This week has been another busy one, involving blog posts, Spotify playlists and me travelling down to London to attend BBC Introducing’s Amplify Conference. As an independent musician any opportunities to learn from and potentially network with people in the industry are key, so I thought it was really important to attend as many sessions as possible!
Monday: On Monday I started off the day with tennis and then went into college for my ‘Introduction to Production’ class. It was a really great session as we were focused on using Simpler in Ableton and designing sounds. This is something I’m really interested in, so I enjoyed the lesson a lot. I think it’s awesome that you can take any sampled sound and completely customise it by applying filters and changing the release time, attack etc.
Tuesday: Tuesday was a day for plugging my new song ‘Take It All’ with blogs and Spotify playlists. I spent most of the day researching and contacting curators and bloggers with my press release and bio. It paid off as ‘Take It All’ has been placed on two awesome Spotify playlists and one blog so far! Check them out:
Wednesday: I started the day with a bit of relaxation and pampering at Bali Health Lounge in Manchester, before going into college to work on some new music and work on my production skills on Ableton. Then I started my new module: Electronic Music Composition. The first session was going through the notes on the piano and the theory of scales, which was very simple for me having played piano for years. However, I did learn a couple of interesting facts and I can tell the course is going to be really useful as we get into the more intense content.
Thursday: I mostly practised with my loop pedal and caught up on admin (as well as Great British Bake Off). As it was Thursday though, it was Thursday Twenty time! This week’s playlist is awesome, with loads of really beautiful chilled songs and a couple of curveballs thrown in!
- Falling Autumn by alanya – alanya was on my playlist last week too and I have just fallen in love with her voice. It’s so beautiful and effortless!
- Invite Me by Brent Faiyaz
- E.T. by WENS – This is such a different version of the classic Katy Perry track that I didn’t recognise the song until I checked the name! Very chilled, very calming and very cool!
- Better by Sam Rui – This one is a bit sassy and is about that feeling when your ex gets a new girlfriend… very easy to relate to and loving the confidence in this track!
- Don’t Love Me by Janine
- Insecure by Brent Faiyaz – The second Brent Faiyaz song on this week… big fan of this! Has a slight feel of The Weeknd in his early days.
- Memories by Kevin Lake
- I’m Gonna Be There by Lash – Love this! Such a happy and catchy song with a real feel good vibe!
- Bom Bidi Bom by Nick Jonas & Nicki Minaj – This is so infectious and stays in your head all day! Love Nick Jonas’s voice so much too!
- Find You by Nick Jonas
- Girlfriend by NAO
- Not Above Love by AlunaGeorge – I Love AlunaGeorge as they really do have their own unique sound, and this track is no exception! You can instantly recognise it’s them and the hook gets stuck in my head all day!
- How Long by Charlie Puth – I’m loving Charlie Puth’s more recent material… this has an effortless cool to it and the bassline is the key to the song again, like in Attention.
- Used To by Sabrina Claudio
- Can’t Lie by MiC LOWRY
- Easy Love by Lauv
- Onanon by Kelela
- NUMB feat. GRAACE by Hayden James – Amazinggg vocals here and I love the instrumentation too. The drop in the chorus is very restrained and it works so well with the relaxed, sexy vibe.
- Mad Woman by Sevdaliza – I was drawn to this track as it had a real ‘Banks-esque’ feel to it and I’m completely obsessed with Banks. I’m looking forward to listening to more from Sevdaliza and seeing if that ‘bad bitch’ vibe carries through all her material!
- Rake It Up by Yo Gotti & Nicki Minaj – This is such a guilty pleasure and I hate myself for liking it a little bit! However, as soon as I hear the beat I want to dance and it makes me want to go out and party… and that’s never a bad feeling!
Friday: Friday was the first day of the Amplify Conference so I got the train down to London in the morning and got to the conference at about 1:00pm. The sessions I attended were: Sentric Presents ‘How to Land a Sync Deal in 9 Steps’, Annie Mac’s Playlist and BPI Presents ‘Heads of Label’. Sentric’s sync talk was something I particularly enjoyed as it was really comprehensive and informative. I really felt like I learned things I could immediately put into place! After the conference I then trekked over to Hammersmith to rehearse with George ready for my gig in Hoxton Square next week! Very busy day!
Saturday: Another great day at the Amplify Conference! I sessions on ‘How To Get A Gig’, ‘How To Be Good At Social Media’ and ‘Shifting The Gaze: Women in Music’. I particularly enjoyed the women in music session as JONES, Rae Morris and Becca McIntyre from the Marmozets were the guests and all of them were very inspiring! I’m a JONES fan in particular, so seeing her speak about how she’s curated her career was amazing! In the evening I was feeling very motivated so I used that energy and channelled it into writing the press release for my next release and writing my Spotify Bio!
Sunday: My last day at Amplify was a great one as I managed to get to four sessions, plus I had the company of one of my friends, Martins. The sessions I attended were ‘AWAL Presents: Demystifying Streaming Data’, ‘A Guide to Self-Releasing’, ‘The Music Manager Masterclass’ and ‘Keeping Control of Your Music’. I was originally meant to be attended a session with JP Cooper, but due to illness, that talk was cancelled.. however the talk on retaining control featured Nina Nesbitt who is an artist I like a lot, so that was a good replacement! After the conference came the long journey home, despite being back in London next Wednesday!
Thank you so much for reading! Next week I’ll be talking about my gig in London and then my travels on to Bath!
sally caitlin 