M Magazine Issue 59

Members Music Magazine Issue 59 March 2016

grime

The sound of 2016

clint mansell

Tinseltown takeover

HEM Y A M F O S R A 40 YE

STEVE DAVIS

ENTER SHIKARI

GHOSTPOET

AMY WADGE

digital edition

contents

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COVER FEATURE

PUNK AT 40 Three chords, four decades: the enduring legacy of punk.

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JUST JOINED Meet PRS for Music’s newest members.

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60 SECONDS

CLINT MANSELL

GRIMEWAVE

Enter Shikari reveal the secrets to their DIY success.

To the moon and back: Clint Mansell on his journey from indie poster boy to LA composer.

How the sound of Britain’s inner cities has challenged convention to conquer all.

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BUSINESS NEWS

IVAN BIDEAC

On the up: big data; short form video; international royalties; blockchain.

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SOCIAL @m_magazineprs @m_magazineprs /prsformusic /prsformusic /m_magazineprs

cover photo by: ted polhemus/pymca

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I WROTE THAT

PICTURE THIS

Ed Sheeran cohort Amy Wadge on their Grammy-winning hit.

The night Ghostpoet brought his twitchy, glitchy electronic alt-rock to Streatham.

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EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

Editor Paul Nichols

Production & Design Carl English

Associate Editor Anita Awbi Senior Writer Jim Ottewill

Membership Advisor Myles Keller

CONTRIBUTORS Emma Anderson, Eileen Fitches, Amy Field, Stuart Fleming, Liam McMahon, Cerian Squire, Alex Sharman, Kenny Wastell.

PRS for Music, 2 Pancras Square. London N1C 4AG T 020 7580 5544 E magazine@prsformusic.com W www.prsformusic.com The printing of M Magazine is managed on behalf of PRS for Music

by Cyan Group Ltd, Twickenham. www.cyan-group.com Advertising 020 3225 5200 ISSN 0309-0019© PRS for Music 2015. All rights reserved. The views expressed in M are not necessarily those of PRS for Music, nor of the editorial team. PRS for Music accepts no responsibility for the views expressed by contributors to M, nor for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations, nor for errors in contributed articles or advertisements. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

M is printed on paper manufactured using chlorine-free pulps and the raw materials are from fully managed and sustainable forests.

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just joined

sign up for information about becoming a member visit prsformusic.com/joinus

maya youssef Describing herself as a Syrian artist ‘who plays a magic zither called a kanun and an activist who uses music to make a difference in the world’, it’s clear that Maya Youssef is more than your standard composer.

kda The art of restraint is often overlooked by bands and music-makers in these over-sharing social media days. But as it turns out, holding a little back can do more for an artist’s standing than Instagramming pictures of their breakfast.

So it is for producer KDA, a new house player who has managed to refrain from divulging his identity, instead letting his well-heeled electronic beats do all the talking. He spent the last 12 months making a noise in the 4x4 house-loving slipstream of UK heavyweights Disclosure, Duke Dumont and Rudimental before unveiling debut release, Turn the Music Louder (Rumble) last summer. Featuring the vocal skills of Tinie Tempah and Katy B, the record debuted as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World and BBC Radio 1’s Track of the Day before bumping its way straight to top of the UK charts.

Remixes from house gangster DJ Sneak, Toddla T and the legendary Armand Van Helden all helped the tune become a club anthem, making serious dents in nocturnal hotspots from here to

Ibiza as well as the charts.

KDA’s huge success may seem like it’s landed out of nowhere but it’s the result of some slow burning graft on the producer’s part. Having bagged a coveted slot on London’s Rinse FM early last year, remixes for everyone from Vaults and CHVRCHES to Katy B and BBC Sound Of shortlisted artist Frances have all helped set out his stall. His gig credentials are also stacking up after debuting alongside Birmingham’s Hannah Wants and opening the year at Fatboy Slim’s Smile High Club on New Year’s Day at London rave cave Tobacco Dock.

It means that a huge amount of expectation lies at his feet as he gears up to drop a debut album at some point in 2016. Citing influences ranging from Jill Scott to psych-rockers Tame Impala as well an obvious passion for night time heaters, fans and critics alike should expect the unexpected when it’s eventually unveiled… soundcloud.com/kda-music

Originally hailing from a family of artists, Maya is renowned as one of the foremost players of the kanun.

Back in 2012 Arts Council England recognised her as an Exceptional Talent, enabling her to move to London to develop her musical career.

After completing her Masters in ethnomusicology from SOAS, University of London, Maya is now researching Music Healing for Syrian Refugee Children while also teaching the kanun and directing the SOAS Middle Eastern Ensemble.

Maya’s reputation as a kanun expert means she has been a regular commentator in the media and a performer at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. She is currently working on a debut album, continuing many of the musical traditions she has learned from her homeland. mayayoussef.com Find out about more of our new members on m-magazine.co.uk

blonde bunny Tracing the musical dots from future prog to melodramatic pop, colourful four-piece Blonde Bunny are the latest fresh-faced guitar-wielders to stir up a buzz. If you’ve been lucky enough to get inside one of the band’s rammed gigs at London’s Shacklewell Arms or Moth Club over the last 12 months, you’ll be well aware of the group’s musical potency.

With a kaleidoscopically woozy sound, the bunnies cram in traces of everything from the classic psych of Pink Floyd to indie innovators Animal Collective into their music. They released characteristically 4_march 2016_m59

eccentric debut single While We’re Sleeping on a limited edition cassette back in 2014 and have since been picking up a head of steam with more recent track Loreta showing off their tripped-out guitars and mesmerising vocals.

After 12 months spent packing out London’s smaller sweat pits and supporting fellow dreamers Telegram and The Wytches, they’re now gearing up to take their 21st century psychedelia to the masses. blondebunny.co.uk

members & music

sixty seconds ENTER SHIKARI St Albans rockers Enter Shikari have spent more than a decade perfecting their energised fusion of hardcore, punk and electronica. Over four albums, including latest top four charting record The Mindsweep, they have become one of guitar music’s most loved bands. They’ve recently released The Mindsweep: Hospitalised, a collaboration with drum and bass label Hospital and played their biggest arena gigs to date.

How did Enter Shikari get together?

Myself [Rou Reynolds, vocals/programming] and our bassist Chris met when we were 11. We loved creating anything and used to do our own radio shows with a karaoke machine. We were 16 when Shikari formed. Me, Chris [Batten] and Rob [Rolfe], our drummer, were in a three-piece before that and heavily influenced by our local hardcore punk scene. We loved the DIY element but also grander, alternative acts like Muse and Radiohead. We were this odd mix of punk but still very experimental.

Then Rory [Clewlow] joined, taking over guitar duties. I moved onto electronics and that solidified our sound.

You can hear a lot of diverse influences in your music - does that come naturally to you?

Yes absolutely. We were really lucky to have a thriving local music scene. It wasn’t just hardcore punk, but ska, drum and bass, hip-hop, plus skateboarding. It made for a very inclusive vibe. Growing up there was big divide between the townies and the grunge kids but we rebelled against that. We didn’t want anything to do with the tribal thing. Hospital Records was a huge influence, but we also watched dubstep grow from its very early beginnings. With all that in mind, we wanted to have a broad, all-inclusive musical style.

The Mindsweep is your latest album - what was the thinking behind it?

Usually, we don’t really plan much. We just kind of see what happens, which I’m sure will be the end of us one day! But we did want to push the vocals and use more natural instrumentation, more brass, strings, there’s even woodwind in there. Having those different textures really brought the songs to life.

Your music can be overtly political - how important is this to the band?

We grew up with hardcore punk around us, so it was standard for singers to make political speeches from the stage in between songs. That was the norm. Coming from that scene, if you’re making aggressive music, you need to be singing about things you’re passionate about.

I’m certainly not someone who thinks all music should be descriptive or polemic.

But for us that’s just what we feel comfortable doing. When you’re on stage every night, singing your heart out, it’s a lot more genuine if it’s about stuff that you want to sing about.

It can be scary to wear your views on your sleeve like that. Because your ‘career’ can quite easily be taken away from you and no one wants to risk that. But it’s something we enjoy. We like music that’s risky. There’s a great deal of very comfortable music at the moment. I love how Thom Yorke described it as ‘fridge buzz’, it’s just there in the background, it doesn’t say or do anything. That’s not something we’re part of. I hope.

How has the music industry changed since you’ve been a part of it?

One of the great things is the progress of technology, which is making music much more available. As an artist, the whole point is sharing creativity with people. You don’t want to limit this by people’s purchasing power. You want it to be available for

I’m certainly not someone who thinks all music should be descriptive or polemic.

But for us that’s just what we feel comfortable doing. all. So the more that music is out there, the more possibilities with technology, the better. From a creative aspect, most laptops come with music - and film-making software nowadays, which is just incredible. It can mean there’s an onslaught of rubbish but on the whole, it’s overwhelmingly great.

At the same time, I’d like to see the music industry steering away from too much product placement. I understand you need to get monetary support from somewhere.

But it’s still tough to see bands we used to really look up to for their DIY mindset now sponsored by energy drinks.

Have you got any advice for new bands looking to make it?

I usually just say clichés – ‘play each show like it’s your last because you never know who’s watching’. Practice is also key. You can never really emphasise how important it is to be consistently in a creative space with people you want to make music with.

It’s only then that you’re going to develop your own sound and your own identity. entershikari.com m59_march 2016_5

members & music

making history

When composer Laura Rossi isn’t creating scores for brilliantly obscure black and white films exhumed by the BFI, or writing music for some of British telly’s favourite dramas, she’s cooking up ludicrously ambitious live projects.

Her latest venture is the Somme100 Film international initiative, which will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and run from July 2016 to July 2017. If successful in her mission, Laura will oversee 100 screenings of the iconic World War One documentary The Battle of the Somme with performances of her accompanying score at venues around the UK and beyond.

She is calling on professional, amateur and youth orchestras to take part in the tour and help the documentary reach audiences on a national scale, in the same way it did 100 years ago. In 1916, the film was shown in 18 countries and watched by half the adult UK population - a box office record not beaten until Star Wars in 1977.

Laura has received support from the Imperial War

Museum, which will be offering the film free of charge to those who want to screen it. Faber Music Publishing is also providing discount musical hire fees for the score.

Participants already confirmed include an impressive list of professional, amateur and youth orchestras.

They will be performing to the 74-minute film in a wide variety of venues worldwide, from cathedrals and concert halls to schools, theatres and community centres.

