Music company founder Will Robinson on his new project “Be Scene and Heard” – an opportunity for young deaf music lovers!

My name is Will Robinson and I run a music company in Nottingham called “I’m Not From London.” We’re music promoters at the heart of things and this is our fifteenth year. We have had to halt the live side of things since covid struck but in that time we’ve grown into a record label and music publisher working with the bands we had been putting on at our gigs.

Community is always very much at the forefront of what we do. We like to develop young artists and bands and a lot of our work is with colleges helping people learn about the practicalities of the music industry.

We have a new project coming up called “Be Scene and Heard” which is funded by Youth Music. Our aim is to include young deaf people who are passionate about music. The idea is to get a group of young people who love music and get them writing and recording music and producing music videos.

I will be leading the project with Tricia Gardiner who runs a great community organization called Offshoots where she makes fantastic things happen for people.

We’ll also have different group leaders for different aspects of the course. Molly and Joe, for example, are our West End dancers and choreographers. Before Covid struck Molly was dancing in ‘9 to 5’ with the Hoff understudying Bonnie Langford. Joe is deaf and also studies sign language.

Anyone can apply though we’re particularly interested in applications from people who have any level of hearing loss. They could have tinnitus or be partially or totally deaf. They will be working in groups producing music with others and we will have mentors and West End dancers and choreographers trained in BSL plus interpreters and a covid safe environment.

We have a recording studio, established multi-disciplinary musicians to teach and the end product will be music videos, recordings and a body of work to showcase. We’re very excited about where it might lead!

The project was initially inspired a while ago whenI was approached by a young man, Owen Brindley. He is a radio presenter for the YMCA and has been deaf from birth and wears Cochlear Implants. He contacted me wanting to know if any bands wanted a signer in their groups.

I found it hard to get an already established band to take on an extra member who could sign but realised that there was a whole community who might feel excluded from not only our events, but the live music scene and industry in general and we wanted to address this. Owen was very much the inspiration behind this and he will be one of the mentors on the programme.

I came to realise that the music/creative industries often rely on word of mouth and previous “field” experience to secure work so I can see how this could be problematic to deaf people. I had previously assumed most deaf people knew how to sign though I’ve since found out some learn how to lip read as it enables them to communicate more with people who cannot sign.

I’ve also learned that some people don’t like to mention their deafness at gigs or in the music industry and I was also introduced to induction loops for clubs and music venues which we will be getting for our venue to enhance the gig experience for any guests that have hearing aids to connect to.

I also realised that the more we discuss these issues like signers as part of a band for example, the more likely it is to happen. A local Nottingham culture magazine (Leftlon) interviewed me about the Be Scene and Heard project and I told them about Owen. After the interview he rang me back and said he thought it would be great to have a signer involved in his band.

They auditioned Owen and now he’s going to be practicing and once things return to normal they’ll be playing gigs as a full band with Owen lead signing alongside Bassey the lead singer! That really reassured me that we were doing the right thing!

Danny Lane, who runs the brilliant Sheffield based organisation, Music and The Deaf, has been a great help to us with this project recommending interpreters and giving advice on things that I might not have considered had it not been for Danny. Things such as captioning that we are looking into for the parts of the course too.

We have also been talking to a great Nottingham group called Hear Together who was recommended by Nick Tedd who is deaf and runs the famous Bliss Hair Salon chain. He gave me lots of tips on communicating with deaf people, simple things that I may not have thought to do like making sure background noise is off, don’t put your hands in front of your mouth or be walking away, outdated terms that could be deemed offensive by the deaf community.

Jon Giles, CEO of the Nottingham Deaf Society welcomed the new project saying “Despite the constraints of the pandemic it is really exciting that this project is going ahead. There are few opportunities for young deaf people to engage in the arts in an accessible way so this is a fantastic chance to have a go. We look forward to seeing the results of this project”

A lot of places are closed at the moment which has made it harder for us to get the word out but to be honest all the organisations we’ve talked with have been 100% behind us. Our main challenge so far has been getting the word out with everywhere being closed, so we’ve been focusing a lot of our efforts online.

One elephant in the room – which I hope is a lot smaller than I fear -is the question “is there actually enough deaf people in Nottingham that would be interested in music and video production?” I really hope anyone reading this that would be interested in this will get in touch and also if any readers know of anyone from 18-25 that would be into building their profile and skill set in music and video production to let them know and to urge them to get in touch.

We’ve so many professionals involved in this that I’d just hate for anyone to miss out on the opportunity. I’m honestly really excited about where this might take everyone involved but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it too. I think that’s a good thing though!

Lukas Cole who is involved is a producer for his dance label and festival company Wigflex and runs his studio at the venue. We also have professional videographers and all the musicians we have brought in are time served multi-skilled musicians and teachers and currently playing in bands, writing songs, producing, rapping and beatboxing. It’s a great mix of people wanting to pass on their skills and keen to get involved in making something that will be truly unique.

Regarding ensuring the project is accessible, we are working with Communications Unlimited to provide us with two interpreters and our studio is kitted out with industry standard speakers and amps to ensure a crisp sound back as well as in ear monitors should they be performing.

We have Owen, our mentor fluent in BSL, and we will all be introduced and encouraged to use sign to communicate with each other. Some of the participants will not be deaf and a big part of this is having deaf and non deaf people work together on these projects so we all hope to learn a lot with this, not just about music but about deaf culture and sign language too.

The criteria for people to take part is that they just need to have an interest in either all or some of the following; music ,the music industry, performing and/or video production and desire to create and to produce something. They will be working in groups but we are going to be very individually focused especially at the beginning where we want to learn what type of music everyone is into and what everyone individually would like to get out of the project.

People can apply via our website link here: https://www.imnotfromlondon.com/to-be-scene-and-heard/ or just drop us an email to Info@imnotfromlondon.com. The course is for people aged 18-25 and runs from Jan 25th -Feb 12th. We are asking people to get in touch ASAP to secure their place in advance. We’re looking forward to making great music with you all!

 

Will@imnotfromlondon.com
(+44) 79820 22537
www.imnotfromlondon.com – www.inflpublishing.com
@imnotfromlondon – www.facebook.com/imnotfromlondonevents