Fuse It! An innovative music project for young people in Waltham Forest

Fuse It! is a performance, composition and recording project which is free to local young people and run by Khyal Arts at The Soul Project, Walthamstow  Classical Indian music with a twist, this project fuses tradition and future. Along with the opportunity to learn traditional vocal music, the group will compose a piece that combines drumming and beat boxing.

Young people in the Walthamstow area have been working with professional musicians since February on Fuse It!  Experimenting with sound, young participants have been exploring the power of loop pedals, layering sounds and using their voices as percussive instruments. The final outcome promises to be experimental, raw, layered and beautiful. 

We have encouraged the participation of writers, singers, drummers, musicians and poets in addition to the young people who are using the drop-in youth space where we are working.  By both keeping the scope broad and being specific about the kind of creativity that young people are encouraged to bring, I believe we are keeping the project fresh, exciting and inclusive. 

Professional musicians beat boxer Killakela, tabla drummer David Naylor and classical Indian vocalist Charlie Hare have been leading workshops every Wednesday during term time, building confidence in young participants, sharing skills and experimenting with fusing traditional Indian and contemporary sounds.  The young participants, aged from only 8 years old, are composing, making beats and rhythms and working collaboratively. 9-year-old Gabriel says “Working with Lee (Beatboxer, Killakela) is amazing because he’s a professional beatboxer”.

The project to date has been deliberately supportive of young people’s innate creativity and whilst we have been delivering skills development workshops, when young people have shown an initiative to create anew sound, rhythm or pattern, we have encouraged and supported them to do so.  The results, for me, have been mind blowingly original.

We are mid way through the 5 month project and, with a 30 minute live performance slot ahead of us at Walthamstow Garden Party, we are getting to the point where critical decisions need to be made about the final compositions that we play and/or the improvisations that we will perform.  To this end, I have scheduled a 4-hour half term workshop that will specifically work on composition and will define what our 30 minute set looks and sounds like.  What will happen? I’ll post again at the end of the project!