Laura, a PRS for Music Foundation-funded composer, told M: ‘We’ve already got more than 50 orchestras signed up, which is amazing. There’s been so much interest in this, I guess because of the Battle of the Somme is at the centre of the centenary commemorations. We’ve still got a lot of venues looking for orchestras, so it’s looking good, but we need more orchestras to get involved.’

See Somme100FILM.com for more details and to sign up to the project. Visit m-magazine.co.uk for the full interview with Laura.

brighton bonanza Whatever your musical hue, this year’s Great Escape festival is sure to tickle your fancy. From Shura to Shakka, Mystery Jets to Mura Masa, there are hundreds of pop, grime, R&B, indie and hip-hop acts booked for the 2016 edition.

Alongside all the live fun, PRS for Music, PPL and PRS for Music Foundation are coming together to host a one-hour panel session at The Old Courtroom on 20 May from 12.30 to 1.30pm.

So if you’re Escaping this year, make sure you pop in to hear the expert panel discuss issues that matter most to you.

PRS for Music and The Great Escape are offering a 10% discount to members. More information visit m-magazine.co.uk

cross-arts alliance Award-winning contemporary classical composer Hannah Kendall (right) is set to make big waves this autumn when her one-man chamber opera, The Knife of Dawn, lands at the Roundhouse, London. It’s a bold work, based on the poems of the late Guyanese/Caribbean political activist Martin Carter, which have been set to a new libretto by the award-winning author Tessa McWatt.

KARINA LIDIA

The piece receives its premiere on 6 October at the iconic concert venue, and offers Hannah the opportunity to pay homage to her mother’s South American lineage.

Chatting to M at the recent PRS for Music Foundation Composers’ Fund launch, she said: ‘I really wanted to draw on my heritage and embed it into Western contemporary classical tradition. I also wanted to write a substantial operatic role for someone of African-Caribbean heritage.’

She added: ‘We can do better at widening opportunities for more composers and musicians. I think the landscape is changing. There are fewer commissions 6_march 2016_m59

available but that doesn’t mean composers have fewer ideas they want to realise. As a sector, we can be better at helping composers to realise those opportunities.’

Hannah is an active member of South London’s crossarts community, which includes poets, artists and actors alongside musicians and composers. She’s drawn to working collaboratively with her friends from other art forms and over recent years, she’s developed a fruitful relationship with poet Rick Holland, setting his piece Fundamental for choir and brass quintet.

Hannah also worked closely with choreographer Symeon Kyriakopoulos in creating Labyrinthine, which was premiered at The Place as part of the Resolution!

Festival in 2009. Most recently, she joined forces with Gallery Libby Sellers in developing Middlegame for solo piano, a project which took its inspiration from the gallery’s GAMES exhibition.

members & music

composers’ fund PRS for Music Foundation has launched the Composers’ Fund, a new initiative aimed at giving talented composers direct access to funding at pivital stages in their careers.

The scheme gives composers the power to develop and deliver creative projects outside of the established commissioning model, allowing them to advance their own careers through self-initiated projects. A pot of £150,000 will be made available to successful applicants.

The fund was launched in response to research undertaken by the Foundation in 2014 to explore the challenges composers face when controlling the direction of their careers. The results highlighted issues around limited access to funds, low commission fees and lack of support structures for composers, coupled with a decrease in new commissioning opportunities.

Vanessa Reed, PRS for Music Foundation’s Executive Director, said: ‘The conversations we’ve been having with composers over the last two years revealed the need for composers to have more autonomy, better fees and improved conditions to advance their

L-R above: Hannah Kendall, Gary Carpenter, Tansy Davies and Emily Hall.

creative practice. Our new Composers’ Fund is one response to this, providing some of the UK’s most distinctive composers with financial support for anything that might enable them to make the next step in their career.’

The Foundation launched the new scheme at an event in February at London’s City Hall, which included Munira Mirza, Deputy Mayor of Education and Culture, Graham McKenzie from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and composer Tansy Davies were among those in attendance.

The first deadline for the initial wave of applications is 12 April 2016. Find out more at prsformusicfoundation.com.

generation jazz Matthew Halsall (right), Binker & Moses and Sons of Kemet are among the British acts to get a nod in the 2016 Jazz FM Awards shortlist. All three will compete for the UK Jazz Act of the Year crown, while Binker & Moses are also up for the Breakthrough Act of the Year award, alongside Jacob Collier and Nerija.

Elsewhere, Mercury-nominated soloist Eska has been shortlisted in the Vocalist of the Year category with Lauren Kinsella and Liane Caroll. The Instrumentalist of the Year prize will be contested by Mark Lockheart, Theon Cross and Zoe Rahman. A further seven category winners will be announced on the night.

The Jazz FM Awards take place on 26 April at London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom and will feature a performance by Gregory Porter, who will also receive the Jazz Impact Award. They are presented

by Jazz FM and jazz event production

reaching for the stars Carla Marie Williams is a prolific songwriter behind international hits for high stakes recording artists such as Kylie Minogue, Alesha Dixon and The Saturdays.

Her work on Girls Aloud’s The Promise in 2010 earned her an Ivor Novello Award nomination and a BRIT Award. Most recently, she co-wrote Naughty Boy’s Runnin’, featuring Beyoncé.

When she’s not penning hits, Carla is a singer and artist mentor with a long history of managing, championing and developing some of the UK’s freshest musical talent. She is also the founder of GIRLS I RATE, a new movement which launched on International Women’s Day 2016 to champion women in the creative industries.

Here, she gives us her tips on the art of songwriting for international pop artists: The most important thing I have learned through my 15 year career that songwriting should be fun! If the actual process isn’t exciting you, then you probably aren’t making your best music.

company Serious, with support from PPL, 7digital and Yamaha.

Jonathan Arendt, Chief Executive of Jazz FM, said: ‘We are delighted to announce this year’s Jazz FM Awards nominees celebrating the extraordinary work from established international Grammy-winning superstars to upand-coming home grown talent, this is sure to be our biggest and best year yet.’

I’ve also found that the chemistry between the people you’re in a room with is totally integral to the outcome. It’s like a relationship in many ways, it’s got to feel good. Unless you have a go-to team, I find that songwriters often spend their time ‘speed dating’ with new producers or co-writers, having first time conversations and working out new methods or ways of working. This is an important part of the relationship-building process so you can’t cut any corners.

As well as chemistry, I think it’s really important to have a basic process that brings out the best in your writing. To that end, I have a top five to-do list, which helps me keep my creative form: Be prepared - write down song titles and concept ideas before heading into the studio with co-writers, artists and producers.

When working with a new artist, make sure you research them beforehand. It sounds obvious, but make the effort to check out their social media channels and listen to their music. It’s important to figure out their basic vibe, but many artists are constantly evolving so be prepared to help them change.

Find a common ground between you and the producer – it helps you agree on the type of music you want to create.

Understand your process and your most creative hours in the day, be it morning, noon or night.

Monitor your fatigue. Be well rested, eat, drink and make sure you have a blast! m59_march 2016_7

members & music

sound effect

Six-time snooker world champion Steve Davis OBE is well loved for his mastery of the green baize. But alongside his potting abilities, Steve is also a music nut, a progrock head and huge fan of leftfield electronics. At the height of his snooker powers, he helped bring legendary French prog outfit Magma over to the UK, demonstrating the depth of his fandom for weird and wonderful sounds. Steve now holds down a show on Brentwood’s Phoenix FM and is DJing at this year’s Bloc Festival.

Don’t give up the day job!

The music business is tough, we all know that.

Sometimes it’s good to have a back-up plan, what your parents used to call “something to fall back on”.

the first music i remember hearing was…

I was born in 1957 but the first music I remember hearing wasn’t until 1962. Telstar by The Tornados was everywhere, which befits a song about a satellite. Soon after that I had my first bedroom poster of the Swinging Blue Jeans as Hippy Hippy Shake hit the charts. That was followed in quick succession by Peter Noone, whose tombstone teeth lit up our black and white TV sets as he smiled his way to success, fronting the Herman’s Hermits’ I’m Into Something Good.

But the most memorable thing of all was The Doctor Who theme, which was my first exposure to the electrickery of Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. the first record i bought was…

Heart of Gold by Neil Young, followed closely by Argent’s Hold Your Head Up. I would have bought both albums but my paper round didn’t pay enough to warrant it so I got the singles instead. My first album was Argent’s In Deep, where I blew the vast majority of my 28p-perhour Saturday supermarket job in one fell swoop.

While you can fall back on the Members Benevolent Fund in times of crisis or illness, we also help PRS members with career counselling and coaching to help you find other sources of income to replace or complement your income from music.

the last great record i listened to was…

In my car today as I got to grips with brilliance from Oneohtrix Point Never’s latest Garden Of Delete. Daniel Lopatin is a modern day, computer age Stravinsky!

Talk to us in confidence on +44(0)20 3741 4067 or email fund@prsformusic.com

the song that makes me want to dance is…

Be Faithful by Fatman Scoop and Crooklyn Clan. I can resist dancing to almost anything but when that hits the speakers my feet start leading me out to the floor. What follows is a gangly mess of Strictly Come Dancing non-potential. the song that makes me cry is…

Written by Kavus Torabi about the sadness surrounding the poor health of his great friend and leader of Cardiacs, Tim Smith. The track is This Empty Room Once Was Alive from the album Unravelling by the band Knifeworld.

Members Benevolent Fund PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund, 2 Pancras Square, London N1C 4AG A Registered Charity No. 208671.

facebook.com/prsfund

the song i wish i’d written is…

Currently In Converse by William D. Drake. It’s a thing of beauty as is the whole of his latest album Revere Reach.

twitter.com/prsfund

the only song that i know all the words to is…

Snooker Loopy. On the bright side of that rather sad statement, there aren’t many sports stars who can say they were higher in the charts than Madonna, Whitney Houston and Simply Red all at the same time. the song i want played at my funeral…

Hasn’t been issued yet. It is due to be written in 2050.

Read the full interview with Steve on m-magazine.co.uk

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members & music

hot wax Ahead of Independent Record Store Day on 16 April, some of Britain’s leading vinyl emporiums reveal the sleeves that most tickle their fancy…

kevin buckle, avalanche records, edinburgh

adam gillison, jumbo records, leeds

The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters

13th Floor Elevators: Psychedelic Sounds

‘One of my favourite albums and one of my favourite sleeves.

Striking imagery, which the band has continued with throughout their career. Great song titles too!’ @avalance_edin

‘A perfect example of an amazingly creative period for album artwork, and a sleeve that sums up the contents pretty much perfectly.’ @JumboRecords

chris farrell, idle hands, bristol Augustus Pablo: This Is ‘A personal favourite from when I was a teenager in Worcester, this is one of the LPs that got me into reggae, dub and Jamaican popular music generally.

