STILL BILL 40 years of Bill Withers
Members Music Magazine Issue 64 June 2017
STREAMING SYMPHONIES
Classical goes digital
NEW JAZZ
Out and proud
ANNE DUDLEY
BARRY ADAMSON
PETER PERRETT
LAURA CANNELL
SPITFIRE AUDIO
digital edition
contents
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COVER FEATURE
BILL WITHERS The self-effacing songsmith on penning some of soul’s biggest hits.
18
DIGITAL CALLING The classical composers who are embracing streaming to reach new audiences.
14
BREXIT
ANNE DUDLEY Synths and strings: perfecting the art.
Industry experts discuss the hottest topic of our time.
How the genre-fluidity of jazz’s newest acts is shaking things up.
26
10
60 SECONDS Laura Cannell on her ritualistic classical sound.
5
SOCIAL @m_magazineprs @m_magazineprs prsformusic prsformusic m_magazineprs
cover photo: photo: andrew zukerman
JAZZ
22
I WROTE THAT
PICTURE THIS
The Only Ones’ Peter Perret remembers how he penned his most iconic song.
Celebrating 50 years of Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
33
34
EDITORIAL
PRODUCTION
Editor Paul Nichols
Production & Design Carl English
Associate Editor Anita Awbi Senior Writer Jim Ottewill
Membership Advisors Simon Aldridge Myles Keller
CONTRIBUTORS Amy Field, Maxie Gedge, Liam McMahon, Stefania Pavlou, Cerian Squire, Alex Sharman, Coral Williamson.
PRS for Music, 2 Pancras Square. London N1C 4AG T 020 7580 5544 E magazine@prsformusic.com W prsformusic.com The printing of M Magazine is managed on behalf of PRS for Music by Cyan Group Ltd, Twickenham. cyan-group.com Advertising T 020 3225 5200 E orla-tickton@media-ten.com Advertising does not influence editorial decisions or content. The appearance of advertising in M is neither a guarantee nor an endorsement by PRS for Music of the product, service, or company or the claims made for the product in such advertising. ISSN 0309-0019© PRS for Music 2017. 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 alexia sloane
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goat girl
Few teenagers are lighting up the world of classical music as brightly as prodigy Alexia Sloane. With accolades piling up at her feet, including a recent selection by Classic FM and the Royal Philharmonic Society to write a new piece to celebrate the radio station’s 25th birthday, Alexia’s impressive achievements are made even more astonishing by the fact she’s a 16-year-old synaesthetic blind composer. Starting her musical journey when she was 12, Alexia is inspired as much by her love for nature and philosophy as her condition, where she uses the colours she wishes to hear to sketch and paint her compositions. Using braille music notation to compose her works, they are then dictated to an amanuensis, who transcribes them onto notation software. It’s a lengthy process, but one that doesn’t dull any of her music’s potency.
‘I’m disgusted, I’m ashamed of this so-called human race’, yells Country Sleaze, the debut single by South London’s Goat Girl.
Her achievements include being the first young female to win the Cambridge Young Composer of the Year Competition with her piece Passiflora, written for and performed by The Hermes Experiment. Alexia was also an Aldeburgh Young Musician in 2015/2016 and is now one of six composers with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, the first blind composer and musician to be accepted on both schemes.
With an accompanying sludge of guitars, the release, backed by fellow A-side Scum, is a startling introduction to a teenage gang who are as switched on as they are pissed off. Taking their name from one of the late American comedian Bill Hicks’ more offensive sketches, Goat Girl’s knack skewering the uncertainty of our times so succinctly demonstrates how a spluttering heart of pop imperfection lies under their snarling attitude. It’s been a spectacular rise for the quartet.
After signing to Rough Trade, somewhat prophetically on the day the Brexit result was announced, their first outing on the label came in October 2016, recorded with fast-rising studio boffin Margo Broom. The debut took a swipe at the jugular of an unsuspecting music industry which, bowled over by the band’s musical venom, has since come banging on the group’s door. Refusing to be hurried by hype, Goat Girl’s less is more approach has only incited more excitement. After incendiary gigs at The Great Escape and Rough Trade’s 40th birthday celebrations, expect their guitarbased vitriol to wreak havoc all over your summer festival season.
Other new PRS for Music members this quarter include rockers HMLTD and afro-pop artist Ycee. Find out more about them at m-magazine.co.uk
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members & music
sixty seconds
laura cannell Laura Cannell is an innovative East Anglian composer who explores the spaces between ancient and experimental classical music to create her own sonic pathways. As a teenager she first perfected the medieval and baroque repertoire of the recorder, before going on to master the polyphonic overbow technique for fiddle. With a fixation on creating sounds for the moment, in the moment, her live performances have become lauded one-off events. Earlier this year, she established Modern Ritual, a regular night showcasing new performances and improvised collaborations that explore human and mechanical rituals. She also performed with Ex Easter Island Head and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at Sounds From the Other City Festival in Salford to widespread critical acclaim. How and when did you first discover your love of music-making? I grew up in a small rural village in Norfolk and we learnt the recorder at primary school. I remember being much more interested in it than my friends – I just knew it was something I always wanted to do. I started having private lessons every week until I was 18, going through grades, giving performances and eventually going to music college to study. I loved the challenges of learning new pieces and I loved the repertoire for the recorder, which focussed on medieval, renaissance and baroque periods.
You’re known for your love of the recorder – what is it about the instrument that draws you to it? I love the pure tone, that it can sound both simple and emotional at once. That you can colour the note with alternative fingerings to create subtle differences, and it has immediacy; you are either on or off in some senses. From very early on I have had a dislike for constant vibrato that is adopted for much classical playing. I just never liked it; to me it covers up the truth. You can’t hide with the recorder, the art is drawing a complex sound world from a simple-looking instrument.
What has most influenced your sound? I have listened to a lot of traditional fiddle styles. I really like tunes with drones, which is partly why I’ve adopted the overbow technique. It’s an excellent way to create more harmonies. Monteverdi and Biber are amongst my favourite composers, I love their melancholic yet uplifting string writing. I really love the playing of Sequentia, who create medieval Icelandic music on early instruments. I like repetition... The idea of having a starting point for improvisation really appeals to me.
