A Cumbrian woman who signed some of the biggest metal and rock bands of the 2000s has spoken about her life in the music industry.
Julie Weir, 54, of Workington, has been in the industry for 30 years and now works as director of Sony Music’s independent rock and metal label Music for Nations.
At just 27 years old she launched her own record label Visible Noise, where she signed major bands including Bring Me the Horizon and worked with other big hitters like Bullet for My Valentine Cradle of Filth.
She also signed Lostprophets – the now disgraced Welsh rock band whose frontman Ian Watkins was convicted of child sex crimes and died in prison last year.
We spoke to Julie about her career and the highs and lows of life in the music industry.
Julie set up Visible Noise in 1998, after she spent four years working her way up through the industry.
She started out post-university life working in a record shop, before landing a job in merchandising for Hong Kong film and black metal label Cacophonous Records.
She went on to become label manager before her then business partner Alain De La Mata let her set up Visible Noise.
Julie, who was a pupil at Harrington Infants and Juniors and Workington Sixth Form Centre, spent 20 years running the label and working with bands on everything from music videos to meetings and magazine shoots.
But after Watkins’ crimes came to light, the label came to a close.
She said: “It was a record label that hosted the best in up-and-coming British music, because everything at the time seemed to be coming in from the US.
“There was so many amazing British bands that did so much stuff, but they just didn’t really get the recognition.
“Everyone was more bothered about Americans, because they’re a lot more glamorous than us as a rule.
“I signed a band called Kilkus, Primary Slave and Bring Me the Horizon and Lostprophets, and we all know how that ended.
“But we signed them to Sony and that’s where my Sony relationship came from.”
Julie first signed Lostprophets in 1998 and said it took three years for them to fully rise to international fame.
They released five studio albums, selling 3.5 million copies worldwide, as well as two top 10 singles in the UK chart and a string of Kerrang! Magazine awards before everything fell apart in 2012.
She said: “You can never plan for anything for like that and nobody could have ever predicted what he did or what happened to him.”
The fallout was something Julie said she had to work to overcome.
In 2016 Julie started working for Sony as the label head of Music for Nations, where she still works now.
She still works with bands like Cradle of Filth, Bullet for My Valentine and Bring Me the Horizon – all of which she first connected with in her Visible Noise days.
One of the biggest bands she signed, Bring Me the Horizon, are still touring and selling out arenas worldwide.
She said: “Bring Me the Horizon are a once in a lifetime band and that is down to great songwriters. Lee Malia is a genius, and Oli Sykes is so connected to the fanbase and to culture, it’s crazy.
“When we first started working with them, they were just turning 18, and they were the biggest band on Myspace.
“They continued to grow, he set up Drop Dead, so he already had his own merchandise, and his visual aesthetic is insane.
“Drop Dead is still running now, and Oli is coming on 40, which is scary in itself thinking that was 22 years ago.
“But they’ve gone on from strength to strength, they’re so creatively insanely forward thinking.
“But there’s never been a moment, where I’ve ever doubted that was going to happen, because Oli is such a polymath, he really is.”
Julie added that she had a lot of fun as label head for Visible Noise in the early days, and the role took her all over the world to work with and meet some of the biggest names in music history – including the likes of Alice Cooper, Tony Iommi and Dave Grohl.
But Julie added that the music industry has drastically changed over the past 30 years.
She said: “It is fun, but it is really long hours, and I’ll be honest it was easier 30 years ago than it is now.
“30 years ago, artists would write a good album, play a good show and get signed.
“But now an artist needs to build up a body of work to get noticed and have stuff on digital service providers to get the amount of followers for people to want to spend time and invest in them.”
Julie now works with new bands like Hot Milk, Vlure, Witch Fever and Flesh Creep and her day-to-day life varies.
She said: “Some days I’ll be in office doing calls meetings, spreadsheets and other days I will be at a conference or panel, or we’ll be in artist creative meetings or photo or video shoots.
“Or we can be at meetings with artists and photographers to talk about creative concepts or we’ll be going out to shows or festivals.
“It’s an unpredictable industry and it does become your life. But I’ve been doing this for 30-odd years and bands I worked with in 1994, I’m still working with in 2026, it’s insane.”
While Julie lives in London and has travelled across the world rubbing shoulders with musical icons, she’s never lost sight of her Cumbrian roots.
She said: “I was never one of those people who thought Cumbria holds me back, there’s a lot of great stories about people who came from there.
“I was a big fan of It Bites when I was a kid, and they were from Whitehaven and Black Sabbath played their first ever show in Workington, we’ve always had a genuinely decent scene and stuff happening on our doorstep.
“I love where I’m from and I still have friends in Workington that I visit. I always give my friend Martin Tognarelli and my grandad the credit for what I’m doing now.
“My grandad gave me the push musically, he was an accordionist in a band and would be able to hear a piece of music and play it.
“Both my mum and my grandad were musical and I always wanted to be musical but I wasn’t. But I’ve always loved music and had quite a good ear for it, so I always wanted to work in it.
“But Martin was a couple years older than me and he could drive. At 15 or 16 he’d drive us to Carlisle so we could go see The Waterboys or The Mission or to Newcastle to see Janes Addiction or Jellyfish.
“Cumbria never held me back and I do actually think when I look at a lot of young artists now, being from a more rural area, it makes you more certain about what you want to do and to work in music you have to put your mind to it.”
Julie said her advice to musicians is to be their authentic selves and that when she signs a band, she’s looking for a specific set of qualities.
She said: “Be fearless, don’t be scared of doing your own thing, create your own sound and build a good network.
“Networks are what you need in this world. The industry is a people industry and if you get opportunities to go places or something that happens in Carlisle, Whitehaven or Workington, just go.
“Support the ecosystem, you never know who you’re going to bump into. Be memorable and don’t burn bridges.”
Julie added that her favourite part of her job is still the simplest part.
She said: “I still get a kick out of seeing people in band T-shirts that we work with, I will always love that.”
Julie said local musicians looking for advice or guidance are welcome to pop her an email via her label Music for Nations.