Horace Swaby (aka Augustus Pablo) looks super cool on the front, and the pictures with [sound engineer] Errol Thompson at the desk on the back are great too. The perfect mix of on point artwork and music.’ @idlehandsBS1

aleks jurczyk, rubadub, glasgow Casio Royale: In Basements 2 ‘I love this record because it rocks. The short story about the Rave Rider on the inlay is hilarious.’ @rubadub_glasgow

david walker, piccadilly records, manchester The Jesus and Mary Chain: Psychocandy ‘Once I’d got my head round the fact that yes, it was supposed to sound like that and no, my record player wasn’t broken, I never stopped listening to it. Just Like Honey is still one of my all-time favourite singles.’ @PiccadillyRecs

ashli todd, spillers records, cardiff Funkadelic: Maggot Brain ‘Not only is it one of the best albums of all time that everyone should own, but it’s distributed by Ace Records who are a real gem, doing their own thing for 40 years.’ @spillersrecords m59_march 2016_9

money & business all around the world

It’s no secret that international royalties provide a major source of income for PRS for Music members in our increasingly globalised music market. Since the turn of the millennium, the society has seen revenues grow from £68m in 2000 to £188.2m in 2014 – with 2015 figures looking likely to reach well beyond that.

Karen Buse, Executive Director of Membership and International, has been with the society since 1991. She has headed up the International Department since 2003, overseeing revenue generation, inter-society relationships and international royalty collecting standards. Now, as digital transforms the global industry and data volumes hit an all-time high, Karen and her team are delivering new strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Here, she tells us more…

What does this mean for UK songwriters and composers?

Our members’ rights are now represented not only in all major markets but also in newer markets such as Macau, Mongolia and Mauritius.

We believe we have the widest reach of any other collective management organisation. This means that any PRS member can be rest assured that, when their music is performed - by any means – we will do our very best to collect royalties for those performances through our contractual relationships with other societies.

What sets PRS for Music apart in terms of protecting and growing members’ international royalties?

We’ve developed several bespoke tools and services over many years to help members track and claim their international royalties. We invest more than anyone else in data and tracking in foreign markets.

We negotiate improved service levels for our members to reduce costs and speed up turnaround times. We’re also committed to cross-checking and processing performance and royalty data from other societies to make absolutely sure that everything is accounted for, completely and accurately; not all societies do this level of crosschecking.

PRS for Music has a strong performance record overseas – what’s behind this?

We have more than 100 years of experience and well established relationships with over 120 societies worldwide, representing more than 150 countries. These relationships take many years to build into trusting partnerships for the benefit of all our members – and they set us apart from newer collective management organisations which are having to build these relationships from scratch.

We collect around £200m annually for members from overseas countries; more than any other collecting society. This is because of the fantastic breadth and depth of our members’ repertoire.

We’re hugely respected by our international partners, which puts us in a very strong position to affect change.

Our 30-strong multicultural, multilingual International Team deserve a special mention here – they are held in high regard by their overseas counterparts, which helps enormously when looking after our members’ income abroad.

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We have the largest International Team of any society and that allows us to follow up on missing usages, unidentified usages and missing shares for members’ works. We do this for hundreds of thousands of performances and usages of music every year.

Our staff correct poor data on works and ensure cue sheets are registered, enabling them to maximise claims to international societies for radio, TV, cinema and commercial performances of our members’ music, as well as ensuring collection for live performances. We also have a unique live concert service for major live tours ,which is unrivalled internationally.

What are the most important things to bear in mind when working to protect members’ rights and royalties in international markets?

Thoroughness, persistence, excellent, wellestablished relationships and, importantly, working hard for our society partners in our market, as they work for us in theirs.

What’s keeping the International Team busy at the moment?

We have a busy year ahead, with members such as Adele, the Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, The 1975, Years & Years, Disclosure and Foals (pictured below) touring the world. We’re working hard to ensure they are always properly remunerated and as quickly as possible.

We’ve also developed our fingerprinting technologies with key partners to further enhance our income tracking capabilities, and we have recently launched a programme to improve our digital services. The aim is to provide our members with a simple and transparent digital experience along with the tools to interact with their data in a clear way that suits them.

What can the society do to help futureproof overseas earnings for members?

We have developed a ground breaking hub in ICE – the first of its kind – to help us process trillions of lines of digital data across multiple territories.

This hub represents a larger set of repertoire than any other entity protecting our members’ digital income. We’re doing this in conjunction with the Swedish and German societies to save costs and deliver efficiencies,.

What can members do to help maximise their overseas royalties?

We encourage all our members to visit our website and make use of the tools which help us track their income. For example, you can report your overseas events, check your international music usages against our data and claim for unpaid royalties. Links to these tools and other resources can be found on your member account page when you log in to prsformusic.com.

business

digital edition

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creative crunch London’s growth is putting enormous pressure on the city’s cultural infrastructure, Munira Mirza, Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture, has warned. Opening a recent event marking PRS for Music Foundation’s new Composers’ Fund, she said that a third of grassroots venues and rehearsal spaces have been lost in the last eight years, sounding a warning bell for creativity in the city.

Blockchain could trigger a ‘new wave of transformation’ for the music industry, a report from financial firm Deloitte has claimed.

The technology – which can provide a trusted, open register of digital events – is thought to have the power to revolutionise the business through its ability to track musical works online and hold reliable rightsholder information.

‘These are dedicated spaces for grassroots music, where young and emerging musicians can play, rehearse and perform. We’re very sad there has been this loss and we’re trying very hard to think about how to address that, using our planning system, our own funding and working with partners, including local authorities in London.’

She added that, in the last year, the Mayor’s Office has set up the Music Venues Taskforce and Artist Studios Taskforce to address the ‘huge challenges ahead’ for music and the wider creative industries.

‘We’ve also dedicated quite a large part of our regeneration programme specifically towards creating new studio space,’ Mirza continued.

‘We spent approximately £5m on new creative workspaces in London, which we hope will start to address some of the loss we’ve seen over the last few years.’

Space race In the coming decades, the city is predicted to mushroom from a present-day population of 8.6 million to 11 million by 2050. With land prices now at an all-time high, most composers are seriously struggling to find the space to create, with most opting to work from home, often in cramped conditions.

The first panel at the Composers’ Fund launch gathered composers Hannah Kendall and Emily Hall plus Nick Hartwright (The Mill Co. Project) and Jonathan Reekie (Somerset House) to debate the issue. Concerns had been formally raised in research leading to the creation of the new fund, and many who took part in the study were present in the audience.

Kendall told the panel that most composers can barely afford to pay their rent and bills, never mind fork out for private studio space. ‘I want to highlight that, based on the last Sound & Music report, composers are making just over a thousand pounds from writing music every year. So [the average London studio rental rate of] £300 a month is in no way affordable to most people,’ she said.

betting on blockchain

Deloitte’s study, Blockchain. Enigma. Paradox.

Opportunity, said the technology represents a total shift from traditional tracking models – even for industries in the creative sector, which have already seen significant transformation from digital technologies.

Munira Mirza, Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture

‘It all ties into how writing music and being a composer actually fits within the overall cultural and economic landscape - and how composers are viewed. Yes, there is a need for composers’ studios, but we must understand that we all have different needs and we’re not working in the same remit as other artists.’

It went on to note that, despite the music industry being in ‘rude health’, the ability of creators to earn money from their music is currently ‘fraught with difficulty’. Blockchain could help change this by storing ‘a cryptographic “hash” of the original digital music file, associating it with the addresses – and, potentially the identities - of the people involved in its creation’. It could also be used to store contracts containing instructions on how rightsholders would like to be paid for their music.

However, it’s not just personal studio space that’s in dire shortage. Collaborative and rehearsal space is in short supply too, as Hartwright explained: ‘In my experience, generally developers just want to build flats. It’s becoming harder and harder to have diverse creative spaces.’

His company, The Mill Co. Project, is a social enterprise that provides project spaces at competitive rates for artists, and is operating at the cutting edge of the property boom. ‘There’s a huge need for spaces to record strings,’ he continued. ‘You’ve got Air Studios and Abbey Road, which charge hundreds and hundreds of pounds a session. We need to look at making more affordable facilities so they can benefit everyone.’

Reekie, who heads up the Somerset House Trust, told the panel he is working to convert disused government offices at the central London site into affordable arts space for 300 creatives. In two years, the new environs will welcome those from the breadth of the cultural industries, with special attention given to ‘makers’ and ‘artists’.

‘From our point of view, we’re trying to create a much stronger artistic purpose for Somerset House. We want to bring artists and makers – and the production of art - back into the heart of the city.’

PRS for Music is currently exploring the possibilities of blockchain, with a spokesperson telling M: ‘The technology has many potential applications for many industries, and the music industry is among them. While it is still unclear exactly what role blockchain could serve - and there are many questions to answer - it is something we are very interested in. Not least because it is prompting great debate around the opportunity to change current structures and develop new solutions for the benefit of creators and users of music.’

your next paydays Performing (PRS): 15 April 2016 15 July 2016 15 Sept 2016 15 Dec 2016

Mechanicals (MCPS): 31 March 2016 28 April 2016 31 May 2016 30 June 2016 m59_march 2016_11

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money & business

comment

entertain and earn: the rise of short form video

Christina Vaughan, Chief Executive of micro-licensing organisation CueSongs, tells us how songwriters and the wider music industry can earn from the short form video explosion.

We live in interesting times. Consider the fact that it took television 67 years to hit four billion viewers while it has taken digital little over five years to achieve the same reach. What does this mean for songwriters and how can they make money from the online video revolution?

Ours is a society of constant partial attention.

For every five hours spent in front of a screen, we consume seven hours of content across multiple devices. So, the fact that the industry made more from vinyl sales than it did from YouTube in 2015 should not serve as a warning against working with the platform, but rather an impetus for us all to embrace this new economy and start generating meaningful revenues for our songwriters.

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We can now participate in a whole new digital economy based around syncing commercial music to short form content - an area where the opportunity is multiplying on an hourly basis.

There were 5.9 trillion short form video views in the first three quarters of 2015, with growth more than doubling from quarter four of 2014.

These volumes are certainly impressive, but they also highlight the inevitability in all of this. The whole market has already moved and we need to be at the forefront of understanding what represents the ‘new value’.

