In May this year, I was in Medellín, Colombia for Un-convention. As part of that we travelled around the city seeing some of the great work that young community leaders were doing through hip hop culture. These guys are amazing. They run after-school programmes and community projects teaching kids how to rap, break-dance and do [...]
Categories: Musician
No You No Me by Evil Men Have No Songs I was looking for a Hungarian band to feature as Bandcamp du jour since I’m in Budapest, but there weren’t that many to choose from. Hardly any Hungarian bands use the service. Fortunately, the Evil Men Have No Songs EP was up there, and I [...]
Categories: Musician
Tagged: Evil Men Have No Songs, Hungary
Born to be Wide seminar in Edinburgh, as seen from the panel [Audio clip: view full post to listen] This is a recording I made of the panel I was on with Steve from Music Ally, Ruth from Fat Northerner and Un-Convention, Scott from The Orchard and the BPI, and Will from PRS (who was [...]
Categories: Music,Musician,New Music Strategies
Photo by Sea Dream Studio Yesterday, I bought some great music on Bandcamp by Civil Civic, and then I made it today’s ‘Bandcamp du jour’. The music’s available on some very cool collectible cassettes, but I just wanted the digital version. Anyway, I’ve had quite a few comments from people saying how much they like [...]
Remember my friend Novel (Ashley Deveaux) from the Bahamas? He’s entered a competition with his production team Archetype Infinity to work with Ryan Leslie in New York. Seems pretty important to him and he’s a talented guy – so I thought I’d do what I could to help him out. All you have to do [...]
Categories: Musician
Tagged: Bahamas, Competition, Novel
Dave Holland videos some Conservatoire students I’m working on a project this week at the Conservatoire. Dave Holland, the jazz bass player, is doing a one week teaching residence there, and a bunch of students get to work with him and put on a performance of his compositions later in the week. It’s a pretty [...]
Categories: 365,Birmingham,Education,Musician
Tagged: Conservatoire, Dave Holland, jazz
Anthony Herron from Boy Wonder Records and Brian Travers from UB40 I had an interesting lunch that stretched to a whole afternoon at Cafe Soya (my favourite place to get Won Ton Noodle Soup). I was there with Jez Collins, who I work with at the university; my neighbour and local record label expert / [...]
Categories: 365,Birmingham,Food,Musician
Ashley Deveaux aka Novel “Make Me Say” by Sketch feat. Novel A couple of months back, I received an email from a young guy who’s producing and performing music in the Bahamas. For a while I couldn’t really figure out what he did (he describes himself as a ‘vocal producer’), but he’s one of a [...]
Categories: Musician
Listening to the Safires album with David and Kirk A big football night in Manchester, so I chose to stay in, listening to the freshly-mastered album by the Safires. David (left), with whom I’m sharing an apartment for the duration of the Aftershock Project, is the bass player and producer/engineer for the band. Kirk, the [...]
Categories: 365,Music,Musician
Tagged: Manchester, Photo, safires
[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Abraxxxas is a rapper from Marseille. His real name’s Gabriel, but his stage name has three Xs in it, which is way cooler. I met him at Aftershock Marseille back in September last year, but that happened so quickly. I’m getting a bit more time to get to [...]
Categories: Musician
