Industry Mums – Susan Cotchin

Broadcaster and mother Jane Gazzo continues her series asking women to describe their triumphs and challenges as working mothers in the Australian music industry.

Susan Cotchin is partner and Managing Director of Good Neighbour Rights (part of the Mushroom Group). She was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia but now calls Melbourne home and is the proud single mother of one.

Describe your current job.

I implement, manage and oversee everything in relation to Good Neighbour – a global neighbouring rights company. This entails devising strategies and procedures for recruiting major artists, registering them efficiently across the globe, maximizing their income via effective claim management and servicing their accounts. I also give presentations to many music companies and managers on understanding neighbouring rights and spend a lot of time researching legislation and distribution policies as it is updated in each country on a regular basis.

What is your earliest musical memory?

Watching my older sister Wendy perform at The Tivoli Theatre in Perth. The old building is still there. A neighbour told my mum that my sister could sing, so she organised a show for the seniors. I must have been four years old when Wendy belted out the song ‘Music Music Music’ by Teresa Brewer, a B side released in 1949. My mum was recording it in the audience on her little portable cassette player and I used to play it back over and over at home and sing along with it. I loved the recording so much I decided to record myself singing along with it, which of course erased my sister’s first ever performance! Once mum cottoned on, you can hear her yelling at me “If you wiped that recording…” and then the tape is firmly shut down. Whoops!

First record you bought?

I actually ‘won’ my first record, following in my sister’s footsteps by entering a local pub talent quest singing a Connie Francis tune ‘I’ll Follow the Boys’. I turned around to the guitarist and shouted, “When’s the music gonna start?” and I think my courage won me a record. It was Parliament’s ‘Funk Wants to get Funked Up’ (oh yeah), which I chose due to its colourful cover!

First concert you went to?

Cliff Richard at the Perth Entertainment Centre in 1988. I was so inspired. I was 17 and dressed like a punk with half of my head shaved. I had just got my license and went with no mates. Seriously, who wanted to see Cliff Richard at 17? Um… me!

How were you raised?

My mum was and has always been a great communicator. She certainly was not strict and in many cases I felt like the adult in our relationship. Mum is young at heart, an extrovert, a proud galah and therefore rebellion for me was about being introverted and aloof. Think Ab Fab, Mum as Edwina and me as Saffy and you wouldn’t be far off!

Mum was a single parent, I never really knew my father and she raised us four kids alone, on the pension. Her mum (my nanna) who has now passed, had six kids under the age of five (three sets of twins) whom she raised alone, after my grandfather had a sudden heart attack when my mum was only 5.

What were your mother’s morals and values?

Mum raised us to always use our manners, give our seat up for others if we were on public transport, and to make friends at school with those who had no friends. She always told us to follow our hearts. Most importantly, she would let us talk over anything and everything, so I never felt unable to tell my mum something as I knew she would never judge me.

Do you have an example of her displaying this/these from when you grew up?

During the winter, Mum would often drive down to our primary school at lunchtime, and we’d jump into the warm car and she’d have hot homemade soup and buttered toast. She’d be at every sports event, stage play, footy game with my brother, always front and centre cheering for us. Always the loudest in the crowd!

I always had big aspirations for my life to be a singer-songwriter. At age 19 I left home from Perth straight to LA and mum always encouraged me to spread my wings. She reinforced in me that I was clever, beautiful, worthy and enough – but that life was about taking risks. So that’s exactly what I did.

Was there a time when you and your mother didn’t see eye to eye?

Absolutely. As a kid, my mum could do no wrong, but when you grow and you look back at your childhood, it’s with great difficulty to see some of the choices made by your parents that negatively impacted you. I have wrestled with it, but I can see that my mum made the best choices she could at the time. She was young to be on her own raising three children, but nevertheless, she never walked out on her responsibility.

What teachings/values/morals from your mother have you taken and/or implemented into your own family?

It’s the small simple things that mum did for me as a kid that impacted my own parenting. My son and I have a really close relationship. I really cannot recall a time when she put me down – she always lifted me up. I have tried my best to do the same for my son. Understanding and learning who your child is, rather than what you expect them to be, has been another great lesson from mum.

Happiest family childhood memory?

