Music Leader Trainee Profile - Leroy Lupton
Leroy Lupton has been part of More Music for many years, coming here as a participant as a teenager and forming his first bands at Stages, our young music sessions. After leaving to study for a music production degree at Salford, he has returned and become a valued trainee on several projects. Here he explains his musical background and what he has been doing as part of More Music.
Q - What’s your musical passion?
A - My musical passion lies within composition, more specifically writing pop music and dissecting songs to find out what makes them effective and successful. Though I love playing the guitar, drums, synthesiser and singing live, I am mostly passionate about the creation of new music - whether it be producing electronic music using sampling on Logic Pro or simply sitting with a pad, a pen and my acoustic guitar. I think I like the freedom and unpredictability of it. Though there are 'rules' to music (such as scale, time signature and key), the rules can be broken and this is how new styles and genres are created. With the power of new music production technology at hand, the compositional possibilities are endless. That excites me.
Q - What you have done before (gigs / teaching etc)?
A - I studied at the University of Salford and attained a 1st class BA Honours degree in Popular Music Production. I have been professionally recording and producing from my home recording studio for the past 2 years and a year ago I wrote, recorded, produced and released my first solo album which is available on iTunes, Amazon & Spotify. During my 8 years of music making i've performed my songs at hundreds of gigs with various bands playing electric guitar, synthesiser and singing. Music stylings have ranged from Pop Punk to Hip Hop, from Electronica to Alternative R&B and everywhere in between. In my first band A48 (a pop punk quintet), we toured the country playing various venues and supporting bands such as Br:gade, All Time Low and Cancer Bats. In my current band 'Schøøltrip' (nu-disco electronica 5-piece), we were selected by Sony Music representatives to play at the Sony Music industry event 'Platform' at Archer Street Live in Soho.
Q - What have you done with us?
A - I have been volunteering and training/working as a freelancer for More Music for over a year now. In the last year I have led numerous music workshops including Stages band night, the Friday Night Project and BeatVox (beatboxing). I have took the role as lead studio engineer and producer on many recording sessions (which I have most confidence in) and have also worked as a sound engineer for numerous More Music gigs. I have helped young people with songwriting, lyric writing and understanding different composition methods. I have also provided instrument tuition for guitar, bass, piano, drums, singing and rapping. I composed and directed all music for last year's 'Celebrate Youth Awards' ceremony. I have taught beatboxing in primary schools across Lancashire and have worked with special needs children at the Loyne School.
Q - What are 3 key things you've learnt by doing this?
A - 1. I thrive under pressure. I really like a challenge and More Music have provided me with several.
2. The best way of learning something (i.e. how to deliver successful music workshops) is simply doing it - I was extremely nervous and timid about leading a workshop for the first time by myself but after shadowing other More Music music leaders and being thrown in at the deep end I realised there's nothing to be afraid of and often just 'going for it' works wonders.
3. So many new ideas and skills such as teaching techniques, workshop games, beatboxing and live sound engineering.
Q - What are you up to now?
A - When I'm not writing, recording, rehearsing or playing live with my band 'SCHØØLTRIP', I am often working from home in my recording studio recording and producing local musicians. I make hip-hop and grime instrumentals to sell to rappers or MCs which I enjoy immensely. I also work for More Music on various projects (Unique Kidz at The Loyne School, The Foyer in Morecambe and Friday Night Project for disadvantaged youths at The Hothouse).
Find out more about More Music at www.moremusic.org.uk