What’s the thinking behind your Modern Ritual events? I started Modern Ritual as a way to perform alongside other musicians, to provide a platform for new ideas. Over the past couple of years I have been touring a lot on my own, and it has been a really exciting adventure, but it can also be really stressful and isolating… I came up with the event idea so I can invite musicians/writers to come and present something new that relates to their ideas of what modern ritual means to them. I wanted something which felt contemporary but also allowed for historical contexts.
How do modern technologies impact your music-making, if at all? I record music using a Zoom recorder and digital editing programmes. I don’t use any extra tech for performing apart from a PA, although that depends on the venue and space. Even with the PA I try to keep it sounding as natural as possible. I don’t want massive reverb - I want my performance to sound how it sounds in that moment. I specifically want to explore how much I can do without any wires, effects or electricity to rely on in live performance.
What’s in store for the next event? The next events include a piece called The Machinery by Sarah Angliss, which incorporates live clog dancing with electronic music, drummer Pete Flood presents new music based on lichens and other plant patterns, and the experimental harpist Rhodri Davies will bring something new to the table too!
How does your interest in early musical forms translate into your own work? I am interested in taking fragments of medieval or renaissance music, and using them as a basis for composition. I have always consciously searched out older music and over the last four years in particular I have researched and incorporated the ideas, modes and structures into my compositions. What do you think modern composers can learn from older forms of music? I think it’s healthy to consider lots of things and then work out whether it is relevant to your practice. In many ways I feel that early music is not that distant from us, we are still people creating music, we haven’t changed as humans.
Laura Cannell #fundedbyprsf
What else is keeping you busy this year? I’ve just completed a short commission for the audio part of an exhibition called Medium, about the artist as conduit of communication from other channels. Various other concerts will follow throughout the year, with a really big commission for November, which is yet to be announced. Plus the next two Modern Rituals at Café Oto, London, on 22 July and the Union Chapel, London, on 2 December. Laura Cannell’s new album Simultaneous Flight Movement is out now on her own Brawl Records. Published by Mute Song Head over to m-magazine.co.uk for the full interview interview
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members & music
SOUND OF SUCCESS ‘When I make music, it’s for a purpose,’ UK grime artist Skepta tells M backstage at the 2017 Ivor Novello Awards. ‘I drop it for a reason, I don’t just wanna dance and shake my jewels.’ The Tottenham MC and noisemaker (pictured right) was the biggest winner at this year’s ceremony in May, picking up the coveted Songwriter of the Year and Best Contemporary Song Awards. The statuettes add to a growing list of accolades alongside the Mercury Prize and AIM’s Outstanding Contribution to Music nod. Having spearheaded a revival in grime over the last two years, Skepta, and his smash album Konnichiwa, has been instrumental in exporting the sound around the globe. But with his growing stature comes more pressure, expectation and media attention. Ho, how’s he coping and what’s next? Where the last LP was ‘all about bringing grime, hiphop and EDM together’, his next album will have a different motive, he says. ‘I’m working on myself right now. I want to be a better person every day that I wake up.’ Laura Mvula (right), who was also at the Grosvenor House ceremony in London, received the Album Award for her ‘difficult’ second LP, The Dreaming Time. She told M of its writing: ‘It was a hard time. I was going through a divorce and had come out about my struggle with anxiety. ‘Then, with my label dropping me in January, the latter end of the relationship was already breaking down and I was working on an album they weren’t that in tune with. But it was good, because it was all fuel. Everyone can relate to feelings of loss and isolation.’
MARK ALLAN, ABI RAY MAKER
Also among those honoured at the 62nd Ivor Novello Awards were Coldplay (PRS for Music Most Performed Work Award), Pulp (Outstanding Song Collection), Michael Kiwanuka (Best Song Musically and Lyrically), Dario Marianelli (Best Original Film Score), Gary Numan (far right) (Inspiration Award) and John Surman (The Ivors Jazz Award). They were joined by M cover star Bill Withers (page 18), who received the PRS for Music Special International Award, and Anne Dudley, who was granted the PRS for Music Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award (page 26). For backstage video interviews with winners, nominees and guests, see m-magazine.co.uk/ features 6_june 2017_m64
members & music
GOOD IS GOOD
Yorkshire music-maker Bex Burch is Vula Viel, a percussionist whose cross-cultural sounds thrum to the beating heart of Ghana’s Dagaare tradition. Having spent three years as an apprentice gyil-maker in the country’s Upper West region, she’s returned to the UK with mind-melting stick skills and a fresh way of working.
Good Is Good, her assimilation of all she’d learned in Africa. The record, plus her poly-rhythmic, jazz-licked live sets, have since earned her plaudits from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Iggy Pop. And there’s more to come… Bex is currently squirrelled away working out her new record, one that’s written from scratch in the Dagaare tradition.
While in Ghana, she was tutored by gyil master Thomas Sagkura, absorbing his unique rhythms and getting under the skin of the local culture. Similar to a xylophone or balafon, the gyil is built from wood, gourds and string, and is the main ingredient for many of the region’s music-makers.
‘Since Good is Good I’ve been writing my own music completely, on the gyil and with Western instruments,’ Bex says. ‘I’m learning that, by going deeper into what makes the Dagaare music work, I’m finding my own voice among the gaps. It’s teaching me a lot about who I am as a musician, as a female percussionist.’
