Young Producers Blog: “We all Experience ‘Breakthrough’ Moments”

March 3, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Young Producers is a new project for young people who have taken part in Making Tracks, supported by the Arts Patron Trust. Our first 2 Young Producers Helen and Johnny are collaborating to put on a gig involving other young people and will be blogging about the process.

Helen’s Blog #5:

The day of the gig has arrived!

It was a later start than the previous two days, but everyone still came with the same mindset to put their all in to everything they did.

We got cracking with ‘Everybody Needs Music’, because I expressed my concerns about harmonising.

After some more thought on it, I decided to go on to the keyboard instead. The part was trickier than I had expected, and the tempo to which I was playing changed during the song. I felt like between harmonising and playing the keyboard, I didn’t give my best performance to the song; which was a real pity, as it was my favourite one.

It was really frustrating that I was unable to play the keyboard part perfectly on the night, but I had to remind myself that I am human, and humans make mistakes; and I’d only played my part twice before the live performance.

We then rehearsed ‘Phoenix’, and ‘Strive’; which both went well, before the soloists rehearsed their tracks.

By this point, I was feeling really stressed out, and wish I had been able to enjoy the rehearsals more.

It was time for the performance, and I felt a little calmer. Johnny and I went up to introduce the event, and it went well, even though we had never rehearsed what we were going to say. We then started the gig with ‘Phoenix’.

In the rehearsals, this hadn’t gone very well, but the performance sounded fine.

Paradox then went on to perform his two tracks, which were brilliant. His second track; ‘work like that’ was especially good, as he got the audience involved by getting them to join in on parts of the chorus.

We then moved on to ‘Strive’; which again, went really well. I hope Louisa was pleased with it, because she did amazingly.

Next, it was Nirobi, who performed 3 tracks. As always, she was wonderful. My favourite track of hers was ‘Parallel Universe’; it’s still stuck in my head!

Then, we performed ‘Everybody Needs Music’ which went really well; even though I felt like I’d messed up on the keyboard.

I was feeling flustered again after messing up, and then said the ‘thank you’s to everyone, totally having missed out Pedro’s solo tracks.

Despite my mess up, Pedro went on stage and performed three amazing tracks, as if nothing had happened. I found I really related to some of his lyrics, and really enjoyed hearing his tracks. I guess that’s just part of performing; but it was so nice to see how everyone had grown and progressed during their time with the Irene Taylor Trust, and how, ironically, I was one of the first making tracks participants performing that night, but people who’d started their journey later than me seemed less nervous and more professional.

However, I wasn’t ashamed, or embarrassed, I was just really happy for everyone else, and felt so privileged to have seen parts of their journeys.

This is what the Irene Taylor Trust is all about; not numbers and statistics, but being a platform for music lovers to develop both their musical ability, and their ability to make themselves a better future.

We all experience ‘Breakthrough’ moments, but the Irene Taylor Trust have provided me with some of my favourite ones. I couldn’t be more proud, and happy for all the performers, for breaking through all the obstacles.

I’d just like to say a few ‘thank you’s

Firstly, to the Arts Patron’s Trust, for funding and supporting the Young Producers project, and to all the performers and project team. But also, to the people working really hard behind the scenes, like everyone at the Irene Taylor Trust, in particular; Jake, Lauren and Luke. Also, thank you to everyone who came, and does/ has supported the Irene Taylor Trust; you have helped change, in my case even save, lives.

An Interview with Young Producers Helen and Johnny

March 1, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

For the last few weeks, our Young Producers have been planning and rehearsing for their event ‘Artistry Breakthrough’. I caught up with Helen and Johnny at rehearsals the day before the final performance tomorrow at Haunt which will be the culmination of all their hard work.

Tell me about the name Artistry Breakthrough

H: The ‘Breakthrough’ part is about the daily struggle but also the struggle for everyone, everyone breaks through a barrier every day, at least one.

Has rehearsing the music here been a breakthrough for you?

H: Yeah definitely

What’s your favourite track you’re performing tomorrow?

H: I love Everybody Loves Music, it’s just a really great song and everyone has worked together on it which, like the other songs have been someone else’s idea and then it’s been brought to everyone but this one is totally fresh- so thanks Johnny for starting off the process.

What else are you looking forward to tomorrow?

H: I’m really excited to hear the other artists- I haven’t heard all their tracks yet so it’s going to be a real surprise on the night

J: Yeah I’m looking forward to that definitely, because I know they make good music and I know they’re gonna do well.

Most important skills you’ve learned throughout?

H: The most important skill I’ve learnt is just to trust myself and be confident that I can do things

J: That’s a good one yeah, I would agree with that. And meeting people that work in venues or own their own and listening to them because they’ve got a lot of knowledge that you can apply to whatever you’re doing. So that’s something good to bear in mind wherever you are, that there’s always people around that can support you when you’re doing events.

Any advice for future Young Producers?