Let’s take a quick look at the short form video arena. PewDiePie, its biggest and most successful creator, lives on YouTube and Twitch, making engaging and influential content in a way that a TV celebrity could never know. Every day, he uploads multiple videos for his 42 million subscribers. But wait, these subscribers aren’t watching 30 minute episodes or feature films, they’re not even watching three minutes of adverts: they’re viewing snatches of insight, moments of conscious and unconscious thought. And, most

importantly, they’re part of a new generation whose primary online destination is YouTube – an authentic peer-to-peer hangout where they can plug in with likeminded people.

Although PewDiePie is heralded as a prime example, he’s actually the exception: the average YouTube content creator has a lot less viewers. The new economy has enabled online democracy, allowing just about anyone to create a YouTube channel. And at CueSongs, we seek to work with those creators who upload around 30 to 50 videos per month - the professionals who’re successfully posting regular, structured, formatted content. From a songwriter’s perspective, that’s a hell of a lot of syncable targets in a market which is literally growing by the hour.

To date, these creators have avoided using commercial music. But we’re committed to changing this. Having operated in this space for the five years since YouTube first started monetising content, we are seeing increasing opportunities to offer sync licences to this hugely expanding market.

We owe it to our musicians to deliver the answer from within the industry. Peter Gabriel set up our company because he believes the market for syncing commercial music should not belong to an elite group of TV and film music supervisors but should be accessible to a whole generation who have now become production companies in their own right, enabled by YouTube. We have a deep understanding of the issues and believe that engaging, emotionally compelling music by real bands and musicians should be the soundtrack to the internet - not just at YouTube but across all new media platforms.

It’s no coincidence that social media’s two other giants, Twitter and Facebook, have also invested

‘Compelling music by real songwriters and musicians should be the soundtrack to the internet’

‘The time is right to fully engage online video as a direct revenue stream’ considerable resources over the past year in expanding their online video efforts. The music industry has a long history of underplaying the role of video, seeing it as merely a promotional tool. But it’s time we give online sync the chance to flip this narrative. Good storytelling is all about emotional connectivity and authenticity, and deserves commercial music.

At the same time, musicians and the wider music industry deserve a solution that enables financial compensation for use of their work.

The message is clear; we can no longer allow royalty-free libraries to eat our lunch. The time is right to fully engage online video as a direct revenue stream, to license commercial music for short form sync and create a substantive new revenue stream for artists in the explosive world of online content creation. We need to finally celebrate the fact that we can lead the way. The industry’s previous struggles with filesharing and online distribution were once seen as a paradigm of how the internet challenged ingrained power structures. Now there is an even greater change agent on the horizon – the online video star. m59_march 2016_13

Manic depression stopped me from playing to the point of getting rid of my guitar to pay for somewhere to live. Help Musicians UK got me back on my feet. I dread to think where I would be without them.

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03/03/2016 16:02

money & business access all areas

Live music should be inclusive for everyone, including a huge community of disabled fans.

Suzanne Bull MBE, is Chief Executive of Attitude is Everything, a charity committed to improving access for deaf and disabled music fans at live gigs.

On 22 February we published our latest State of Access Report - a biennial snapshot of how well the live music business is serving the 3.6 million deaf and disabled fans estimated to attend UK gigs and festivals each year.

Since our last report in 2014, we have undoubtedly seen some major progress. Over 100 venues and festivals are now signed up to our Charter of Best Practice, ranging from Glastonbury and the O2 Arena right through to small capacity clubs and halls. The working group Attitude is Everything convened with the Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers is delivering results in provision of accessible ticketing. And our #MusicWithoutBarriers awareness campaign has been supported by Stevie Wonder, alt-J, The Cure, chvrches, Queens of the Stone Age, Muse and many other amazing artists.

Momentum, it feels, is with us; and we’re moving towards my ultimate goal that deaf and disabled people can attend, work or perform at any event that they wish. There is still a way to go, of course, and a key focus of this year’s report is the quality of online access information provided to disabled audiences.

After surveying more than 380 venues and festival websites what we found was quite surprising.

One in three included no access information at all.

On a significant number of others, we rated the information provided as poor.

This might sound a fairly minor issue (it certainly wouldn’t be hard to fix!) but the impact is monumental. Two out of every three disabled fans we surveyed, who were looking to attend live event, said they couldn’t find the online information that they needed. Sixty percent said they were put off buying a ticket as a result.

news

taking down piracy PRS for Music has launched an anti-piracy takedown tool that will revolutionise the way it tackles copyright infringement of members’ repertoire. The so-called MAPS service was developed in partnership with the book publishing industry’s trade body, The Publishers Association, and will be initially available to a select number of PRS for Music’s publisher members from March.

Users will be able to locate unlicensed and infringing content made available online and automatically generate and serve notices to remove the content.

The system will also allow them to remove links to the content found on Google and elsewhere.

The situation is most pronounced with small grassroots venues, where only one in three of those surveyed provided any access information online. These places are the heart of our music communities - where local fans meet up, where ideas are shared, and where magic happens. If they’re not inclusive of disabled fans, then that’s a major problem - and it’s why we’ve started the Access Starts Online initiative, launched initially in partnership with the Association of Independent Festivals and then with Sybil Bell at Independent Venue Week.

Simon Bourn, PRS for Music’s Head of Litigation, Enforcement and Anti-Piracy, said: ‘We are very excited to be rolling out our new anti-piracy system to publisher members. Where opportunistic and illegal use is made of our members’ repertoire online, without the necessary business model to sustain a legitimate licensed marketplace, it is important that we take action to protect the rights of our members and to preserve the value of their repertoire. MAPS will deliver greater control and transparency to our members, allowing them to participate in our content protection work.’

The idea behind the campaign is simple. For any live business unsure about what information they should be providing to disabled fans, Attitude is Everything supplies a template that covers all they need to know. Filling it out and uploading it should take no longer than an hour. If everybody did it, that would be a major step forward.

MAPS has the ability to cut off piracy breaches at the source, helping to ensure that legitimate licensed services can be more easily found and that PRS for Music members receive fair remuneration for use of their repertoire online.

Members without access to the system in the initial roll-out stage can contact PRS for Music’s Anti-Piracy Unit to request removal of infringements on their behalf.

At the end of the day, this is nothing more than good customer service. The most forwardthinking live businesses, who are really involving disabled people in their area, are not only feeling the benefits commercially, they are also becoming very creative. We give many examples of this in the report, from the audio guides provided by Manchester’s Band on the Wall to the informative maps on the Nozstock website.

So please, have a read of our State of Access Report and act on what it says. And if your local venue doesn’t provide an access information page then please direct them to me! Live music should be inclusive for everyone, including a huge community of disabled fans. Or, as Stevie Wonder put it so perfectly at the Grammys: ‘We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability.’ I couldn’t have said it better myself. attitudeiseverything.org.uk

make your vote count The PRS 2016 Directors’ Ballot will open in early April.

Electoral Reform Services will send the Directors’ Ballot Booklet (with details of candidates standing for election), ballot papers, and codes for online voting to to all members eligible to vote. Please look out for this correspondence. The deadline for voting (mid-May) will be confirmed in the Booklet.

The results of the Ballot will be announced at the PRS Annual General Meeting, on 26 May 2016 at The British Library in London. For more information about the event and which members are eligible to vote, please visit prsformusic.com/prs-agm. m59_march 2016_15

BIG DATA, BIG DEAL Data can help artists book shows, grow their fanbase, make sales and learn more about how to cater to those who love what they do. So where is it found? And how can it be used to boost careers? Rhian Jones reports.

Alongside streaming, data has perhaps become the most frequented word in the music industry’s lexicon in recent years.

The online world has brought a wealth of access to stats that were near impossible to collect before the internet age; like how often a music fan played an album, what songs they listened to most, whether they were aged 14 or 41 and male or female. All this information can be used to reach a wider audience, track down super fans, help inform tours, merchandise decisions, future single choices and strengthen arguments when making the case for playlist inclusion.

So where is it found? Spotify is currently leading the charge with its recently launched (and free to use) Fan Insights dashboard, which gives artists and managers access to monthly and daily listeners, fans that listen most, as well as data about how those people are listening, their age bracket and gender. It’s currently only available in beta, but any artist and manager can request early access.

Elsewhere, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter all have their own dashboard offerings, while Next Big Sound and Cyfe offer an overview of stats across multiple platforms - and that all-encompassing view is vital to get a true representation of a worldwide audience.

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The killer question The wealth of stats, numbers and graphs available can be overwhelming, and data is only valuable once dissected. So there are a few precautions to keep in mind when crunching numbers, relativity being the first.

Chris Carey - a data analyst who works with clients including Sony Music via his Media Insight Consulting firm – considered the art of data mining during a talk at Eurosonic Noorderslag in January: ‘If an artist's streams have grown 20 percent over the last 12 months, but the streaming market has grown 40 percent, compared to the market you’ve not grown at all, you’ve shrunk,’ he explained.

Impressions might sound impressive too, but a thousand impressions of one Tweet, advert or Facebook post doesn’t necessarily count for a thousand views by a thousand people. It could, in fact, be a thousand views from the same person.

It’s important to contextualise your data, and the best way to do this is to find your question, Chris believes. ‘The mistakes people often make is that you go to data without a question, expecting it to tell you something. You can sit there for hours digging into data, finding something interesting, following a thread until you end up with an interesting comment that’s nothing to do with why you started. Data might have all the answers, but the skill is to ask the killer question.’

That killer question could be: how much merchandise should I print for males, and how much for females? In which cities should I next tour? What should be my next single release? How can I get stats that help make the case for a playlist spot? Where would outdoor advertising be best placed?

Discovering answers Sammy Andrews uses data to answer all the questions above and more in her job as a strategic advisor to the music industry - a role she’s recently expanded to include Director at data solution firm Entertainment Intelligence. In her past life, Sammy was Head of Digital at Cooking Vinyl, where she saw through The Prodigy’s The Day Is My Enemy album campaign from start to finish. It was the second biggest selling independent album of 2015, and, while the quality of the music and legendary status of the act certainly helped matters, marketing decisions were based on data inspired out-of-the-box ideas.

Sammy says: ‘We could see a resurgence in young males listening to The Prodigy. Some of them were into gaming, so that led me to set up a partnership with Twitch, one of biggest online live gaming platforms which had previously blocked music due to rows over licensing. We experimented and licensed a track, which they covered on their homepage and allowed users to stream within the game they were playing.

profile DIGITAL

‘We saw instant uptake of that track, which wasn’t a single, and also instant uptake of back catalogue, as Twitch users who didn’t know the band previously headed to different services to check out who they were. That campaign was a result of looking at who the audience were, imagining the audience that we wanted to approach, and exploring new partnerships in the spaces they frequented to see if it worked - and it did.’

