In 2018 we ran a one day music production workshop led by producer and artist Emmavie for women and non-binary producers by transforming a dull green room into a pop-up production studio as part of B-Side festival in Birmingham. Budding producers travelled from Nottingham, Birmingham, London, Leicester and Brighton to attend the workshop. This workshop affirmed that we needed to design and build more spaces like this and ensure they are accessed by those who need it most. As well as being inspired by the myriad of talent in our home cities, a core question for us was “how can we offer high quality music development spaces with tangible opportunities to grow creatively, professionally, and get paid in music?” So after hosting a bunch of industry mixers, talks, workshops and IRL space for the local music community to gather, share stories and exchange ideas, we also noticed that we could self-reference in these spaces and how important it is to do so. This phenomenon further inspired our focus to nurture minority and local talent. Our approach to enabling change for our community is human-centred and always intentional. Practically, we evoke change by centering well-being in our work, by widening our participants’ industry experiences with education and up-skilling as a root and we use our networks to help strengthen their network. 

Fast forward to this day, we continue to provide music development opportunities, responding to development needs as expressed by our community. Rather than assuming what they need, we just ask and take it from there. Our popular music production camps led by our now ambassador Emmavie have been championed by Ableton and have been a reliable place of camaraderie and solidarity for talent who have been significantly underrepresented in these pockets of music. Our growing community is made up of music makers and industry execs at various career stages. They continue to remind us of the importance of staying fluid in our approach to designing and producing work which acknowledges the shifting nuances of what it is like to be a modern day music professional.