‘It was total surrender, I didn’t have control over my own learning,’ she tells M. ‘It was about patience, absorbing the culture and listening all the time. That’s very different to the Western education system, where we’re taught to assimilate and understand things in a cognitive way.’ Once back in the UK, Bex unleashed the brilliant album
Although the record isn’t slated for release until later this year, she’ll be airing some new material when she plays live with her trio (above) at Jazz FM Awardwinning venue Total Refreshment Centre, London, on 24 June. Read the full interview m-magazine.co.uk/features
at
NEW FUND FOR WRITER-PRODUCERS PRS Foundation and the BASCA Trust have launched the first major UK fund for writer-producers to support the new ways artists, music writers and producers come together to create. The Writer Producer Fund is aimed at supporting the career development of these behind-thescenes hitmakers – many of whom are often less acknowledged by the wider industry than artists and performers. Bhavesh Patel, Programme Manager at PRS Foundation, says: ‘Writerproducers are very often the first
port of call for emerging artists, and help support the next generation of talent coming up – so are extremely important to the wider music ecosystem… The record industry has really changed over the last decade and this fund is acknowledging and addressing creatives’ new needs.’ Grants of up to £10,000 are available to UK-based applicants that have had at least three commercially exploited works. The first deadline is 19 June, but the fund will be open for applications again later this year. For more information, prsformusicfoundation.com
see
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members & music sound effect
As a music-maker, photographer and film-maker, Barry Adamson is notorious for being one of contemporary culture’s continual radicals. Beginning his musical career as bassist in Mancunian punks Magazine, then with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, he broadened his aural aesthetic to include solo work and film scores. His musical life has popped with leftfield highlights including debut solo record Moss Side Story and Mercury Prize nominated Soul Murder while his songs have featured in cult movies including Lost Highway and Natural Born Killers. Barry’s latest EP Love Sick Dick is out now via Central Control. The first record I ever bought was… Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. I heard it on the radio when I was about 10. It was so psychedelic I wanted to try and understand it, so bought it under the guise of getting it my sister as a birthday present. I had to listen to the song about 900 times to try to figure it out. The first song I developed an obsession for was… Elvis Presley’s mesmerising Now or Never. He’s doing this ballad, pleading to someone. It’s about the nature of obsession itself and, with the backing vocals, the reverb, it set my little brain on fire. My parents watched me listening to it over and over. There are some claves that feature so my dad got me a pair and I used to sit there, playing them all day. Not that I’m obsessive myself. My favourite cover version is… Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused. Jimmy Page heard the original [by Jake Holmes] who was opening for The Yardbirds. They took the song’s essence, then went somewhere else. When the whole band takes off, it’s fantastic.
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The song that should’ve been a hit but never made it is… Lauren Pritchard’s When the Night Kills the Day. This could have potentially been a great commercial pop song and it comes from a pop production ear. Occasionally I go into a mode where I listen to everything in this sort of way. This song has a great hook, then I saw it was produced by Marcus Mumford, but I think it barely even charted.
The song that makes me cry is… Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Originally written by political songwriter Ewan MacColl, there’s just something in the arrangement and vocal delivery. This song get me every time.
The last great record I listened to was… 21 Savage’s No Heart. It’s hip-hop from Atlanta that one of my kids played to me. There’s an electronic drum machine in it that’s really slowed down. The bass is part of that, plus it features the most psychopathic lyrics ever about the way this person lives. The tension and strange release that goes through him voicing what is going on is something else.
My all-time favourite film soundtrack is… Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo. It does everything that can be asked of a score, it’s so brilliantly clever by getting inside the psychology of the film, the story, the characterisations and making them into these cohesive themes. I loved Bernard Herrmann too, he will write something so amazing, be up for an Oscar, be asked about what he’ll be doing the next day and he’ll answer. ‘Just playing the piano’. It’s no big deal, the work is the thing. I’ve done the odd lecture on this score it’s so fascinating. I’ve always got time to listen to it.
The song I wish I’d written is… John Barry’s James Bond Theme. I once did a cover of this in a reggae/ska style after I’d heard a controversial story about the guy who wrote it, Monty Norman. I was quite vocal about this at the time of my cover and it all kicked off.
The song that I know all the words to is… Isaac Hayes’ Theme From Shaft. It’s only got a few words but the ones that are there are fantastic.
Barry was a recent guest on our monthly Soho Radio show. Listen back to his selections at m-magazine.co.uk.
members & music
your favourite instruments We asked a range of songwriters and composers to tell us about their preferred music-making devices…
CASSELS
DANIEL ELMS
This is the Fender Mustang you can hear on every Cassels recording and see/hear at every one of our shows. I bought it on eBay when I was around 16 for super cheap and it’s been my go to ever since. Our band would probably sound way shitter without it.
I composed my debut album, Islandia, using electro-acoustic instruments and a chamber orchestra. It required a great deal of work to create appropriate timbres and amplification methods that presented these instruments as bonafide contributors to an orchestral textures, but the results have been beautifully rewarding and contributed significantly to the album’s aesthetic. @danielelms
@casselsofficial
NAINITA DESAI
HER’S
I love my Hang. There was a 12-month waiting list for the handpan to be custom made for me and it’s derived from the original creators of the Hang in Switzerland. The tactile connection makes for a regular meditative, relaxing, therapeutic break away from my computer-based studio. It’s addictive to play. @nainitadesai
We love our little drum machine Pierce Brosnan to bits. [Guitarist/ vocalist] Ste got acquainted with this Zoom Rhythmtrak RT-223 aged nine when his dad got it for his birthday. Before Her’s, Pierce played New Order covers in Kendal College and secured Ste good grades. Its next appearance was when we programmed our tune I’ll Try on it. @ThatBandOfHers
THE JUNTO CLUB
CASTLES
The Volca keys and beats are involved at the start of every new idea we have. There’s a brief flurry of finger jabbing, then we have a bed of rhythm and groove to grow something, perhaps anything in. I enjoy how the change in perspective in this photo makes them loom large and impressive. @ClubJunto
This woodblock has been a part of our recordings for many years. We love the earthy feel it gives to a piece of music and the impact it has on the overall sound. You can hear it throughout most of our album, Fforesteering. It helps bring the LP’s concept to life.
Daniel Elms, Castles #fundedbyprsf
@cestyll m64_june 2017_9
money & business
MUSIC DATA SHOULD NOT BECOME RECORD ROYALTIES FOR ‘PART OF AN ARMS RACE’ 2016 Music royalty organisations should come together to collaborate on improving quality and accuracy of song data, rather than compete against each other, PRS for Music Chief Executive Robert Ashcroft has said. our members’ works. We are proudly competitive but not-for-profit. We believe in both collective management and governance by members. ‘We must, however, continue to invest and collaborate, for it is the quality of service that we provide to our members that will determine our success; being not-for-profit allows us to collaborate where for-profit entities are obliged to compete and this means we can capture opportunities they cannot.’
Addressing members and the wider industry at the society’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May, he said that sharing intelligence and working together are essential to ensuring ‘the right people are paid the right money as fast and accurately as possible’. As recorded music returns to growth, it has attracted both venture capital and private equity investors, Ashcroft explained.
