, you founded Audio Network with Robert Hurst. Where did the idea come from?
I had sold my music production company and worked for a while at publishers Boosey & Hawkes. Robert was the finance director there and we realised there was an opportunity to make very high quality music and distribute it in a new way to film makers.
At the time everyone was using synths and samples to fake real instruments - and there was a lot of shockingly bad music on the telly. I thought there was a market for real music performed by the best people.
Audio Network became the largest independent music group in Europe, with offices around the world and three Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. Did you ever imagine it would achieve that scale?
I suppose I did in my dreams, but we came perilously close to disaster when we started and it really took 5 years to get off the ground. Opening the US offices was the hardest bit.
I’ve always said I think the best entrepreneurs are people who are slightly too stupid to understand risk. I was totally ignorant of how hard it was going to be or I’d never have started, but I had brilliant people helping me and it worked out in the end.
You are Chairman of Audio Network and continue to produce music. What keeps you excited about the business you created more than 25 years ago?
Without question it is the people. I have been incredibly lucky to work with hundreds of amazing musicians, composers and artists and some have been close friends for over 30 years. The feeling of community and common purpose in the studio when making music is the best feeling in the world and is like oxygen to me.
Why did you decide to create School Farm Studios and bring musicians from around the world to record in East Anglia?
We have a beautiful 17th Century barn where I live at School Farm and an old friend from Abbey Road said he’d love to leave and join me to make a proper residential recording studio outside London. School Farm Studios was born so now everyone comes to me, and I only have to go to London if the orchestra is more than 30 people!
You have produced an estimated 4,000 tracks at Abbey Road Studios. Does walking into Abbey Road ever become ordinary?
Never. I still love the place. My first visit there was in 1986, and for many years we were their most regular customer, so I feel part of the furniture!
After more than 30 years as a producer, what makes a piece of music truly memorable?
For me it is generally the story that goes with the music. It might be something that happened on the recording or a special moment when someone performs something magical. I work with people who are so much better musicians than I am that I am always utterly astonished by what they can do. Basically I just remain a music fan, and hope that my enthusiasm helps the spirit of the recording session. Happy players having fun always creates the best music.
Who has had the greatest influence on your life?
Apart from family members, I think two people. Band leader/jazz musician Sir John (Johnny) Dankworth and the comedy producer John Lloyd.
John Dankworth and his wife Cleo Laine backed me financially when we started the company, and John became a wonderfully supportive advisor.
John Lloyd is the most inspirational man I’ve met and one of the kindest. He has time for everyone and his blunt advice and ‘Quite Interesting’ way of looking at the world has been a constant inspiration.
How important is the countryside to you personally?
I have been lucky enough to buy farmland over the past few years and I get ridiculously excited about beetle banks, hedges, wildlife corridors and habitats. I remain largely ignorant about pretty much everything, but am loving meeting all the brilliant people who DO know things. It is incredibly rewarding when it starts to come together and creatures just turn up!
What concerns you most about the future of British agriculture?
The lack of value our society attaches to good, locally sourced food. If politicians carry on undervaluing the service farmers give to food production and maintaining the countryside it is doomed.
We need to educate politicians and stop them introducing endless new regulations. They need to understand the importance of small & medium sized farms or we will end up with huge industrial producers who are not incentivised to look after the environment.
Do you think we take British food production for granted?
I don’t think people generally even think about where food comes from. Most consumers don’t seem to connect cheap meat to animal welfare standards or out of season vegetables to food miles or artificial preservatives for instance. People like Jamie Oliver and Jeremy Clarkson have done a great service in helping raise awareness, but there is a long way to go.
Where did the idea for the Great British Harvest Festival come from?
Patrick Cooper and I organised a carol concert for the Charlie Watkins Foundation a while ago and one evening we decided to have another go. I really should learn not to have drinks with Patrick.
The line-up is phenomenal, Sir John Rutter, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Debbie Wiseman OBE, the National Youth Choir, musicians from the Royal College of Music, Grace Davidson, the James Taylor Quartet, Tim Garland, Nik Kershaw and Chesney Hawkes. How on earth did you bring them all together for one night in Suffolk?
To be honest it was laughably easy. They are all friends and I simply sent an email and asked them. I was alarmed when they all said ‘yes’ because I had no idea how to fit them all on stage.
Incidentally, none of the performers are being paid a penny, and the National Youth Choir and Orchestra are only really covering their expenses, so I will be forever grateful to everyone.
Cambridge Children’s Hospital, the Charlie Watkins Foundation and YANA will all benefit from the festival. Why were these three causes particularly close to your heart?
We had a young family friend who took her life, so initially we were keen to support the Charlie Watkins Foundation. Having seen and heard more recent tragic stories about farmers’ mental health, I was keen to add YANA to our list and Patrick was busy helping the Children’s Hospital – so we had to raise our game and booked a bigger church!
What do you hope people will take away from the Great British Harvest Festival, and what would you like its legacy to be?
Apart from raising some money, I hope the evening will make people think about the pressure on young people in particular. If the night helps our communities to remember to look after each other, notice when people are struggling and bring a bit more kindness into the world, we will have done everything we could hope for.
Away from music, business and organising enormous festivals, how do you switch off?
I’m never happier than going up and down on a tractor.
What is always in your fridge?
Cadbury’s Milk buttons
Describe yourself in three words.
Still muddling through
Your guilty pleasure is?
Twiglets
And finally, you have achieved so much across music, business and now the Great British Harvest Festival. What ambitions do you still have, and what exciting projects can we look forward to next?
To stop people letting go of bloody party balloons! I pick up about 2 or 3 a week on the farm. When will people learn that what goes up comes down as litter – and litter that looks delicious to an animal, but is lethal. Perhaps we should organise a concert to raise awareness.
https://schoolfarmstudios.com/
I: @ginageelong
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