Fast Forward (Our Youth: Their Music) 

I spent this year reading again and again about the horrific cases of murders in London. A day rarely went by when I didn’t hear of another incident. It all seemed normal to me because of the environment I grew up in, Hackney. My parent’s reaction always reminds me of the abnormality of these incidents. I’ve also found myself becoming over protective of my little brother, who is sixteen years old. There has been a surge in the amount of teenagers being murdered. I worry about his safety and I’m always thinking of ways to keep him occupied and on the right track.

I shared my concern with my good friends Chris and Kodjo. Having identified a problem, it was important to us that we could try and contribute to a solution. I shared the ideas I’d been exploring and expressed my passion of running a workshop over the summer. I wanted to create a space where young artists could drop in and receive full production and engineering on a single record for free, with the hope that it would sway at least a handful of young adults from loitering around the streets with nothing to do.

Chris Figures is the creator and CEO of ‘1figures’. 1figures is a lifestyle brand encompassing fashion, music and culture. Kodjo Glover is a creative and CEO of the creative agency ‘IDB’. I used my network to help bring to fruition our workshop which we named Fast Forward. Chris was holding the annual 1Figures pop up store in Hackney so this seemed like the perfect base for the workshop. I was aided by the expertise of Ruben Joy (Music producer), Adiktive (Sound engineer) and Piratelens Media (Video Production Company) to ensure we could give these artists a professional experience. These services can often be a setback for upcoming artist. The production, recording and engineering would have cost each artist on average £300 for this single record.

We placed an advert online, young artist could register their interest by submitting a link of their recent music via Instagram. We received a number of really exciting submissions and shortlisted our five favourite artists who would have a free 90-minute studio session with Ruben Joy in the 1Figures pop up store. The day was a great opportunity for these artists to network and also receive live feedback from the public on their recordings, which was quite a unique experience. It was a humbling experience, the artist involved were vibrant in their sessions whilst members of the public were blown away seeing the talent live in the flesh. It reminded me that we are the change that we want. There needs to be more exclusive workshops available to our youth. I will be continuing to come up with and bring to fruition more opportunities. Below are images from the day. 

Words written from Frenzy

Photos by: Pirate Lens Media