H: Don’t overthink it, enjoy it while it lasts! I know I overthought it sometimes and stopped enjoying it but like it’s such an amazing opportunity

J: Get involved in any kind of opportunities and support people can offer you to help with the process. Even if you’re doing your own thing, just build up contacts so you can use them helping you, because with events it can cover so many different aspects, so as long as you have a concept you feel strongly about I don’t see why there’s any reason why it shouldn’t be a successful event.

From what I’ve seen in rehearsal today, tomorrow certainly looks set to be a successful event!

Young Producers Blog: Everybody Needs Music

March 1, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Helen’s Blog #4:

The ‘Super Band’ was reunited today.

We started off knowing that Johnny wanted to move away from the guitar and bass, and be up front, doing vocals, but didn’t have the baseline for the song.

Johnny wanted us all to be involved in the process of writing the song, so we started off by Gary playing some different genres of music, and us all voting on which one we felt was best suited to ourselves, Johnny, and to the event.

Eventually, we decided on a blues genre song, and then had to decide whether to have it in a major key, or a minor key; of which Gary played both, and we decided on the Minor key one.

Whilst the rest of the band were working out the musical accompaniment; Fudge, Johnny and I worked on the lyrics.

The beauty of a blues song, is that you can sing about almost anything, and it will still sound amazing, but we decided to keep on the theme of music, and wrote a chorus.

We then wrote a verse for Fudge, in which we added some elements of the chorus.

I was trying to harmonise, but was finding it really difficult, as I’ve never harmonised before, and it was a bit daunting because Fudge has such an amazing voice, and totally kept to the melody, whilst I went off track a bit.

It was challenging, but I persevered.

Young Producers Blog: Holy Rehearsal days at Saint Mark’s Church in Kennington

March 1, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Johnny’s Blog #3

We spent the two rehearsal days in the same building that I first met members of the Irene Taylor Trust, for a making tracks project where we produced, recorded and performed an album in a week. It was nice to be back in a familiar venue with friendly faces, that I have worked with previously. I also grew up in Kennington so it always brings back childhood memories when I’m there.

Making music in such a big room is so refreshing; the sound really echoes through the space around you. There’s something really humbling about making music in a church and it felt like it contributed to us producing soulful sounds and righteous lyrics.

Helen and I were accompanied by a crew of talented musicians that work with the Trust on various projects: Emma (Producer, instrumentalist), Gary (Guitarist), Adrian (singer songwriter) as well as Tegan (Percussionist) from the Royal Academy of Music and Rachel (saxophonist) from Guildhall. We also called in Louisa (singer songwriter) and Pedro (Lyricist) who had both been on a previous “Making Tracks” project with the Trust. It was a really strong team and a pleasure to work with a full band and other vocalists. Lauren, Jake and Celia from the Trust were also there to support us as an audience and document the experience with film, photography and recordings.

We spent the next two days producing 3 tracks: Helen’s poetic song “Phoenix”, Louisa and Adrian’s insightful song “Strive” and Adrian, Pedro and myself wrote to a groovy blues song called “Everybody loves music”. We got some recordings of each of the tracks so people could hear them back, outside of the sessions in preparation for the gig. It was really helpful to have other songwriters there to assist with lyrics and encourage us to contribute to the messages of the songs.

It’s quite exceptional how a roomful of musicians can work so well together, to construct such quality music in such a short space of time. I always find it really inspiring when working with the ITT and it just goes to show what you can achieve with like-minded creatives, to express yourself and have some strong material to perform for an event.

Young Producers Blog: Forming the ‘Super Band’

February 28, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Helen’s Blog #3:

We met for the first day today, to form a ‘super band’ consisting of previous making tracks participants, ‘sounding out’ mentors, a student from Guild Hall, a student from the Royal Academy of Music and Johnny and I.

Between us, we were able to form a band, with everything from a drummer to singers/ rappers.

I am always nervous to form a band with a new set of people, but everyone was really nice, and I felt like we were all included and equals.

We started off with ‘Phoenix’; which was a song I had written whilst in hospital. When it was written, I only had access to a 5 string guitar, so, as you can imagine, it had to be totally reworked musically. I was also unhappy with some of the lyrics, so with Fudge and Louisa’s help, we rewrote some of the lyrics.

It was a difficult process for me; firstly, writing about anything positive, and secondly sharing something I hadn’t shared with anyone before, so I felt quite hesitant, but everyone was really supportive, and after a good couple of hours; the song was finished.

We then started on a previous Making Tracks project song, ‘strive’, as Louisa wanted to revisit it.

The recording sounded amazing, but it was difficult to pick out the chords and replicate what happened in the recording, but we all put our heads together and persevered, and got a brilliant end result.

The chords and the pattern they were in felt quite unique, which was really special for us all. Louisa then put her verses over it, and Fudge wrote two rap verses. I was on the keyboard, and Emma helped me come up with a melodic harmony to the part she was playing on the synth.

At this point in the day, we were all starting to feel pretty tired, and I was really struggling to keep to the correct rhythm during the song.

Young Producer Johnny Interviewed by Sara

February 27, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

The Irene Taylor Trust’s Artistic Director Sara Lee interviewed Young Producer Johnny about his experience taking part in the project, the challenges along the way and his favourite part of the project, the tour of the Roundhouse- “It was really inspiring on a personal level and a good day to be honest – a great day”.