Historical geographical data on where physical sales of The Prodigy’s music had been strongest in the past also helped Sammy place adverts in the right shopping centres and billboards, targeting the areas they knew were likely to reach the people that would be inclined to buy the album. ‘It made it much easier to reconnect in the first instance so we didn’t have to guess where they might be now, we could see where they were and make that instant re-engagement,’ she explains.

Looking at streaming numbers and ad-clickthrough rates can also help reach a wider audience, and is a strategy Lucy Blair, Director at digital marketing consultancy Motive Unknown, has used for an artist recently (who has asked to remain unnamed).

The person in question is anti-streaming and focused efforts on pushing physical sales of their latest album. However, Lucy saw a big demand for their music on streaming services and iTunes, enabling her to make the case for a more all-encompassing marketing campaign going forward.

‘This person has got big numbers on Spotify, people are coming to their artist page and really want to stream the music. The management team weren’t even aware of this, so the Spotify dashboard has been really useful for me to go, “streaming is really important and we can’t ignore this audience.” We’re now thinking about catering for those people and how we can do it in a natural way through something like a radio style playlist in the future.’

Data might have all the answers, but the skill is to ask the killer question Early adopters Data mining is especially important for young acts, says Sammy, who can see spikes in sales, streams and Shazams early on, react quickly, and secure ticket sales and loyal fans.

‘If they can see a track suddenly taking off in a small town in France, for example, then they should probably get over there, tour and capitalise on what they can already see happening,’ she says. ‘Also, if a new band have areas where they are not seeing traction and they have a release coming up, it’s equally important to look at why they aren't resonating and get in there.’

The same goes for playlist tracking - a service Sammy is offering at Entertainment Intelligence - where bands and managers can avoid the hefty fees associated with playlist pluggers. She says: ‘A

lot of managers now pay a fortune to pluggers to push tracks onto digital service providers’ playlists in the same way they did with traditional radio. You might pay a plugger to get you onto 50 Spotify playlists, but you don’t necessarily know how many plays it’s generated and it’s often not the way people would think; the playlists with the biggest follower counts don’t always translate to the biggest play count.

‘Sometimes the smaller, well-curated lists with a better editorial tone that have a thousand followers generate you six thousand plays, as opposed to one with 50,000 followers generating a thousand plays. When you’re a new band, that information is really important; if you can spot emerging playlists that might not be owned by Apple or Spotify, but might be owned by a guy sat in his bedroom in Liverpool - you can nurture that relationship and feed them future tracks.’

What’s next?

There are a number of companies ramping up investment in data solutions this year, including PRS for Music. The collecting society is working on creating a ‘simple, easy and transparent online digital experience that will provide members with the tools to make informed decisions in order to maximise royalties,’ according to Graham Davies, Director of Digital and Strategy.

Elsewhere, Spotify is working on rolling out the Fan Insights dashboard, expanding its data-based recommendations to video as well as audio, and there’s growing support for blockchain technology, which would allow artists and songwriters to track the data trail of a song in real time.

However, for all the insight data can provide, it's worth remembering what it can't do: replicate the genuine connection between artist and fan. Concludes Lucy: ‘Successful marketing is all about a combination of data and engagement. You can use numbers to work out what kind of post, advert or content is engaging with fans the most, but that must be combined with the artist having a conversation with their fans themselves, asking for feedback, what they want, and how they want to support them.

‘Data on its own isn’t going to save the industry, your artist, band, album or whatever it might be. It’s all about trying to make a combination of data, engagement, algorithm and human curation work together as successfully and harmoniously as possible.’

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NO HATS, NO HOODS Over the last 18 months UK grime has re-emerged to take centre stage. But, despite sold out tours and chart hits, this success has gone largely unacknowledged by the mainstream.

Jim Ottewill celebrates a scene setting its own agenda…

‘A bunch of young men all dressed in black dancing extremely aggressively on stage, it made me feel so intimidated and it’s just not what I expect to see on prime time TV’.

The skit, lifted from Tottenham MC Skepta’s 2015 anthem Shutdown, lands a perfect right hook on the trembling lips of conservative England and its prejudices towards UK grime.

JAMES LEIGH, BBC PICTURES, VICKY GROUT, ALEXANDER HARRIS

It was inspired by Kanye West’s 2015 BRIT Awards performance, which gathered onstage 20 of grime’s leading lights including Skepta, fellow MC and Boy Better Know (BBK) crew member JME and newcomer Novelist. The riotous rendition of Kanye’s All Day drew a line in the sand for the scene, acting as a two-finger salute to its doubters.

Where the 2016 BRITs has failed, the 2015 MOBO Awards showed how urban music’s power axis has shifted towards the UK. Stormzy’s wins for Best Male and Best Grime Act, alongside Skepta’s Best Song nod marked a sea change for the scene.

Grime artist Lady Lykez, best known for YouTube hit I Love My Butt, believes the scene’s first wave helped encourage UK artists to embrace their identities. ‘Back in the day people were heavily influenced by American hip hop,’ she says.

‘But when Dizzee Rascal emerged, it suddenly meant you could be British.

You didn’t need to have an American accent! When Ms Dynamite came along, I was like “I can be me”.’

While nominally celebrating the US star’s track, it was the presence of the British artists - previously never acknowledged by the BRITs - which had jaws dropping. With hoods up and flamethrowers billowing, their guerrilla takeover was a much needed injection of theatre for a bland, often uninspiring event. As veteran MC Wiley tweeted just days after, the performance ‘kicked the door off’ for grime, locking the media’s glare on its bars and beats.

Grime’s victory at the MOBOs, plus wins from FKA Twigs and Section Boyz, underlines how British artists are best when comfortable in their own skins. While the UK always looked to the US for its pointers, now it seems these roles have reversed.

‘This ain’t a culture/It’s my religion’ Skepta’s independently-released Shutdown was the first in a number of watershed moments for grime. JME’s self-released album Integrity hit number 11 in the charts, Stormzy’s Shut Up freestyle went top 10 plus female MC Lady Leshurr’s Queens Speech series enjoyed millions of views and streams. Throw in Skepta’s hit and his sold-out North American tour, and it adds up to an incredible year for the scene, one inexplicably missed by this year’s BRITs nominations. With no grime or hip-hop acts shortlisted, it’s been down to global stars to show some love. Canadian hip-hop artist Drake, as well as Kanye, bonded with Skepta, inviting him on stage at last year’s Wireless Festival and now becoming the first international artist to sign with BBK.

‘It’s down to a renewed belief that homegrown music is worth celebrating,’ she says. ‘The unapologetic brilliance of artists like Skepta and Stormzy has given Britain some local heroes. It has turned “grime” into the new mainstream buzzword.’

Amplify Dot, a PRS for Music Foundation-supported artist and BBC Radio 1Xtra broadcaster, agrees, citing a new ‘sense of artistic patriotism’.

Wot Do U Call It? So what is grime? And why has it made such an impact? Born out of the darker end of UK garage in the early noughties, pioneers including Wiley and Dizzee Rascal, the Roll Deep and Pay As U Go crews, emerged from East London streets via raves and pirate radio.

For grime-loving Sheffield producer and BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJ Toddla T, it was uniquely British.

GRIME FOCUS

Main image: Afrikan Boy

M59_MARCH M59_MARCH 2016_23 2016_19

Above: Lady Lykez and Big Narstie.

Opposite: Toddla T and Amplify Dot.

‘It’s the most mental, brilliant British thing that’s happened since I’ve been around,’ he enthuses. ‘It must have been a proper genuine movement to have been in London at the time, listening to pirates and seeing artists in the street.’

Toddla has worked with many of the scene’s key players and is now championing new acts on his radio show including fellow Sheffield MC Coco. ‘To me, the first MCs were as big a stars as Busta Rhymes or Vybez Cartel. When I met Wiley for the first time I found it hard to keep it together.’

Lords of the Mics Whether heard on radio, in raves, or via rare Sidewinder tape packs, it was grime’s lyrical dexterity, aggression and often sparse, computerised beats that hit hard. Listen to Dizzee’s I Luv U or Lethal Bizzle’s Pow (Forward) and it’s still impossible to argue with the music’s raw power.

While Dizzee won the Mercury Prize for his debut album Boy in Da Corner in 2003, the scene subsequently struggled to step up. Associated with gang violence by the authorities, the police targeted certain raves and tracks, even stopping a 2014 Just Jam event with the notorious 696 risk assessment.

Big Narstie, one of grime’s most colourful characters, and top 10 artist with Craig David on hit When the Bassline Drops, was a key player in getting grime out on tour.

‘Three years ago I organised the first official grime UK tour independently,’ he says. ‘Before that no big promoters would dare put on a grime event because of the police shutting down events.’

Fast forward to 2016 and The Heavytrackerz, producers and writers behind Meridian Dan’s hit German Whip as well as Stormzy’s Not That Deep, believe there’s a new acceptance for the scene.

JAMES LEIGH, BBC PICTURES

‘People have realised that grime is an art form,’ says Teddy Samba from the group. ‘It’s been 12/13 years since Boy in Da Corner was released. People have got into it - it’s here to stay.’

Born to do it The last 18 months has seen a new wave of artists such as Stormzy and Manchester’s Bugzy Malone looking to grime’s originators for inspiration.

The former picked up hype through Wicked Skengman, a series of freestyles over classic grime beats. Toddla is unsurprised that there’s been a renewed focus and energy from young acts.

‘People like Section Boyz and Novelist - they’re so young. By the time they were seven or eight, they would have been hearing grime as part of growing up,’ he states.

He continues: ‘It means you’re literally born into a scene. These artists are products of London. That’s why it’s happening again and why they’re so good.’

Chasing the art For Big Narstie, musical success is bound up in staying as authentic as possible and being true to himself. ‘I can’t be anything else than what I am,’ he says. ‘I’m a fat black kid from Brixton. Pretending to be someone else isn’t going to work for me.

While his reputation as an internet personality has helped him stand out, it’s a tireless dedication to the music which is now reaping dividends for him. This solid work ethic is propelling many new grime artists to the fore, Narstie highlights. ‘You could be fucking Elvis Presley but if you don’t go to the studio and make tracks, it ain’t gonna happen, nothing will sustain,’ he states.

While hard work is in fashion, artists like Narstie and MC Ghetts are also keen to create a body of work that their fans can hear. The latter was behind 2014’s Rebel with a Cause, one of grime’s key recent records. For him, long-term success is indelibly linked to creating a catalogue of music.