Happiest memory would be school holidays up in Lancelin, which is two hours north of Perth on the coast. My nanna (Elsie) had a little fishing holiday shack there and we would drive in our beaten up old Holden, mum at the steering wheel singing with us all at the top of our lungs. All of us kids would play all day in the sand dunes, jump at the local trampoline place, and buy icy poles at the milk bar. It would always be a hot summer, the smell of seaweed and the Indian Ocean wafting over the fishing village. We would come back from our adventures at sunset to eat. We’d play cards, mess about on the bunk beds until we could no longer keep our eyes open. We were young, innocent and completely carefree.

When did you know you wanted to work/be part of the music industry?

Having a great love of music from such a young age ensured I would never work in any other industry. Working as a musician since the age of 7 through to my early 30s enabled me to learn a lot about the different aspects of the industry.

When I worked as a temp as a struggling musician living in London and Melbourne, I worked in many places, many offices and realised that I needed a more liberated environment to work within.

What was your first industry job?

I temped at AusMusic in South Melbourne in the early 90s and was so excited that I was asked to deliver an envelope to Ross Wilson. I also sang on a number on jingles, but on the business side it would have to be lecturing and coordinating the Sound Production course at RMIT in 1995. From there I moved to London (in 1999) and commenced work at the Performing Artists Music Rights Assoc. (PAMRA), set up by the Musicians Union in the UK. All my experience as a vocalist, temp and lecturer led to this position, which was something I fell into whilst I was living as a singer-songwriter in London.

Were there any female mentors you felt you could call upon when you started out or did you have to navigate your own path?

I had to navigate my own path, but as a kid performing on a weekly Perth TV show called Stars of The Future, Inga Immelman – who ran the Johnny Young Talent School with her daughter Jackie Immelman (who changed her name to Jackie Love) – would spend time helping me to focus on how to be professional as a music artist, and to take the business seriously.

Inga chaperoned me to my first appearance on Young Talent Time in Melbourne circa 1979 aged 8. I was so excited as we flew on Ansett to Melbourne, which was the first time I had ever been on a plane. We sat next to Cilla Black who was in the country at the time and stayed at The Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne’s CBD. I’ll never forget how grown up I felt and Inga talking to me about having a work ethic to achieve success.

Were there women you looked up to at any time in your life who wasn’t your mum?

As I came from the poorer suburbs of Perth, sadly there were not any particular aspirational women that I looked to. I saw a lot of abuse and heard a lot of these discussions amongst the women and as a kid, decided I never wanted to be left in such a vulnerable position. So I worked hard to ensure that would never happen to me and started saving all my prize and appearance money from TV and talent quests to forge a way towards realising my dream.

My best friend when I was 10 was a girl named Belinda and her mum was also raising three kids alone. She went out and got her real estate license and it was the first time I’d really seen a woman, a mum, try to carve out a career for herself. She would then do up old houses and sell them to make a living. Once when she was talking to my mum in the garden, I was sat upon a swing making up songs. She encouraged me to write saying that it was something I could actually do for a living. It was such a short moment in time, but it had a real impact on me.

Did you always know you wanted a child?

I was 37 when I had my son. I was married to a wonderful man; a Melbourne musician and studio engineer. He wanted to start having children when I was younger, around 32, but I was still pushing on my dream to become a successful songwriter. Sadly, my ambition ultimately split us up. I knew I wanted children but didn’t like that time was telling me to get a move on. We tried to have kids, but I never fell pregnant. It wasn’t until we had gone our separate ways, and I moved to London that I met my new partner. I fell pregnant unexpectedly, within the first month of our relationship, and still, I didn’t feel ready. I felt there was so much more I needed to achieve and was of the belief that I couldn’t do it with a child.

Did you worry about how you would make motherhood and the music industry work?

I guess I never would have felt I was ready to be a mum. I was so busy carving out a life for myself and in hindsight realising that my lifelong dream had not come to fruition. I was on the other side of the world, with a man I hardly knew, pregnant with his child and expanding a new company.

I was never going to slow down. I was fearful, I wanted a family but had no idea how that would work with being a businesswoman. I had no female role models or mentors showing me how to be a career woman and a mother, so like everything else in my life, I just had to get on with it.

Fortunately, the minute my son was born, and I heard him cry, I fell in love. I instantly became a lioness, and he was my cub. I felt all the mothering I had experienced flow through me in those first few hours of my son’s life and I knew despite the situation I was in, I would be fine.

As a single mother, there is an expectation in society and/or the workplace that you just have to get on with it and deliver. What kind of pressure does this place on you?