Listen to the whole interview below:

Young Producers Blog: Roundhouse Rising Soundclash!

February 27, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Young Producers is a new project for young people who have taken part in Making Tracks, supported by the Arts Patron Trust.

Johnny’s blog #2

Starting the week in the office on a Friday afternoon was surprisingly refreshing. The lovely Lauren supporting me with the tasks in hand is always a blessing. A change of scenery is appreciated as we sat in the communal hub of the building to have a meeting and write the artist call out for the gig.

I then went on to write my first blog entry, which was a great first experience. Writing a piece to express my experience on this journey as an ITT Young Producer, really helped to show what I have achieved and so others can have an insight into the process as well.

Journey time next, as we set off for our day out to the Roundhouse. On arrival we just about found Pedro through the crowd thanks to his thorough description of his reinvented self. It was a pleasant surprise to see a familiar fellow musician who had been involved in previous creative projects with us (small world).

We passed the surprisingly orderly queue of punks, who were awaiting entry to their mosh-pit gig at the upstairs space of the building.

Once inside we had a warm welcome from Marie who is employed there as a producer. She gave us an extensive behind the scenes tour of the venue from a producer’s point of view.

We went on to immerse ourselves in the Roundhouse Rising Soundclash, which Lauren had impressively bagged us some free tickets for, thanks to her trusty industry contacts of course.

It was a really great event as I had never been to a Soundclash at this venue and I even saw some people I knew from other musical projects performing, which was highly inspirational on a personal level.

We took some interesting pictures of the artists and crowd, as each sound clash group had their own theme to their act, to be crowned the winner by shout outs from the audience. The music was amazing, such a range of genres and some real talent there. I really liked the fact that the artists joined the crowd after their performances.

All In all it was an eye opening day as I would describe it as one of the best working days I have had due to the venue, people we met and atmosphere at the event.

Love to the ITT!

Don’t miss the Young Producers gig ‘Artistry Breakthrough’ on Thurs 2nd March!

Young Producers blog: “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”

February 7, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Helen’s blog #2:

Today was day 3 of our Young Producer’s project

We met up in Dalston, and headed to the venue of our event, Haunt London. It was a really cool venue, and Alex, the owner, showed us the basement, where we would be holding our event, which looked amazing.

We then had a chat with Alex, who was very helpful, giving us templates of documents we should make, as producers, and also giving us some tips.

He also told us a bit about himself, which was very inspiring, and useful, and we had an opportunity to ask him any questions we had.

We then went to NTS Radio, which was amazing. We met Femi, the founder, and Tabitha, who works for NTS.

We sat down with Tabitha, and she told us about the origins of NTS, and about herself, and how she started her career. This was, again, very inspiring. It was very clear they loved what they were doing, and that was such a lovely thing to see.

I can’t begin to thank ITT and their supporters for giving me this opportunity to meet such amazing and inspirational people.

We then sat down, finished off the flyer and the first Mail-Chimp; stay tuned to see the finished products!

Find the event on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/249630915483262/

Young Producers blog: “Life begins outside your comfort zone”

February 1, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Helen’s blog #1:

Today was day two of the Young Producers project.

We had a lot of important things to do, including coming up with an event name, and planning out our marketing strategy.

I personally find it quite hard to look into the future, but i can’t think of a better reason to do so, and push myself, out of my comfort zone.

We also started putting together a flyer and coming up with a ‘blurb’. We wanted to make the event as inclusive and welcoming as possible and hopefully, our ‘blurb’ reflects that.

The event name we came up with was “Artistry Breakthrough”. It is combined by a word from each of us. My word, ‘Breakthrough’ is meant to represent a struggle, and the persistence and effort required to get past it. This could be trying to ‘make it’ in the music industry, or overcoming demons and the paths you set off on.

I am really enjoying working as a team, as we can all use each other’s strengths, and support each other with our weaknesses, and I am privileged to be working as part of such an amazing team.

Find the event on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/249630915483262/

YOUNG PRODUCERS BLOG: “The Intro”

January 27, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

Johnny’s blog #1:

First day, found the ‘CAN’ building on time, nice. Electronic sign in and security, new to this but it makes you feel important I guess. First meeting in the board room with the team was an interesting setting as it almost felt like we were on ‘The Apprentice’. Lord Sugar was not present for the meeting this time, ‘phew’.

We went through an overview of the project and discussed our expectations. This was a useful exercise to talk about what we were going to be part of, in advance as a summary. We identified our artforms, reflected on strengths and weaknesses, set ourselves personal challenges and an action plan to keep on track. We also included how this would be implemented, documented and reflected during the project. We decided on using ‘Artbox’ to upload any of this material.

Then we got down to planning the event. We used a timeline to show from the start to the finish, including key dates and information, which was really useful to see in this format.

Off to a flying start!

Great first day if you ask me. Good to see all the familiar faces from previous events and projects. Felt like we were part of a strong, familiar team. Respect to ITT.