Ashcroft went on to say that better data and more accurate matching are the ‘fruit of collaboration rather than competition’ and that data should not be part of an arms race. He noted the organisation’s partnership with PPL, explaining that following an initial project to replace the companies’ IT systems, it became clear that only a ‘full joint venture would allow us to extract maximum benefit for members and licensees alike’.
‘Music properties, companies servicing, or owning musical assets and rights, are once again fashionable acquisition targets’ he continued.
‘We are not the first to join forces between the management of copyright and master rights, but this will be the largest joint venture of its kind in the world and is the result of three years of collaboration,’ he added.
‘This will not divert us from our true purpose, which is ensuring maximum value at all times for
The PRS AGM took place at the British Library, London, on 24 May 2017.
The Performing Right Society (PRS) has announced it paid out more than half a billion pounds in royalties to songwriters, composers and publishers last year, in its strongest performance to date. The society paid out a record £527.6m to members last year, up 11.1 percent (£52.5m) on 2015. It was also able to deliver more money to more creators than ever before, with 33 percent more members receiving a payment compared to 2015. The number of unique musical works and songs earning money also rose by 45 percent to 4.2 million. Of the main revenue streams, international income generated from members’ music played abroad saw significant growth, with £233.7m received from equivalent societies overseas. This represents an increase of five percent (£11.2m) year-on-year, on a constant currency basis. Revenue from music played via online platforms saw the largest uplift at 89.9 percent (£38.1m) to £80.5m, while public performance income grew 4.6 percent to £183.2m. Broadcast revenues were stable at £124.1m, a decrease of 0.1 percent on 2015. In 2016, over 4.3 trillion uses of music were reported to the organisation from across the globe. This figure was just 126 billion in 2012, with growth illustrating the remarkable explosion in streaming and the success and popularity of PRS members’ repertoire internationally. Previous investments in new technology have enabled the organisation to meet the demands of the digital era and continuing growth of the online market, the society said. Improvements in processing capabilities and the handling of vast volumes of data have in turn enabled faster and more efficient payments of online royalties.
PRS for Music now processes trillions of uses and this is only expected to increase.
2013
2014
2015
2016
136bn
975bn
2.5tn
4.3tn
Uses of music reported to PRS for Music
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Elsewhere, collaborative ventures such as ICE, PRS for Music’s pan-European partnership with affiliate societies GEMA (Germany) and STIM (Sweden), also helped to drive online revenue from digital platforms.
business news
business
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PRS BOARD RESHUFFLE
THE BIG NUMBERS
£621.5m
£527.6m
royalty revenues for 2016
paid out in royalties to songwriters, composers and music publishers
33% 45%
increase in uses, 4.3 trillion performances of music processed
more unique musical works and songs paid
38% International
80%
more music creators received royalties
20%
29%
13%
Broadcast
Public performance
Clockwise from top left: Imogen Heap, John Truelove, Roberto Neri and Jo Smith
Online
Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap and dance music producer and DJ John Truelove have joined the PRS Board as writer directors.
£233.7m £137.4m
£47.1m
£26.3m
Europe
North America
Asia Pacific
£13.5m
£5.9m
£3.5m
Emerging markets
Cruise lines
Agencies / other
£183.2m £42.4m
£9.8m
£30.9m
Pubs and clubs
Cinemas
Live
£24.5m Hotels & restaurants
£22.3m
£20.8m
£32.5m
Industrial premises
Shops
Other
Publishers Jo Smith (Warner/Chappell) and Roberto Neri (Downtown Publishing) were appointed as publisher directors and Stuart Hornall (Hornall Brothers) was re-elected at the PRS Annual General Meeting in May. Groundbreaking musician Heap has been nominated for five Grammy Awards, winning one for engineering and another for her contribution to Taylor Swift’s album 1989. She’s also an Ivor Novello Award winner and is currently Featured Artist Coalition’s Artist in Residence Chief Executive. International DJ and renowned dance music producer Truelove, founder of Truelove Music Publishing, has for many years been an active campaigner for fair remuneration for songwriters. In a statement he said: ‘Thank you to everyone who voted or supported the campaign – it’s inspiring that my message resonated with so many people. Some huge battles ahead but I am confident we can prevail in the quest for fairer remuneration for songwriters in the UK.’ Learn more about who’s on the PRS Board at prsformusic.com/about-us
£124.1m
£75.3m
£48.8m
Television
Radio
SUPPORTING COMPOSERS AND SONGWRITERS Muff Winwood, Spencer Davis Group founder member and an A&R veteran, has been re-appointed to the PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund’s Committee of Management. He told M: ‘I’m glad I can give something back. The Fund offers a lifeline to songwriters and composers in need. I want all PRS members to know this.’
£80.5m £61.5m
£5.5m
£4.1m
£9.4m
Streaming
Downloads
Gaming
Video-on-demand
Learn how the Fund can help you, and read the full interview at m-magazine. co.uk/features m64_june 2017_11
money & business
A COPYRIGHT DEAL FOR POST-BREXIT BRITAIN
Brexit has dominated our political and economic spheres for the last 12 months, raising questions about the opportunities and challenges it poses for the UK’s music industry and our creators.
John Procter became the Conservative Party’s newest MEP in December 2016, replacing Lord Timothy Kirkhope. He has been Leeds city councillor since 1990 and is the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group. In the nineties, Procter co-owned the Bonding Warehouse music venue in York, which played host to early gigs from the likes of Snow Patrol and Shed Seven.
