Aston Rd was founded in 2010 and is owned and operated by Cushla Aston (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Pikiao).

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Aston Rd specialises in Artist Management, mentoring, music business education, artist development and project management.

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With over a decade of experience in the New Zealand music industry Cushla has worked with notable independent platinum selling acts such as Fat Freddy’s Drop, Kora, Trinity Roots and currently manages Louis Baker.

 

In 2012 Cushla won ‘Upcoming Manager of the Year’ and was a finalist for ‘Manager of the Year’ in 2015 and 2021.  She is the Chairperson for the Music Managers Forum, has over 300 hours of artist mentoring experience supplying services to the MMF and Te Māngai Pāho; and is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University College of Creative Arts delivering the industry paper on Artist Development.  In 2022 Cushla launched Aston Rd Music Career Masterclass, a six module series of Masterclass focused on supporting the careers of ten self-managing and independent artists based in Wellington.

 

Collectively her clients have been winners and finalists in the APRA Silver Scrolls, Taite Music Awards, Aotearoa  Music Awards and NZ Music Critics Choice Awards.  They have toured both nationally and internationally including territories such as the UK, Europe, Asia, Polynesia and Australia.   Acting as her clients’ independent record labels she has also helped them reach Top 10 debuts in the official New Zealand Album Charts.

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Cushla is a certified and accredited life coach, has diplomas in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neurolinguistic Programming, a Mental Health First Aid Certificate and has the Mana Ora - New Zealand Certificate in Māori Business and Management.

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