I hail from a hard childhood and poverty. There was no father and a real lack of education and opportunities. So, if I did not pick myself up and dust myself off, there was no one that was going to do that for me, with or without child. I think that type of upbringing certainly toughens you up.

My mum would tell me that nanna would say to her, you got yourself into this situation, now you have to figure it out, just like I did. Women in my line are tough.

The pressure on me is the pressure I applied to myself. I could have worked in a less demanding job, but I chose to still chase my dreams, but now with my beautiful son keeping me grounded.

Was there a time when it fell apart? Or felt like it was going to?

When my marriage fell apart and I moved to London from Melbourne, expanded my new company into the UK, fell pregnant to my new partner (who became my business partner too), only to discover he was a con man, who took over my company by unlawfully writing himself in as the majority shareholder without my knowledge or consent, I wondered how I would survive.

I was right back to where it all began for my mum, but the difference was I was 37, not 25 as she was, and knew I had to stop pushing so hard. I had to let go and trust I would find a way out, but for now, I had to concentrate on finding a new home back in Australia, to give my son security and a peaceful non-violent environment.

I had no option but to walk out on my career as I couldn’t work for my own company, thus could not afford the childcare in London, and had no family in the UK to help.

I decided to focus on my son and for his life to be the priority, and somehow, my survival instinct as a mother and a woman, would see to it that he would be ok.

Moving back to Perth, finding a little shack near the ocean, was miles apart from living in the heart of London, travelling to New York, LA or Paris on a regular basis to sign major artists. But as I tucked my son into his little bed, kissed his forehead and sang ‘Baby Mine’ to him, none of it mattered. Motherhood had finally reshaped my priorities for the better.

Over the following few years, I slowly, brick by brick built up the Australian branch of my company. But then the next challenge came, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, my son now 5 – and me waking up one morning thinking – I really believed I had longer to live. It was a massive shock but fortunately now, I had a secure home, my family around me, and friends poured out left right and centre. It was truly a remarkable time.

Since having your son – what has been your proudest moment?

Watching my son’s resilience. Despite not being gifted in the sporting arena, my son shows great courage and tenacity. I feel he has witnessed a lot from afar through our challenges. I have always maintained that it’s not about where you place, but how you challenged yourself. Was it your best effort? Watching him come last in a race, but still seeing him participate where others would not dare to put themselves out there. I truly revere that about my son.

Another moment was last week. We were watching a film about a mother losing her husband and the son feeling abandoned by her grief. My son, who is now 13, paused the movie and looked into my eyes and said “Mum, I just wanted you to know I never felt fearful that I was going to lose you when you went through cancer. I could see you were sick, you had no hair, and were regularly in hospital, but you always made me feel safe and we still had lots of happy fun days together. I just wanted to thank you as it must have been so hard to stay positive when you didn’t know deep down if you were going to make it.”

Those kinds of words are all you need.

How do you balance your time with the needs of your child?

School holidays are always a challenge. The way we work it is I often get up early to focus on those hard things I need to get out of the way, and work until midafternoon without a break. We need structure in our day, so we usually have plans to do something silly together like go roller skating in the afternoon and share a movie night together.

We always have our special Friday family movie night together, nothing gets in the way of that, and I try to take my son to gigs where possible, and when in the office, I try to be home early from work when he gets in at 4pm or 5pm to hang out with him.

What do you do to take time out for yourself?

To be honest, I don’t have a lot of me time. So perhaps a morning walk with the puppy and coffee, and a chat to a friend is all I do.

Spending time gardening or re-establishing my vinyl collection and record player, playing piano, painting are things I wish I had more time for, but that will come.

One of the perks of the industry is seeing a lot of music and free tickets, so we are encouraged to do that. So if I can find a babysitter and have enough energy, I’ll go to a gig.

Best piece of advice given to you?

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. A person’s life is a reflection of their heart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jane Gazzo
Jane Gazzo is a broadcaster, TV presenter, music journalist and published author who began her career in radio, aged 16. Since then, she has presented nationally on Triple M and Triple J as well as BBC Radio 6 in the UK and has hosted television shows such as Recovery on ABC TV. She spent eight years as a presenter on Foxtel's Channel V, where she reported from music festivals, red carpet events and hosted live TV shows, interviewing some of the biggest and best names in the music world.

In 2018 Jane became Chair of the Australian Music Vault Advisory Group and in 2020 she hosted ABC-TV's flagship music show THE SOUND and co-founded the popular Facebook site Sound As Ever (Australia Indie 90-99).