Meanwhile over in Brussels, the European Parliament and Council have been working on the legislative proposals for copyright reform, tabled by the European Commission last September, which, once agreed, will leave an indelible mark on member states’ cultural industries. The aim of the new Copyright Directive is to update existing legal frameworks to ensure they’re fit for purpose in the digital age. Wrapped up in this is the issue of User Generated Content (UGC), the growing ‘value gap’ between music creators and the digital aggregators of their content, and the ‘safe harbour’ legal loophole, which allows UGC platforms to benefit from exemptions in existing copyright law. As negotiations continue, PRS for Music is championing the voice of creators in Europe to help ensure a fairer deal for them and their representatives. And, although we are set to leave the EU in 2019, MEP John Procter, who sits on the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) in Brussels, is busy working to address these important issues before we leave… Why is it still important for Britain to have a say in EU cultural issues, despite the referendum vote? Well, it depends what your view is. Some people may think, ‘Actually, we’re leaving the EU, so it’s of no importance whatsoever. We, as an island nation state, can just get on and do our own thing’. But there are so many cross-cutting issues within our cultural world. We’re going to continue to push for our voice to be heard because, clearly, legislation that is passed 12_june 2017_m64
here in Europe is going to affect our cultural industries in the future. How closely has CULT been involved in shaping the forthcoming Copyright Directive? The committee is certainly involved - the Copyright Directive is very important. However, I come from a slightly different place to some of my colleagues. I’ve got a very clear view: those who are responsible for creating should be appropriately remunerated for their work. To me, it’s a pretty simple approach. There are those who want to bat on behalf of the consumer, and I agree with that. At the end of the day, the consumer is our electorate as well. But, creators need to be appropriately rewarded for their work. How do you see all these different voices coming together to influence, and ultimately decide, on the contents of the Copyright Directive? Well, what is clear is that many creators are incredibly active. In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve never seen anything like this. Creators and their representatives are very vocal about where they believe this should go. It’s incredibly important, and it’s bringing the issue to the attention of elected members so they can come to a reasoned view. I’m hopeful and confident this will be the case. What are your thoughts on the proposed UGC exception within the Directive? We haven’t finally formalised our position. But I’m pretty hopeful we’ll be supportive of the creative industries we have within the UK.
Where is the balance between creators wanting fair pay for their work and consumers looking for free content? This shouldn’t be about a race to the bottom, about everything being for free. There needs to be quality, and creators need to be rewarded. For me, it’s a bit of a no brainer. I have to say, I struggle somewhat with the alternative view to that. How do you think Brexit negotiations are going and how do you think our split from the EU is going to affect the music industry? I think it’s important that all sectors within the UK economy and creative industries front up to the fact now that we are definitely leaving the EU. We need to ensure we get the best possible Brexit deal. In addition, before we leave, we need to ensure we can influence as much legislative change as possible, so we can bring advantages to music businesses, organisations and creators in the UK. That’s why my colleagues and I are not easing up in any way. Indeed, we’re trying our very best to accelerate matters here. What we don’t want to do is leave the EU with lots of unfinished business come March 2019.
On 29 June, the PRS for Music Explores: EU Copyright Reform event brings together guest speakers from the European Commission and parliament, the UK government and industry representatives to examine the EU’s copyright reform programme This includes proposals to clarify the liability of online platforms under the safe harbour loophole, transfer of value, transparency and copyright exceptions. Find out more at m-magazine.co.uk/tag/ prs-explores
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SEVEN WAYS BREXIT COULD IMPACT UK MUSIC We were at The Great Escape’s Beginners Guide to Brexit panel led by Ian Moss, BPI’s Director of Public Affairs, to learn how our departure from the European Union (EU) will affect the music industry. Moss was joined by Proper Music’s Vangel Vlaski, the Musicians’ Union’s (MU) Naomi Pohl and Lucie Caswell the from Featured Artists Coalition. We are more tuned into Europe than ever now we’re on the brink of leaving. Ian Moss: We are now greater experts on Europe a year after the referendum than we ever were when we were actually in Europe. We know more about the parliaments, the council and the individuals involved. There are other vital and important issues in Europe, such as protecting copyright, that the industry should be focused on but Brexit seems to have become all consuming. UK copyright law should continue business as usual. Fingers crossed. Naomi Potts: We have been assured again and again by government and the Intellectual Property Office that there’s no planned overhaul of copyright post-Brexit. We think the current copyright regime works well and the lobbying at EU level on copyright matters has been really good for us… We hope it will be business as usual but there is an ongoing risk. There’s potential for companies like Google to lobby government at UK-level to try to get changes to copyright. That’s not what we want. Physical movement of product could be hit. Vangel Vlaski: There are concerns about the logistics of trade – things like manufacturing timelines, the cost of production, the free movement of goods and stock. It’s all going to change in ways we can’t predict right now. A primary general concern is customs. An increase in general costs could lead to the industry being ‘sanitised’. Lucie Caswell: There are many practical fears. But ultimately, if you increase admin costs and the need for resources, then you reduce the pool of those who can be involved in music. You leave it to the bigger companies, the
people who can spend time and money getting expertise, getting those visas. To a certain extent, that will restrict the kind of music you can hear. Does it mean only profitable music can be made? That’s a worrying prospect to me – we need to keep access to music as wide as possible. Arguing against the big companies is harder on your own. Vangel Vlaski: There’s always strength in numbers when you argue with tech giants and try to put forward your concerns about the stronghold they have. Being outside of that group of countries arguing for the creative industries might make it a more difficult conversation to have. One visa will help UK musicians touring Europe. Naomi Potts: Touring is something our members are very worried about. The MU is campaigning for one visa to Europe. This means our members don’t have to get separate visas for each country when going on tour. But broadly, everything will be fine. Hopefully. Ian Moss: There are plenty of difficulties underneath all the Brexit debates and discussions. It’s not as simple as, ‘Don’t worry about it’. But broadly, the UK music industry will still be as strong as it is now. The fact that we’re good at this doesn’t go away. And the fact that people in Europe want to buy our music won’t go away either. Our biggest market is America and we’ve never had a trade deal with them.
ICE SECURES DEEZER DEAL ICE Services, a new pan-European music licensing and royalty processing venture, has signed a multi-territory agreement with streaming platform Deezer. The licence covers PRS for Music repertoire, plus that of MCPS, IMPEL, German collecting society GEMA and Swedish society STIM. Previously, this repertoire was covered by three separate agreements with the streaming platform. The agreement covers Deezer’s adsupported, subscription and third party bundled services across Europe, including partnerships with major mobile phone networks, speaker manufacturers and car manufacturers. ICE Services was founded with investment from PRS for Music, GEMA and STIM, and now represents more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and publishers across Europe. It processes online music usages using a single matching engine attached to the most comprehensive copyright database on the continent and has terms agreed with over 35 music services.