He says: ‘Even though they don’t sell as much as before, albums are important, man. Artists need to make bodies of work. To me that’s your story, a chapter from your autobiography.’

Know me from Many of grime’s recent winners lack the traditional major label juggernauts that power so many of pop music’s stars. This year’s BRITs has failed to nominate any grime artists but this lack of support seems irrelevant for a scene so in touch with its fans.

‘These new artists are products of London.

That’s why it’s happening again and why they’re so good at it’

GRIME

Grime is real music for young people from Britain. It comes from a real, genuine place.

For Toddla, it’s the realness of the artists like Stormzy that is at the heart of their appeal. ‘Shut Up was a freestyle in the park,’ he says.

‘You can’t fake that or contrive it. A major label cannot create that.

No fucking way. Grime is real music for young people from Britain. It comes from a real, genuine place.’

Fire outside the booth From its early pirate days grime was born out of networks, even before social media. Arguably no other scene has leveraged them to such an extent.

‘We’re living in a climate where consumers are the tastemakers,’ says Amplify Dot. ‘The digital age has given artists a direct link to their audience. It means that major labels can enhance a “buzz” but not necessarily create it.’

Whether it be via Snapchat or Twitter, smartphones are important in extending these networks, says Toddla. ‘People from across the UK can now hear it, appreciate it and get involved as much as someone from where Stormzy is from. He’s a prime example of how people make records and how young people receive them.’

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Microphone champions With Skepta’s long-awaited new album, Konnichiw, and Stormzy’s debut due to drop this year, grime’s ascendance looks only set to continue. While the music can be overtly masculine, Lady Leshurr and new acts such as Lykez and Stefflon Don are leading the charge for the ladies. New blood in the form of the PRS for Music Foundation-backed Elf Kid, Jammz and Coco alongside Novelist are setting the bar for the new breed. The foundation are taking the UK sound to the States at this year’s SXSW with a 1Xtra showcase, presented alongside BBC Introducing.

Hit makers The Heavytrackerz also have a hotly anticipated record due. They’re hoping to bring grime and pop closer together than ever before with their forthcoming LP. ‘Can I be in on a session with Beyonce Knowles and get her on a track with P Money?’ asks Teddy. ‘That’s at the heart of our music.

We’re trying to push grime and break some boundaries.’

To him, events like the BRITs can only go on ignoring these artists for so long. ‘Stormzy is in the charts, so is JME. It’s becoming the norm now,’ he states. ‘In 20 years’ time it will dominate.’

Read the full interviews with all these artists on m-magazine.co.uk

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M59_MARCH 2016_21

CHRIS PARKER & PYMCA

Main image: Punks attracting attention from tourists at Trafalgar Square, London, 1980.

profile PUNK40

YES MOTHER, I DO NEED TO SWEAR Forty years after The Ramones first crashed London, Mark Paytress chats to punk’s instigators and inheritors to learn why artistic anarchy still looms large in British music.

‘I was in my bedroom writing Oh Shit,’ says Buzzcocks’ frontman Pete Shelley, ‘and I was still singing it when I went down to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Mum was doing some ironing, and she said, “Do you have to swear?” I said, “Yes, mother, I do.”’

The odd profanity could take you a long way back in 1976. When the Sex Pistols let a few rude words slip out on Thames TV’s Today show on 1 December, they became public enemy number one, instantly denounced as ‘the nightmare of British culture’. Yet despite repeated attacks in the daily papers, live music bans across the country and plenty of sniggering in the rock press, punk-rock flourished.

Four decades on, the nightmare continues. Punk. London: 40 Years of Challenging Convention celebrates its history, influence and legacy via a series of events in the city where rock’s most notorious and enduring rebellion began. And it’s not just about music; it never was.

Punk triggered a cultural upheaval that encompassed art, fashion, photography, design and literature, all of which are being explored throughout the year-long programme.

Today, instead of heated questions being asked in Parliament, the establishment is getting right behind it. ‘Punk is as iconic to Britain as Stonehenge and Tower Bridge,’ says Stuart Hobley, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, a key patron of programme. Many might find that baffling.

Punx Not Dead ‘I’m actually sick of the word,’ says Pauline Murray from Penetration, whose 1977 debut 45 Don’t Dictate was as thrilling and defiantly punk as any that year. ‘It’s so overused that it’s become virtually meaningless.’

From the start, the word was contentious. Siouxsie Sioux, one of the Bromley contingent of early Sex Pistols followers, has always

hated it. ‘If anyone even thought of describing [the Banshees] as a punk band, we would scream denials at them,’ she once told me.

By the end of the decade, post-punk shapeshifters (such as PiL and Joy Division) and ‘Punx Not Dead’ traditionalists (The Exploited, Discharge) were two widely opposing wings. Since then, everything from rap, grunge, poetry, football and grime has been called ‘the new punk’.

More recently, the word is back in vogue, used for and by a new generation of bands who have emerged both in London and nationwide. Among the most notable, together with Savages, Slaves and Eagulls, are Nottingham-based duo Sleaford Mods.

‘Punk’s like hip-hop,' says Mods’ chief ranter Jason Williamson, ‘kinda something outta nothing. When I listen back to the original stuff, it’s the raucousness, the anger. It just sounds awake, alert.’

But he wouldn’t define himself as a punk. ‘No, cos a lot of it’s shit.’

Asked how he can tell the difference, he says, ‘the conviction. You just know.’

Black swan Last year, Sleaford Mods played a few shows with The Pop Group, a militant late seventies’ punk-funk outfit who weren’t shy about throwing art and politics into the mix. ‘Jeremy Corbyn is punk,’ says frontman and provocateur Mark Stewart, ‘because punk is not about a sound. It’s an attitude. It’s about not taking any crap. It’s about being energised, striking a defiant pose so you can take on the world.’

Bad Breeding, a new quartet from Stevenage, have been described as ‘the best new punk band in Britain’ and for good reason. They have the intensity of early Buzzcocks, the anonymity of Wire, the blind rage of Angelic Upstarts and, best of all, the bravery to make all that sound compelling and contemporary. They also believe strongly in punk’s social conscience.

Punk is as iconic to Britain as Stonehenge and Tower Bridge.

M58_DECEMBER M59_MARCH 2016_23 2015_29

Left: Savages Above: Sauna Youth

Of course punk is still relevant… it’s on e of the few remaining areas where people can stand up for them selves.

KATIE ROSE, JOOST VANDERBRUG, LEONE COLLINANE

‘Of course punk’s still relevant,’ insists singer Chris Dodd, though wary that the word can conjure up ‘a hackneyed mental picture of shite haircuts and mindless posturing. It’s one of the few remaining areas where people [can] stand up for themselves.’ And he believes there’s still plenty to get angry about. ‘We live in an age where morality and decency come second to greed and self-interest. I doubt that has changed much since the first wave of punk 40 years ago. The struggle is very much the same.’

Pauline Murray agrees. ‘Punk opened my eyes to many things, especially politics. It shone a light on so many different areas of life.’ But she sees little comparison between punk in 1976 and 2016. ‘It wasn’t learnt. It was a black swan played by outsiders that mainstream people hated. We were young. We hated the past. It was quite moral like that. It was all about moving forward.’

Stiff competition When EMI found itself £40,000 out of pocket after a brief liaison with the Sex Pistols, and art-punk industrial originators Throbbing Gristle gleefully declared ‘rock is for arse lickers’, the music industry kept punk at arm’s length for months. It was an independent label, Stiff, that first took the plunge, releasing The Damned’s New Rose in October 1976, a month before the Pistols’ debut.

‘If punk changed anything, it was probably the rise of the independent record label,’ says Pete Shelley. Buzzcocks released their debut Spiral Scratch EP on their own self-financed New Hormones imprint.

With the majors slow on the uptake, and many punk-inspired acts opposed to them on ideological grounds, the late seventies witnessed an explosion of independently released music. ‘A lot of it

was the most uncommercial form of music you could imagine,’ says Pete. ‘And the more you zoomed in, the more you realised just how different everyone was. The Pistols were different to Buzzcocks, who were different from The Slits and Subway Sect.’ But you knew it was all part of the movement. It was punk.

Pauline Murray believes that punk was short circuited by the majors when they finally came to their senses and realised it offered a lifeline for a stagnant music business. ‘It was hijacked when everybody got signed up. The [major] record companies used the energy of the original bands, then took on other acts who used punk for their own ends.’ By the end of the decade, the ‘flowering of punk’, as she calls it, was wilting.

‘Once you're in the system, it's like a machine. It all turns out the same way. But at the same time, had it not gone through the system it probably would have faded and died.’

It never did. Like Picasso, it slowly lost its shock value. Periodically, it has returned in various new guises – hardcore, Riot Grrrl, the postpunk revival of the new millennium. Leading lights The Strokes had rock superstardom in their sights. But Riot Grrrl acts like Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear were so committed to ‘the cause’ that they failed to reach the audience they deserved.

Cultural catalyst Sauna Youth, based in London, revel in the kind of contradictions posed by punk. ‘We don’t think punk ever had a manifesto [and] that’s why we like it so much,’ they say. Invoking the word can be ‘a way of communicating quickly certain ideas and things we associate with’; ‘it can be used to describe anything that pisses anyone else off’; and, ultimately, ‘it can be anything you want it to be.’

profile PUNK40

The power of punk is the power of hope.

Left: (top to bottom) Slaves, Buzzcocks, Eagulls, Bad Breeding

Unlike the post-punk acts of a decade ago, Sauna Youth and Bad Breeding are both committed to the idea of new punk as a channel for alternative, often rarely heard voices. ‘There’s a wonderful sense of vitality, humour and absolute conviction in DIY communities that you cannot get anywhere else,’ says Chris Dodd.

Sauna Youth describe the current UK punk scene as ‘an incredibly motivating and inspiring place to be. The bands and labels are some of the best in the world, and there’s a huge emphasis on destroying the embarrassingly commonplace sight of all-male, white, heterosexual, able-bodied bands that proliferate.’

Punk is not about a sound.

It’s an attitude.

Meanwhile, Sleaford Mods are on the cusp of signing a major-backed deal. ‘When Slaves signed to Sony, they completely changed,’ says Jason Williamson. ‘We’re not gonna do that. But I’ve got to a point now where I wouldn't mind somebody else coming in with a view, saying, “well, what about that?” As an artist, I think that’s important too. You can stay in your room on your own too long sometimes.’

