We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Priya Minhas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Priya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?
I’ve said this often but Joseph Patel, the exceptional producer behind “Summer of Soul” was the person who gave me an opportunity to work on the original content team at Vevo as a producer that truly changed the trajectory of my life. I wouldn’t be directing or ever have worked in the music industry if it were not for him. At that time, I had a lifelong passion for music and storytelling, an intense work ethic but no direction or idea of what kinds of opportunities or careers were possible for someone like myself. I was riddled with imposter syndrome about the transition from writing to video but I remember Joseph explaining that I could be taught the technical aspects of production but I was someone who knew how to tell a story and that was something he couldn’t teach. I had no idea what that meant at the time but I trusted the process and looking back now, those words ring true because directing feels innately true to me, like all the dots in my brain connect. I credit Joseph for recognizing that and putting me in the right environment to grow.
There’s no better way to learn than doing something over and over again and he gave me that opportunity to get my reps in as a producer. I had the space to learn the production world, get my foot in the music industry and more importantly to make mistakes under his guidance and I grew so quickly as a result. I also got to watch how he commanded the room and built rapport with artists, something that’s been critical to my ability to do the work I do. To me he’s an example of someone who works relentlessly to be a master of his craft and has found success doing so while being an incredibly kind human being and mentor.
We talk a lot about representation and community and they have become somewhat buzzwords but Joseph is one of the few people I’ve encountered who truly walks the walk. He gave me a shot when I was by no means the obvious person to bet on and has remained in my corner ever since. He has coached me through many firsts, good and bad. He was the first person to pay me what I deserved, has taught me to advocate what I’m worth, fought to bring me into rooms and continues to say my name in spaces I’m not in yet. When my grandmother passed away a few years ago, he pushed a shoot back instead of assigning another producer because he knew how much the opportunity meant to me and how hard I worked for it. On his victory lap in 2022, he called me between award ceremonies and flights to check how I was doing after quitting my job to bet on myself and direct full time as a freelancer.
Joseph has pushed me to be a better producer and director but most importantly, he’s shown me how powerful it is to have someone believe in you and then actually put the work in to help you fulfill the potential they see in you. The list goes on but I say all of this to say that at every step he has made the decision to nurture the potential of others and carve space for us when it hasn’t always been easy to do so. I’ve watched him lead with kindness, move with integrity over and over again in an industry that honestly makes it easy to do the opposite. He’s shown that you can be a perpetual student and still teach others. To this day, who I choose to hire, the way I choose to lead a team and the responsibility I feel to continue sending the ladder back down for those starting out is heavily shaped by his example.
I believe deeply that it’s not just what you do, it’s how you go about it and who you raise with you as you rise. There’s a whole community of artists and black and brown storytellers who will echo how I feel about Joseph being pivotal to their growth and that is truly what great legacies are made of.
On a more personal level, closer to home, I am deeply influenced and increasingly inspired by people within my family. Many of the women in my family are social workers, therapists and coaches. My grandfather started a non-profit at 60 and has gone on to build hospitals, schools and orphanages in remote parts of India. I could fill pages about their work and how it absolutely shapes the stories I want to tell but I think just being raised around people driven by a sense of purpose, who have a steadfast dedication to their work and community has been incredibly valuable to me. Persevering as a creative, especially in today’s landscape, requires a similar sense of steadfast devotion to the craft, resilience and faith in the process. I am a firm believer that you cannot do it without community and a deep sense of purpose bigger than yourself and I am fuelled by mine.
I believe creativity is a state of being and as I get older, I am incredibly aware of the fact that many of the people I grew up around were artists who weren’t afforded the opportunity to nurture or pursue that part of themselves. I standby the fact that I have friends who are much more talented than me but had to pursue more stable or traditional careers to support their families. Equally, I saw people in my family who struck out against all odds to pursue a career in music in the 90s which I think planted and watered the seeds for my own aspirations. Two of my uncles are self-taught musicians who created one of the first bhangra bands in the UK in the 90s. As young as 3 or 4, I saw them recording in the studio, on stage at shows and recorded an interlude on their sophomore album. They gave me my first keyboard and years later loaded my ipod with tens of thousands of songs. Another uncle founded one of the first British Asian record labels in the early 2000s. The more I navigate this industry as an Indian woman, the more I look back and recognize just how much they achieved with no support, no financial resources or “in” and just how far they were able to take it and how much their love for music nourished my own passion at a young age.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi, I’m Priya Minhas. I’m a Director and Creative Director from the UK and am now based in the US.