Your next paydays Performing (PRS): 14 July, 13 Oct, 15 Dec, 13 April Mechanicals (MCPS) Non-Recorded Media: 14 July, 15 Aug, 15 Sept, 13 Oct Recorded Media: 28 July, 31 Aug, 29 Sept, 30 Oct
For more commentary and analysis from The Great Escape, see m-magazine.co.uk/tag/ tge17 m64_june 2017_13
Unclassified Charlotte Gardner explores how niche musical genres – particularly classical – can make the most of the streaming revolution…
To stream or not to stream? That is the question. Or at least it has been the question if you happen to be a creator of music within a niche genre such as classical, but are not a major record label. We all know the issues. Firstly there's the well-documented metadata concerns surrounding the music tagging systems of major services, which haven’t been designed for anything more sophisticated than artist/song title/album. Then there's the call for fair remuneration, with the major streaming platforms paying the same for a 40-minute concerto as a three-minute pop song. Then there's the huge number of streams needed in order to generate any serious revenue. On the face of it streaming isn't yet even something the classical world needs to be worrying about either, because while the latest BPI market report shows that it now accounts for 36.4 percent of all UK music consumption, if you zoom in on classical, the figures shrink right back down again. Just look at the moststreamed classical artist, Ludovico Einaudi; only 21 percent of his revenue is from streaming, compared to 34 percent for downloads and 45 percent for physical sales. Indeed, physical sales per se across classical are holding notably steady. However read on, because the figures also indicate that streaming is slowly expanding music consumption. The IFPI's report in April showed a 5.9 percent rise in global music consumption in 2016. And ultimately that means more money in the pot for everyone. Remember too that classical downloads also had a slow beginning, but eventually grew to be the most lucrative source of income for many specialist labels.
Profile raisers Perhaps the biggest reason for composers and specialist labels to stay abreast of streaming, though, is that those who have embraced it have found it growing not only their profile, but also their earnings and live performances. Take the experience of NMC Recordings, a label operating as a charity and entirely devoted to contemporary British composers. It launched its digital music-focused website, where you can stream and purchase recordings, back in 2009. The label also streams on the major commercial platforms – and the figures are impressive for a highly niche genre. Since 2010, it has received 8.8 million downloads and streams, 1.5 million in the last year alone. Furthermore, the label is consistently reaching both new audiences and younger listeners. ‘While our mailing lists are predominantly over the age of 50, our Spotify audience is mostly aged between 25 and 59,’ says the label's Executive Director Anne Rushton. ‘Then there's our international streaming reach. On average 30 percent of listeners are from the UK, 30 percent from America, and 40 percent from the rest of the world.’ As a charity, NMC isn't trying to make a huge profit for itself, but the artists whose recordings it’s streaming are financially benefitting, as demonstrated by the experience of contemporary classical composer Errollyn Wallen. ‘Last year I released my album Photography on NMC,’ she explains. ‘They streamed parts of it, which helped with sales and it went into the classical charts at number 17.’
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There's no point in writing music to keep it away from people. Playlist power
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It isn't just through a record label that a composer can make streaming work for them. Matthew Whiteside is a youngergeneration composer and sound designer who writes concert, film and installation music with a meditative quality, often employing live electronics.
As for where to build yourself an artist page, Spotify is the obvious choice in terms of sheer traffic. It has 50 million paid subscribers and has recently removed a previous stipulation whereby you needed 250 followers before being allowed access to its artist page-building function, Spotify Artists. A weakness, though, is that when you search for a track the results don't include the playlists the track features on, whereas with Apple Music they do.
‘I self-released an album a couple of years ago and made the decision to put it on pretty much everywhere,’ he explains. ‘After the first media reviews I did get some sales and streams, but then it just ticked along at a low level. So around 12 months ago I set up an artist page on Apple Music and started to experiment with playlisting, and it's made a huge difference. When I first released the album I was getting about 10 streams a week. Now it's up to over 700, sometimes over double that, and this is just on Apple Music.’ By May this year, Matthew had already earned five percent more than the whole of the 2015 and 2016 period. Furthermore, he's also seen an increase in album sales. So, how to build a tempting playlist? ‘Certain themes do particularly well,’ he says. ‘For instance Music for Meditations; as some of my music fits that brief I compiled a playlist around that. Likewise, some of my music has been used in short films, so I built another one programming those works alongside more famous and regularly-searched film music.’
Self-serve In fact, streaming is also finally a medium where it actually becomes advantageous to self-release rather than be signed to a label. This way, you get paid both the composer share of the per-stream revenue and the significantly larger label share.
Apple Music's page building service, Apple Music Connect, equally allows anyone to set up an artist page. Apple Music itself is also actively championing independent classical composers from the UK and elsewhere through its own weekly contemporary and alternative classical playlists, and by liaising with new composer collectives such as ListenPony. Furthermore, while paid subscriber figures put Spotify on 50 million in comparison to Apple Music's 27 million, all may not be as it first seems. In March the Verto Index (which analyses streaming patterns) reported Apple Music as having 40.7 million unique monthly users in February in comparison to Spotify's 30.4 million and Pandora's 32.6 million. SoundCloud came in at a respectable fifth at 25.7 million. Tidal on the other hand, often trumpeted for its high quality niche catalogue offering, didn't feature in the top 10 at all. It seems that the best strategy of all would probably be to run a portfolio of artist pages across several streaming services, each one's offerings tailored to how the service's search algorithms work.
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Clockwise from left: Errollyn Wallen, Ludovico Einaudi, Matthew Whiteside
Lowbrow? Still, what about the argument that slipping your music into click-bait playlists, and engaging with streaming per se, is somehow devaluing what should be a higher quality, more intellectually demanding highbrow genre?
My job as a composer is to communicate my ideas and reach as many people as would be interested in it.
‘There's no point in writing music to keep it away from people,’ argues Errollyn. ‘My job as a composer is to communicate my ideas and reach as many people as would be interested in it.’ Interestingly, Errollyn has even found that on-demand video streaming, the side of streaming which can be a guaranteed money-loser because it often means no royalties, may sometimes work in a composer's favour. ‘My opera Anon was commissioned by the Welsh National Opera,’ she begins. ‘When it was premiered in 2014 it had a fairly short run. It was then taken up by the new opera company Tête à Tête who have a policy of filming every work they put on, then making it available indefinitely afterwards on their website. In my case, this led to Peabody Opera House in Missouri seeing rather than just hearing Anon, and thus being convinced to perform it themselves. ‘Their brand new production premiered in February and they'll perform it again later this year, meaning that it's going to get another twelve performances. That's major for a new opera. So that on-demand streaming has given my work a massive lease of life and taken it to a whole other country.’ What Errollyn does caution, though, is to be aware of what you're agreeing to when you sign a contract for a performance. ‘Many organisations will take it for granted that you'll just give over all your rights for your music to be used in whatever way, and this does always have a cost implication,’ she explains. ‘Streaming brings you work to the attention of everybody, but you shouldn't automatically give the streaming rights away.’ Nor, it seems, should those creating music within niche genres automatically ignore this brave new digital world.