Mark Stewart, who cites PRS for Music as one of the industry’s good guys (‘those publishing payments were all some of the original punk bands ever got,’ he says approvingly), is ever optimistic. ‘Don’t demolish it,’ he says. ‘Revivals might be a bit like necrophilia, but to me, the power of punk is the power of hope. A kid anywhere in the world can pick up a broken Korean PlayStation and make incredible music for 20 quid.’

Pauline Murray’s fear is that any positive gains made by punk have been more than cancelled out by establishment forces. ‘They’ve got it all,’ she says. ‘They’ve got everybody’s money, all the technology.

The music colleges teach students how to make genre songs to backing tracks. There’s no room for experimentation. Record labels rarely ever pay for demos now. You’ve got to be able to afford to pay for them yourself. I can’t see any revolution happening in music again. It’ll take shortages in supermarkets for that to happen.’

Meanwhile, Pete Shelley’s already out there on the Buzzcocks 40 tour. ‘Hopefully it’ll not be as a sterile as a museum!’ he jokes. ‘It’s still got the excitement and incitement, the songs are still fun to play and the audience love it. It’s a happy ending.’

Read interviews with some of these bands on m-magazine.co.uk

M59_MARCH 2016_25

My problem is I don’t have a poker face, so if anybody starts talking crap to me they can see exactly what I’m thinking.

profile PROFILE

HIGH RISE From pogoing indie-rock frontman to the toast of Tinseltown: composer Clint Mansell tells Anita Awbi how he swapped the West Midlands for the West Coast.

There are no industry accolades (he’s not into trophies), or Hollywood hook-ups (he has a terrible poker face), that can dampen the tension or loosen the nerves. Clint is just an ordinary bloke making extraordinary music.

His earliest venture was the score to Darren’s directorial debut Pi back in 1996. Back then, Pop Will Eat Itself, the electronic-indie outfit Clint fronted, had just disbanded. In their time, the quartet had enjoyed a string of ephemeral top 40 hits and opened for hardhitting US acts Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails. They also helmed the short-lived ‘grebo’ scene - a booze-fuelled Midlands rumpus that counted The Wonderstuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin among its dreadlocked, tie-dyed number.

‘For me, every new film is always daunting. You’re starting with a completely blank page and you need a multi-coloured masterpiece at the end of it,’ he says over the phone from his Los Angeles studio. Outside, the Californian sunshine is bleaching the sidewalks and movie execs are out on the hustle. It’s a million miles from Coventry, where he was born in 1963.

‘It was brilliant; people liked our records and our live shows so we got drunk and had a great time,’ Clint says. ‘I just remember laughing my way around the world, really. But by 1996 I’d spent a decade in the band, and like anybody that changes career or gets made redundant, your identity is wrapped up in what you do. When it ended I found myself at a real loss. I was rudderless.’

‘When you write music for somebody else they’re going to tell you things you may not want to hear,’ he continues. ‘You’ve got to learn to detach yourself from it, but at the same time be invested enough that you think it’s important. It’s a fine line. It can be very tough.’

He’d just moved to New York (a town he didn’t really fit into) and things were looking pretty bleak - until he was introduced to the young Pi director. ‘Meeting Darren set us both on a totally new path, particularly for me,’ Clint remembers.

It’s this modest pragmatism which makes Clint stand out like a sore thumb in the movie-making business. You can hear it in his music too. His oblique scores bring a measured depth to every narrative he immerses himself in. From Duncan Jones (Moon) and Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Noah) to Irvine Welsh (Filth) and Park Chan-Wook (Stoker), Clint has become the go-to composer for some of the world’s savviest directors.

‘He obviously could have found somebody else to score his movies, whereas for me, I was given the opportunity to do my thing. It was a very big experience for me, and we’ve gone on to do a fair amount of work that we’re proud of.’

There’s not much that can knock a Grammy-nominated screen composer off his stride - or so you’d think. But with each incoming commission, Clint Mansell braces himself.

First flight It was his murky, minimal soundtrack to Darren’s 2010 psychodrama Black Swan that earned Clint his first Grammy Award nomination and a place in Hollywood’s little black book. Grossing over £300m at the box office, the movie and score (which itself was a reworking of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake) have since been hailed masterpieces on both sides of the pond. But in truth, Clint had already been producing Tinseltown’s darkest, most daring soundtracks for nearly 15 years.

Artistic independence Over the years, Clint’s trademark sound has grown to incorporate harsh electronics and orchestral motifs, which he melds into recurrent themes and contorted shapes. He’s also locked musical horns with the lauded Kronos Quartet, punk-rock icon Patti Smith and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor – musicians who are all ‘out there’, he says. For Clint, artistic expression is always at the top of the agenda, so he needs to pick his musical and cinematic bedfellows wisely…

‘I want to work on films that speak to me, that drag something out of me. I want to work with people who challenge me to not rest on my

M59_MARCH 2016_27

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profile PROFILE

Above: Sienna Miller in High Rise Top right: Clint Mansell

laurels,’ he explains. ‘And hopefully they come to me for something they can’t get somewhere else. My scores aren’t reliant on wallpaper - just stuff, filling up the soundscape. There needs to be a point to it, you know?’

Then, in the eighties, arthouse releases Eraserhead and Betty Blue made another lasting impression on Clint, as he began to gravitate towards character in the movies. ‘Those films had quite a singular voice,’ he says.

‘Looking back, I think that’s what’s been the biggest influence on me.’

It’s this creative spirit that has proven his biggest draw. Since the late nineties, Clint has scored more than 40 feature films, expertly teasing out the isolation, anxiety and fear in dozens of leading men and women.

Testament to their standalone power, many of his most recent efforts have been released as artist albums in their own right.

Next steps These days, Clint has become the consummate all-rounder, both in his ability to tackle films of any artistic hue and in his knack for bringing studio scores to the stage. Driven by a need to embrace his indie-rock past (he admits he still loves ‘showing off’ in public), Clint has developed a beguiling live show with a nine-piece band and string quartet.

His latest work, the soundtrack to Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise, sees Clint mine the same forward-thinking electronic/ classical fault line as Black Swan. And, in a nod to the composer’s growing stature both inside and outside the film industry, the soundtrack was automatically released physically and digitally to coincide with the movie’s March debut here in the UK.

I want to work on films that speak to me, that drag something out of me.

Early exposure Listen to any Clint Mansell score and you’ll be able to pick out shades of post-rock, industrial electronics, avant-garde pop and seventies’ soundtracks in among the waves of crushing ambience. It’s a complex sound world which belies his lack of classical schooling and points to a more populist education.

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His first eureka moment happened in 1972 at the tender age of nine.

Clint was watching Top of the Pops at his Nan’s house then all of a sudden… ‘David Bowie came on doing Starman,’ he says. ‘There’s that bit where he points down the camera and you think he’s pointing right at you! I don’t even remember if we had a black and white TV then, but I do know that it felt like the world suddenly turned technicolour.

It had the hugest impact on me. From then on, I knew I wanted to be involved in music.’

Clint bought every Bowie record religiously until 1979, and through him developed a passion for new music which led him to The Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division. He was also absorbing whatever seventies weirdness the BBC was busy beaming into our front rooms. Its Monday night movie slot, which screened the likes of The Parallax View, Don’t Look Now, Assault on Precinct 13 and Walkabout particularly grabbed his young ears.

‘I just felt, like, wow, this is me, this is my world now. This isn’t my parents’ world, or even the movie-goers’ world, because these were independent films just doing their own thing.’

This March sees them play an eight-date UK tour of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, London’s Royal Festival Hall, The Sage, Gateshead and Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall. The set will recreate his most iconic pieces from the likes of Black Sawn, Requiem for a Dream, Moon, The Fountain and The Wrestler - ‘you can even whistle along to some of them’, he jokes.

‘It’s quite amazing how well it goes down,’ he adds, sounding almost surprised. ‘It’s not like going to see a rock ‘n’ roll show with Mick Jagger fronting. It’s all very sedate, and I can sit down, which suits me fine,’ he laughs.

‘Yes the music is dynamic - sometimes you can hear a pin drop, other times it’s quite bombastic, you know? But people have really engaged with it. It’s a really an awesome experience. I really love it.’

Clint comes to the UK off the back of a short US concert tour, heading back to LA straight away to begin work on Duncan Jones’ next film, Mute, which is slated for a 2017 premiere.

So what’s it like for a British composer in the eye of the Hollywood storm?

‘I’m very much on the outskirts,’ Clint insists. ‘My problem is I don’t have a poker face, so if anybody starts talking crap to me they can see exactly what I’m thinking.

‘I have no interest in it at all. It’s like the emperor’s new clothes - everybody telling each other they’re fucking great and me just thinking, “Please, I’ll just stay at home.” The most valuable thing I’ve picked up from it all is this one analogy: it’s easy to score a good film; it’s impossible to score a shit one.’

Clint appears at the next edition of BAFTA’s Conversations With Screen Composers series, which takes place at the Royal Albert Hall on 27 March. The series is run by BAFTA in association with PRS for Music.

Read the full interview now at m-magazine.co.uk/interviews M59_MARCH 2016_29

the ivor novello awards One hundred years ago this year, it was Welsh composer Ivor Novello’s songs like Keep The Home Fires Burning that kept up entrenched troops’ spirits on the Home Front as they fought for the rights we enjoy today. As we look forward to the 61st Ivor Novello Awards on 19 May 2016, it seems appropriate to remember his incredible story...

While they might recognise his name, few may know of Novello’s personal battle to achieve success.

Despite being told bluntly by those around him ‘he would not have a career in music’, the young singer persevered and had his first song published at the age of 15. He also overcame hardships (including a brief spell in prison which affected him both mentally and physically) and went on to enjoy a career as the most successful composer of musicals the world had ever seen.

He and his friends set up the Songwriters Guild, who named The Ivors in his honour after his death.

The annual awards embody that essence of spirit – bringing together the best in new, upcoming and established writers for an afternoon in celebration of a talent which only they understand. It is often said by those so gifted that writing a song is comparable to giving birth and the awards are unique in recognising the achievements of those that hone and nurture a tune from nothing into something that captures the imagination of the world.

MARK ALLAN, DAVID FISHER, LONDON FEATURES INTERNATIONAL

The awards are owned and presented by BASCA and sponsored by PRS for Music – they celebrate, honour and reward all those who have achieved in the last year and continue to achieve in an increasingly challenging climate. While in the digital world artists have their own battles for recognition, it is an occasion to remember that without songwriters and composers, there would be no artist.

BASCA But who are we and what do we do? In short, BASCA is an independent voice which exists to support and protect the professional interests of songwriters, lyricists and composers of all genres of music. We also aim to celebrate and encourage excellence in British music writing.

