Course Studied: Postgraduate
"Being in a conservatoire environment where everyone is striving to better themselves really made me push myself both musically and spiritually."
What has been the most important thing you've learned at Leeds Conservatoire?
The most important thing I learnt at Leeds Conservatoire was the skill to be able to view my creative practise holistically. Until applying for my masters, my creative approach to making music wasn’t focused. Undertaking my masters allowed me to analyse my creative practise through subjective practise as research with reference to great objective wider reading. Now I have a template/formula to apply to future endeavours that works effectively and gives me further insight into what I create.
What are you planning on doing next after you leave Leeds Conservatoire?
After leaving Leeds Conservatoire, I have been creating a debut LP beat tape for my band Space Dolphin. This has been a long time coming and I’m so excited for this record to be finished in the coming months. The record features some amazing artists such as Harleighblu, Jermaine Peterson, Franky Bones, Alex ‘Motormouf’ Young, Ty Healy, Phenicia Williams and Fold. I’m hoping to pass this on to my Leeds Conservatoire mentor Ben Lamdin (Nostalgia 77) to finally be mastered, ready to be printed physically for a UK tour next year.
As of next week, I begin my Summer Artist residency with Newcastle venue Sage Gateshead. The week will have me spend 60 hours in my studio space creating a spiritual beat tape with Leeds improvisors. I’m hoping this project goes well and creates something unique and novel. I’m hoping to use this time to document the creative process and inter-personal relationships with other improvisors in order to begin my research for a PhD in a similar field. If the format proves fruitful, I’d like to tour this concept in 2021 and create a series of records in this style with many more musicians.
Since leaving Leeds Conservatoire I have also been involved in the creation of three records as a session musician which will be released in the coming year. This includes LP number three with artist Tom Williams, a collaboration with the spiritual jazz band Ancient Infinity Orchestra, and a live studio version of ‘Joyce’ by producer Claude Money and MC J Littles.
Is there anything you've encountered over the last few years that has really made you push yourself as a musician or anything new that you had not tried before?
Being in a conservatoire environment where everyone is striving to better themselves really made me push myself both musically and spiritually. Working within the MMus Creative Musician course allowed me an insight into other people’s disciplines and allowed me to incorporate other skillsets into my work. Working with a string section was definitely novel to me. As a bandleader, I’d never performed solo either, so these were two challenges that jump out at me.
What is the best piece of advice you've been given at Leeds Conservatoire?
My piano tutor Matt Bourne gave me some great grounding tips to use before playing to make myself more comfortable on stage. Musicians can be so self-critical and anxious I find, so learning how to effectively deal with these feelings in a constructive and positive way was a real game changer. My interactions with Matt and the knowledge he shared has definitely shaped my character for the better. Now before performances, I breath deeply, meditate, and really focus my attention to better reach that state of flow which is so integral to good improvisational performance.
What has been the best project / opportunity you've had during your degree?
During my post-graduate degree, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to support Roy Ayers at The Wardrobe. That was definitely a highlight of 2019 for sure.
Other great opportunities from 2019 include playing Giles Peterson’s inaugural We Out Here festival, headlining the main stage at Eden Festival and performing my debut solo performance at Dot2Dot Festival in Nottingham.
What has been the biggest challenge and how has this helped you develop?
The biggest challenge I faced at Leeds Conservatoire was overcoming my aesthetic and idiomatic trappings as a musician; I had embodied creative habits which got in the way when trying to be creative. Undertaking the MMus Creative Musician course allowed me to find new approaches to performance and composition that I would not have been exposed to, had it not been for the amazing tutors at Leeds Conservatoire, the talented peers on my course and the resources at Leeds Conservatoire that facilitated my personal growth.
What is your favourite memory of Leeds Conservatoire?
My fondest memory at Leeds Conservatoire has to be playing with the legend that is Clive Deamer, drummer for Portishead and Radiohead. Portishead are a huge inspiration to me as a performer and producer, and like many other children from the 90’s, I grew up with the sounds of ‘Dummy’ in the home. It was fun to play some of my music from Space Dolphin with Clive to hear where he would take it.
Clive is such a tactile drummer, and made some really interesting points about performing as lightly as possible in a recording environment, in order to get a better breadth of tone from the drums and to capture a better sound overall. Clive likened his practise of music to that of Tai Chi which he also practises, and that comparison really drove home to me that musical performance and practise is a discipline, and should be treated with a certain amount of respect and self-control.
What advice would you give to others thinking of applying to your course at Leeds Conservatoire?
Think hard about what it is you love, think hard about why you love it, think hard about how your creative potential can serve you to become the better musician you deserve to be, and think hard about the world and environment you operate within and how these external factors can better serve you.
How would you describe your experience in three words?
New family found