Errollyn Wallen #fundedbyprsf
M64_JUNE 2017_17
As penner of Lean On Me and Ain’t No Sunshine, Bill Withers is behind some of pop’s most eternal moments, yet he walked out of the industry more than 30 years ago. Jim Ottewill gets a rare meeting with a songwriter who chose to leave show business and let his hits do the talking…
‘Now I know. When there’s a joke with you in it, you’ve made it,’ winks Bill Withers. The legendary songwriter is responding to a question about how best to turn a duck into a soul singer. Answer? Put it in a microwave until its Bill Withers. Obviously. He’s heard this one before, but the revered songwriter was treated to a first in May when he received the PRS for Music Special International Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. It followed his 2015 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and sparked a mischievous, yet macabre train of thought. ‘I said to my daughter I must be in the “running out of time” line. It’s coming up to my time to die,’ he laughs. ‘But it’s nice really,’ he continues in his Virginian drawl. ‘It’s just that time of life for me. You’ve got two choices: you’re either meaningless or meaningful. So it’s reassuring to know you had some impact while you were here.’
Soulmining roots It’s a humble attitude that perhaps stems from his family beginnings in West Virginia. Bill was the youngest of six and the first man in his family who wasn’t a coalminer. For him, music wasn’t initially a calling. Instead he remembers country music on the radio, blues coming out of houses and songs sung in church before he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-sixties to work in the navy. Bill says: ‘I was an aircraft mechanic, then approaching 30, I decided to try and pursue music.’
Still resonating
He ended up doing menial factory work while he hawked his musical wares around LA. The rumour is at one point he was installing toilets in planes.
At almost 80, Bill may be a modest music industry veteran but he has little to worry about when it comes to his legacy. While his music business dealings ended in the mid-eighties after the release of final album Watching You, Watching Me, his creations are as alive now as when they were first released.
‘We actually made the whole bathroom for 747s but I guess it’s more romantic to tell a slightly different story,’ Bill says, eyes gleaming. ‘But they did give me a gold toilet seat when I found success.’
It’s unsurprising, really. Ain’t No Sunshine, Lean On Me, Just The Two Of Us… they’re staples in films, radio, TV, adverts, weddings. They continue to shine via samples and new renditions by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Paul McCartney. Despite this, in the hotel the day before he receives the award, Bill is refreshingly absent of any pomp. Attired in a BB King T-shirt, comfy trousers and cardigan, he seems bemused by the adulation shown to him. He says: ‘Paul McCartney sent a nice congratulatory note. He called me a raconteur. I was joking with him; I said, “I looked that word up and was happy to find out it had nothing to do with the care or feeding of raccoons”.’ ANDREW ZUKERMAN
dinner with Paul McCartney. He said, “Maybe we’ll pick you up in a limo because we have to go in the back to avoid the paparazzi.” I laughed: “Joe, you guys go ahead. I don’t have that problem.”’
Bill’s low-key profile means no-one recognises him in the hotel bar or gives him any unwanted attention. Which is how he seems to like it. He says: ‘Joe Walsh [American songwriter, producer and one time member of The Eagles] recently invited me to
Ain’t No Sunshine Ain’t No Sunshine, released in 1971, is widely credited as the song that broke Bill and his music. The song became a hit and went on to win a Grammy but to him, there’s no magic around its creation, or any of his other hits. ‘I recorded Ain’t No Sunshine and some other songs, and there it was: I was in the music business,’ says Bill. Lean on Me and Use Me were among a line of hits that followed. But he doesn’t believe there are any secrets to the success of his songs. ‘With Ain’t No Sunshine, I remember watching a movie, Days of Wine and Roses with Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon. That helped inspire it, but there are always different things. Sometimes you’re just scratching yourself, you get a thought and you pursue that. ‘I don’t have any particular technique,’ he continues. ‘I don’t know an F-sharp from Ninth Street. I don’t want to know. That wasn’t my approach. I only need to be musical enough to make a package to wrap my poetry.’
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You’ve only got two choices: you’re either meaningless or meaningful. So it’s reassuring to know that maybe you had some impact while you were here. M64_JUNE 2017_19
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‘Somehow or another, this rich guy has convinced a lot of working-class Americans that he understands them. Odd, isn’t it? What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen to us all?’ He laughs. ‘That was pretty what I said. We should probably write that on a bathroom wall.’
Lovely days Ain’t No Sunshine featured on his debut album Just As I Am and was the start of a golden period. Lean On Me came the following year, then Use Me, both selling millions of copies. From 1976 Bill released an album each year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977, containing the classic Lovely Day) and ‘Bout Love (1978). Despite the sales and Grammy awards weighing down his mantelpiece, he’s refreshingly self-deprecating. ‘It wasn’t that big a deal,’ remembers Bill. ‘I’ve gotten more attention 50 years later than I did then. I used to play small clubs, like the Troubadour. I’d open for Jennifer Holliday, Phyllis Hyman. So I never was a big functioning star. I only became “legendary” in my dotage.’
Walking away Bill’s final studio album, Watching You, Watching Me, came in 1985. And then that was it. He simply withdrew from music. ‘It wasn’t life or death with me. I was in my thirties when success came so was already socially formed. Somebody asked me how I could just stop doing it. But doing it was more of a departure from the norm for me.’ For Bill, fame never got his musical juices flowing. It was a love of songs rather than other people’s approval that inspired him. ‘Some of the best times I had were either singing alone in a navy bathroom or playing with my touring band in the garage,’ he says. ‘The thrill is the same as being at Carnegie Hall. You’re getting off doing it - hopefully. If not, you’re cheating yourself.’ With so much investment in music industry nostalgia, Bill is out of step with trends but he remains uninterested by the prospect of touring or new material. ‘If I needed a song, I could probably find one in there somewhere,’ he shrugs. Then he laughs: ‘Maybe I might get restless and just go crazy. It’d be hilarious if I went on tour and danced hard right? It’s all flattering but I enjoy being a curmudgeon, a grumpy old man.’