This is why, as well as organising this annual recognition of talent, we are campaigning vigorously for songwriters and composers’ rights in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. It’s a world where, in 2016, it’s increasingly hard for talented individuals to make a living, where their work is often exploited for free or very little remuneration.

This is why it’s essential writers unite and speak with one voice - through strength in numbers - to work with organisations and businesses trying to establish new models for music fans to enjoy, and in political arenas, to ensure recognition of their work.

The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) exists to support and protect the professional interests of songwriters, lyricists and composers of all genres of music and to celebrate and encourage excellence in British music writing. On May 19 2016 we will host the 61st Ivor Novello Awards, which have been sponsored by PRS for Music for the last 41 years.

We also work to inform our members of important developments through publications, websites and seminars. And above all, we work to foster a sense of community as we encourage the next generation of talent. It’s no wonder our members are as diverse as Sir Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Michael Nyman, Calvin Harris, Annie Lennox, Chris Martin, Dizzee Rascal and Sir Elton John – many of whom you can find yourself rubbing shoulders with of an afternoon at The Ivors (not just the numerous managers, record label and publishing executives from throughout the industry who attend).

It’s often said that what makes The Ivors so great is that each of the award categories are judged by their peers who sit on panels and thrash out their decisions. The acceptance speeches are intensely heartfelt and poignant, because every winner of an Ivor is often so incredibly proud to have been recognised by their fellow songwriters and composers. In fact, the event is widely acknowledged as the most prestigious awards ceremony anyone in the music industry could hope to attend. And did we mention it’s a lot of fun?

We look forward to seeing you there, at the 61st Ivor Novello Awards at the Grosvenor House, London, on May 19 2016. If you would like to purchase a ticket, please contact Cindy@basca.org.uk

BASCA is self-funded and we rely on the continued support of our members to carry out our work. If you are a songwriter or composer, you are welcome to join. Contact us for more information at info@basca.org.uk

Ivor Novello Award winners include, clockwise from top: Nile Rodgers, Calvin Harris, David Holmes, U2, Amy Winehouse, London Grammar, and Grabrielle.

Manic depression stopped me from playing to the point of getting rid of my guitar to pay for somewhere to live.

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song writing

i wrote that Bristolian singer-songwriter Amy Wadge has co-written with scores of established and emerging artists over her 20-year career. But she’s best known for her longterm writing partnership with Ed Sheeran, who she met when he was just 17. Together they spawned the chart-topping hit Thinking Out Loud in 2015, which appeared on Ed’s sophomore album x and bagged the pair the prestigious Song of the Year Award at the Grammys earlier this year. Here, she tells us about its creation…

I remember it all like it was yesterday. I wanted to visit Ed because we hadn’t seen each other properly for about a year - he’d been crazily busy. I drove up to his place in Suffolk with no intention of doing any writing.

He was in the shower, so I picked up a guitar and started singing what are now the first two lines of the song. This voice shouted down, ‘Wadge, what’s that?’ I replied, ‘I don’t know,’ and before long, I could hear him walking round upstairs – the tune in his head - singing, ‘take me into your loving arms.’

We stopped there because we went out for dinner with his mum. She invited me back for coffee, but Ed told her, ‘no, me and Wadge have got a song to write.’ When we got to the house we put together Thinking Out Loud in about 20 minutes; it just flew out.

Ed had lost his grandfather quite recently and there’s a song on the album called Afire Love, which is all about that. I remember that day we talked about his grandmother and how lost she was at the funeral without her lifetime partner. At the time, my motherin-law was dying. Ever since her husband had passed away 12 years before, she had lost the will to live. We discussed it, and how amazing it is to still be with the same person at 70.

Thinking Out Loud came from all of that emotion; from Ed losing a family member and realising that actually, for most of us, it’s our ambition to have a lifelong companion. All those things you worry about when you’re young and in a relationship don’t mean a thing as you get older.

So that’s where my head was at the time but, like anything, I don’t know really know where the song came from. The lines just came out of my mouth. I hadn’t written them down anywhere; it wasn’t something I’d been thinking about until that point when I picked up the guitar.

We’ve always been a tag team, Ed and I. He says a line and then I say one. I don’t play; despite the fact that I

Amy Wadge and Ed Sheeran with Stevie Wonder at the 2016 GRAMMYS®

played the guitar for the first two lines of on Thinking Out Loud to begin with. Ed is a much better guitarist than I am, so he always takes the guitar.

The first time I ever met him, when he was 17, we wrote nine songs in two days. We’ve always been super quick, and this session was no different. Ed is such a fast songwriter so together we’re like lightening! I think it comes from years of knowing each other really well.

We’re not scared to say when things are rubbish or when they don’t work. There’s no pussyfooting around.

That day I went to visit, before we wrote Thinking Out Loud, Ed already played me the whole of what is now x.

As far as he was concerned, the album was finished. But after we’d recorded the new song on his iPhone, and he played it through his speakers, he kept saying, ‘this one should be on the album.’

I told him not to worry – there would always be another album – and I drove away not knowing exactly what was going to happen with it. But by the time I got back to my home in Wales Ed had rung me to say he’d recorded it straightaway, and I think it shows. His performance of that song is just extraordinary. If you really, really listen, there’s an authenticity to what he’s singing about and there’s a raw freshness to his vocals.

Soon after he told me it had made the album and by the following week, he’d decided it would be the third single. I remember the first time I saw him sing it was on Later… With Jools Holland. I was in the audience and I thought to myself, ‘this is going to change my life.’

We’ve always been a tag team, Ed and I. He says a line and then I say one.

If you’d asked me 20 years ago, I probably would have wanted it to be me singing that song, me in the spotlight.

What’s been the greater surprise for me is the profound enjoyment I get from watching someone else sing. I’m a better writer than I ever was a performer.

Going on to win the Song of the Year Award at the Grammys in February was totally incredible and utterly surreal. I’m not even close to digesting it yet. I’m going back to LA again in two weeks to work with Ed and I’m really looking forward to sitting down with him and saying, ‘oh my god, that really happened!’ It was all a bit of a blur on the night but it was wonderful; it truly was.

Thinking Out Loud Written by Ed Sheeran and Amy Wadge Published by BDi Music and Sony/ATV

Read the full interview with Amy on m-magazine.co.uk m59_march 2016 _33

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live

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Ghostpoet, live at PRS for Music Presents, Streatham, 11 February 2016

This picture of Obaro Ejimiwe (aka Coventry rapper and songwriter Ghostpoet) was taken at the first PRS for Music Presents shindig of 2016. The gig was held at the society’s Streatham office, South London, and also featured soul singer-songwriter Andrew Ashong and shapeshifting drum and bass collective Dr Meaker.

Obaro performed eight tracks on the night including live fave X Marks the Spot - to a packed crowd including local Labour MP Chukka Umunna, industry guests, staff and members.

His twitchy electronic/alt-rock set was loosely based around his critically acclaimed third album Shedding Skin, and was brought to life with guitar, bass, drums and keyboard.

Throughout the performance, Ghostpoet prowled the stage spitting quiet, anxious rhymes which blended with the backing band’s textured soundscapes to create something altogether weirder than their conventional guitar band set-up suggested.

Also on the bill alongside Ghostpoet was soul singer34_march 2015_m59

songwriter Andrew Ashong, who opened the night with his fail-safe groove of authentic R&B and stripped-back acoustics.

More full-blooded than the esoteric melodies of James Blake, and subtler than the vocal acrobatics of pop’s big hitters like John Newman, Andrew took another, more left-leaning swing at the soaring soul that Britain now seems to excel at.

Closing the night were bass heads Dr Meaker. The ninepiece, led by Clive Meaker (producer, keyboards and vocals), have released a flurry of slow-burning tracks and remixes since they came together in 2007. But it is in the live arena where they really come into their own.

Cranking up the volume, they had the audience jumping throughout their 12-song set.

About PRS for Music Presents The PRS for Music Presents gig series runs to a bimonthly schedule during 2016 at the society’s Kings Cross and Streatham offices, and across various venues around the country. The events offer the society’s key industry partners, stakeholders and music fans an opportunity to witness first-hand the breadth of talent PRS for Music represents.

The next showcase will feature HONNE and Tiggs Da Author and is scheduled for 21 April at the King’s Cross office.

Following that, there will be a regional PRS for Music Presents at the Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast, on 28 April, featuring rising local talent The Clameens, Katherine Phillips and Jealous of the Birds.

Visit m-magazine.co.uk for your chance to win tickets.

“I Got a $ix-Figure Indie Label Deal Because I Joined TAXI” Jenna Drey – TAXI Member – www.jennadrey.com

My name is Jenna Drey.

A Record Deal With Lots of Zeros!

That’s me sitting next to TAXI Seven months after joining, president, Michael Laskow.

TAXI connected me with a great For as long as I can remember, Indie label that’s distributed by Universal. The president of the I’ve wanted to be a recording label heard my song, “Just Like artist. I’ve studied music my That,” and just like that, I was whole life. I’ve read all the books. I’ve been to the seminars. offered a record deal, and that song became my first single.

In short, I’ve done all the same things you’re probably doing.

Madonna, Bowie, Jagger, and me!

Who Hears Your Music?

The icing on the cake? The I’ll bet you’ve also noticed that no matter how much preparation label hired legendary producer, Nile Rodgers (Madonna, David you’ve done, it doesn’t mean Bowie, Mick Jagger, and the anything if you can’t get your B-52s) to produce it! All these music heard by people who can amazing things happened to me sign on the dotted line. because I saw an ad like this and I found out about TAXI a few joined TAXI. years ago, and have kept an eye on it ever since. The longer I watched, the more I became convinced it was the vehicle I needed for my music. When my demos were done, I joined. And guess what – it worked!

1,200 Chances to Pitch Your Music It seems like all the serious artists and writers are hooking up with TAXI. Where else could you find more than 1,200 high-level opportunities for your music every year?

You’d hire an accountant to do your taxes. Doesn’t it make sense to hire the world’s leading independent A&R company to make all the connections you need? Do you have the time to do all the leg work yourself?

It Worked for Me TAXI doesn’t take a percentage of anything, and it will probably cost you a lot less than the last guitar or keyboard you bought. Think of TAXI as the most important piece of gear you’ll ever need. It’s the one that can get you signed.

If you’re a songwriter, artist, or composer who wants to succeed in the music business, then do what I did and make the tollfree call to TAXI right now.

The World’s Leading Independent A&R Company

1-800-917-0406