Screaming about the new year!
XLR Sessions at KWMC in Bristol have been super busy during the last few months, and now seems like an apt time to give you an update!
(This is Louis, we'll tell you more about him later!)
XLR Sessions are now in the second year of the weekly music development sessions at Knowle West Media Centre. Over the year we have worked with a wide range of young people, from open access, to specialised SEN sessions, school sessions and one-to-one mentoring. The group of young people we are working with are incredibly talented, and are an inspiring bunch of musicians. Over the year we've made some observations that we thought maybe of interest to other groups working within local communities. We'll break down some individual stories over a few posts in a bid to help other lovely Youth Music groups.
Musical direction (an overview) My Plague
At the start of XLR Sessions in October 2014 folr the first 6 month block our aim was to allow young people to create whatever form of music they like BUT as we all know this is harder to achieve in practice. We found that genre based groups quickly formed, and the masterclasses and workshops were steering more towards hip-hop and soul, which pushed out the rock, folk and indie focused young people. So in block 2 we changed focus and created ensemble based tracks, involving various styles and developing group tracks. This was fine but it pushed out the vocalists when the instrumentalists were developing the tracks (which was their prefered compositional route) SO we started steering the group a little more, splitting them into small groups and focusing on their individual areas. This created some key performers who were ready and eager to perform, record and develop themselves as artists. This is where the lovely fella screaming in the picture above, Louis, comes in. Both of the XLR team had worked with Louis at one of our session partners sessions. For years he has wanted to develop a Metal band, but was too talented for most young bands, and adult groups posed safeguarding issues, so we were determined to help find some suitable musicians, and that's what we did! We pulled together Morgan, an amazingly talented drummer, introduced to us by Access To Music, and Germaine, who was originally a drummer, but has VERY quickly picked up bass. The trio were developing some brilliant covers, but Louis wanted to develop his vocal / screamo skills so they needed a lead guitarist to work on new material and develop their live show. Louis tracked down Connor, and so My Plague was born! We wanted the group to pull together, and feel the tangible buzz of creating a new band, so we requested the help of talented design team uchi, who worked with the group to create their own logo. It's looking pretty awesome! We'll post it up once it's completed! The group have been regularly performing, rehearsing, recording and are set to make a big bang on the local mental scene in 2016.
(Ella Jones performing at Vybe Fest 2015)
Ella Jones
Ella has been performing acoustic covers for a number of years now across the city. Her skills are developing, along with her confidence, but we wanted Ella to challenge herself and not get pidgeon holed. So over the last block of sessions we have been offering her various challenges, which she has faced with grace and style. With the new cohort of young people in block 3, Ella, along with Louis, Germaine, and Charlie (who you will meet in a minute), have started mentoring our new group, and they are doing an amazing job! Ella has been working with some of the girls involved in the group, working on lyrics, and working with some of the more vulnerable / less confident group members. Musically, she has began learning piano, and in December she performed with piano for the first ever time and did an amazing job! Over the coming months we will be helping her to develop an original live show, with the aim to eventually only perform one cover per live set.
Charlie
Charlie is very talented MC and spoken word artist. A year ago he stepped up on stage and had a few stumbled lines, this dramatically knocked his confidence, and we've been tryign to get him back on stage ever since, and in December we did! He performed an accapella piece about the distance created in families due to technology in the home. It was received with interest and appreciation and Charlie is now set to record a new piece in February and aim to develop a few more pieces to perform live. Charlie has become an amazing mentor for our younger group, and is a huge asset to XLR Sessions.
SO! That's us! We'll be back soon for more insight into the first year of our weekly, Youth Music funded sessions. Please feel free to comment, get in touch, or collaborate! Thanks and Happy New Year!