As a director, my work spans everything from original content and live performances, to music videos and short-form docs and social content and over the years I’ve been able to collaborate with some of the most exciting names in music including Pop Smoke, Billie Eilish, Summer Walker, Giggs, Jessie Reyez, Yungblud, and Coco Jones. I spent a long time working closely with artists across all genres to help craft a visual identity, connect with audiences and tell their story and this evolved into becoming a creative director. I oversee the ideation, production and execution of all visual assets, including artwork, styling, music videos, live performances and tour visuals to develop a cohesive look and narrative throughout an album or EP roll-out. Some recent highlights include creative direction for Karan Aujla’s 2024 Performances at the JUNO awards and Summer Walker’s headline set at the Crypto Arena and directing the “Shut Up” music video for Jessie Reyez.
I got my start at Vevo where I produced and directed original content. I directed live performances and short films for Olivia Rodrigo, Yungblud and that performance of Doja Cat as well as the “dscvr” live performances series. I also developed new turnkey formats for Vevo’s original content, such as “Footnotes” which takes fans behind the scenes of latest music videos and a weekly music video reaction show “Watch This.” This led to me becoming the Director of Creative Content at Love Renaissance (LVRN), where I oversaw the overall artist creative direction of all visual assets for the roster.
My work as a director often explores diasporic identities and always somehow traces back to the stories, people and places that raised me. I’m passionate about telling stories that emerge from the margins and that feel grounded in the energy and intimacy of everyday life. In 2019, I was a contributing writer to The Good Immigrant USA, an award-winning best-selling anthology exploring race and in 2020 was chosen as one of six directors for the inaugural class of The Salon, a mentorship program aimed at nurturing and amplifying South Asian talent. In 2023, I won the CREATE prize at the Beauty & You Awards aimed at celebrating the next generation of Indian talent which has allowed the opportunity to write and direct my first narrative short.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I firmly believe that directing is a team sport. It’s incredibly communal and collaborative and as someone who has moved around so much since I was a kid, I have realized that I find a lot of joy and comfort in working with a creative team and seeing the passion and craft of everyone around me working towards the same goal.
I truly love every part of the process and that’s what sustains me. Coming up with ideas, researching, building the team, writing shot-lists, fittings, rehearsals, the adrenalin of a shoot day, sitting for hours in post-production agonizing over tiny tweaks. All of it. No two days are the same and I am able to learn so much about the world, people, other artistic mediums, cultures and places through the lens of each project. As much as my fingerprints are on everything I’ve made, I also come out of each project having grown and been shaped by it in some way. On a more purpose-driven level, I find it extremely rewarding to see how things I make go on to exist in the world and excite or resonate with people I’ve never met. I got to see a stadium full of Summer Walker fans react in real time to an intro video I shot, or South Asians across the diaspora share and celebrate Karan Aujla’s live television performance at the JUNO awards or Doja Cat fans make posters and fan art of the Street’s performance I directed. To this day, I get messages from women of all ages who read my essay in “The Good Immigrant” which is incredibly moving. That being said, I think this would be an extremely difficult career path to sustain if I was only focused on the final finished piece or external reception of my work so I’m very much fueled by the journey and the day to day of the creative process itself.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Directing has forced me to confront and unlearn so much about myself. As a director, you set the tone of the room. Regardless of your style of leadership or personality, you have to command the room and get people to believe in your vision as clearly and deeply as you do despite every setback or “no.” For me that meant unlocking a braver, bolder and more assertive version of myself that is closer to who I had been as a child but gradually shyed away from as I got older. As a director, you have to be confident in asking for what you want, exactly as you imagine it and you have to be committed and confident enough to speak up when something isn’t right even if you’re down to the wire or it inconveniences someone. Usually, I’m the person who wouldn’t even want to send the wrong order back at a restaurant and have been raised to think of everyone else’s comfort before my own but as a director, I’ve had to unlearn and push past whatever conditioning or discomfort exists in these moments in service of bringing the idea to life the best I can. Most education systems reward you for playing by the rules or playing small but directing has forced me to step outside of that. It gives me this kind of “by any means necessary” mindset that makes me hellbent on bringing something to life despite the odds which is really the only reason I was able to get some of my earlier projects off the ground to the level I did.
Directing for me is also an exercise in bringing me closer to my intuition which I traditionally had learned to question or quieten. There’s an element of surrendering to my own instincts and trusting my gut that comes with directing that I am incredibly grateful for because you prepare for weeks on end and inevitably your plans go out the window in some shape or form on the day but something else takes over in the moment and you make something better than you ever could have planned for. Each time that happens, it builds my confidence and ability to trust myself which I think is incredible important as a brown woman in this industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.priyaminhas.com