Political rumblings So what keeps Bill busy these days? While his family look after his musical interests, earlier this year he made an appearance on US television to talk about the refugee crisis as well as America’s political landscape. ‘I’m almost allergic to politicians,’ he admits grimly. ‘There’s nobody in politics that you would be surprised to see in a psychiatrist’s waiting room.’ Bill seems perplexed by goings on in Washington DC, particularly with American president Donald Trump. ‘He reminds me of medicine shows that used to travel around the country. They would sell patent medicine but it’s really moonshine with KoolAid in it. Somehow, this guy has convinced a lot of workingclass Americans that he understands them. Odd, isn’t it? What’s going to happen to us all?’
Defanging the monsters While he’s been out of the industry for some time, he’s still interested in the changes impacting the business. Bill reckons that the web has enabled new songwriters to take a more DIY approach to their music. ‘It’s good because it puts more power in the hands of the individual, but then the individual has to be entrepreneurial,’ he says. ‘It’s defanged the monsters that controlled it before I guess. I find out about it on a need-to-know basis, but it is different now.’ With such a rich catalogue, Bill is well placed to give advice to emerging songwriters. Although he’s reluctant to proffer too much, he believes artists need to make sure they’re not banking on success to keep them satisfied. ‘It’s cruel. Out of all the people in the world, we know who? Madonna, Paul McCartney, Ed Sheeran. How do you become one of these people? Persistence, probably.’ He continues: ‘The most advice I would give is, “Enjoy what you’re doing. You may or may not get approval and money, so don’t cheat yourself out of the pleasure of doing.”’ So with the Ivor Novello Award received, what’s next for Bill? He seems content as he is without re-entering the musical fray. ‘I’m just hoping I live long enough to collect a reasonable amount of social security,’ he jokes as our conversation ends. ‘Yes, I’m just trying to get better at stuff. And looking for the fountain of youth. You know what? I’ve found they don’t put any of it in vodka.’ M64_JUNE 2017_21
NICHOLAS LAPITE
NEW JAZZ AGE ATOMIC POP
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Tina Edwards tunes in to UK jazz’s brightest new stars who are turning heads overseas with their eclectic sounds and asks: isn’t it time we coined a new sub-genre for this? Us Brits have a habit of playing things down. We can be notoriously shy in celebrating our achievements, so it’s taken a few nods from our American cousins to establish what many of us already knew; the UK has birthed a new jazz age. This year, SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, hosted its first ever UK jazz showcase. Let’s think about that for a moment; the brightest new stars in the British jazz scene at the world’s largest new music festival. That means our home grown scene isn’t just a local buzz spurred on by a few artists and tastemakers? Not at all. A movement is happening and the world is listening.
New jazz guardians The Original Dixieland Jass Band formed in Chicago, 1917, laying down the first ever jazz recording that same year. Almost exactly one hundred years later, Brits landed on American soil to demonstrate how we’ve interpreted and transformed a genre. London tuba player Theon Cross - who played at the same SXSW showcase as Moses Boyd Exodus - shares reactions from those he spoke to at the showcase: ‘People were coming up to me saying, “Man, I’ve never seen that before.”’ The best way to measure the impact of something is to take it out of its context. ‘I’m always playing Shabaka and the Ancestors and Yussef Kamaal on my show and out at gigs,’ says Chicago broadcaster and DJ Alejandro Ayala, aka King Hippo. The Lumpen Radio broadcaster clearly believes that UK jazz has its own identity, and he’s not alone. During a recent DJ set in his home city, Alejandro explains how revellers had an ear for London music: ‘Bassist Junius Paul kept coming up to the booth to see what I was playing, and you know what? It was always a record that was made in London. That happens frequently.’ Jazz is a genre so rooted in American history that it’s reassuring our take is being embraced and celebrated on its home turf. But how has the UK come to develop a jazz scene that is so distinctively different yet internationally renowned? ‘We’re not trying to be American’, says Femi Koloseo, drummer of eclectic Afrobeat, reggae and hip-hop inspired five-piece Ezra Collective. ‘We are being ourselves. That’s attractive to the world, because it makes what we have unique’. While Femi and his peers don’t focus on drawing inspiration from the States, it doesn’t mean that the scene is inwardlooking. In fact, Cassie Kinoshi - saxophonist in Nérija and SEED Ensemble - believes that immigration and the flow of cultures into the UK have a huge effect on British jazz musicians. She explains: ‘The UK and its relationship with its former colonies and history has shaped the way we approach improvisation.’ She adds: ‘Jazz is originally an American art form but what is happening over here is just as valid and worthy of recognition.’
Moses Boyd, Shabaka & The Ancestors, Femi Koloeso and Nuby Garcia #fundedbyprsf
The increasing strength and weight of the UK scene is supported by an infrastructure that is growing around it. Cassie highlights Jazz Re:freshed, which has been promoting a wildly successful gig series in London for 14 years. She explains: ‘What Jazz Re:freshed is and has been doing is incredible; shining a spotlight on one slice of the UK scene that I feel can often be pushed to the side.’ Organisers of Jazz Re:freshed - who also run a record label - took a number of British artists to SXSW with British Underground and online publication Jazz Standard. ‘We’ve always had a broad view of what jazz is,’ says Co-Founder Adam Moses. He believes that the current crop of British jazz musicians have ‘decided to be freer with what they put into their music. Someone like Moses Boyd - who can kill Ronnie Scott’s [Jazz Club] - is not ashamed to say that he listens to grime. Some years ago it would have been a faux pas to admit that if you’re a “jazz person”’. Lauded American radio network National Public Radio (NPR) recently broadcast a documentary about the new wave of British jazz musicians who played in Texas this year. MOBO Award-winning Moses Boyd, who was one of the artists, told the network: ‘Instrumentally, some of the sounds and bass lines I use have a lot of reference to grime producers. I’m not a grime musician, but I feel like I’m a part of the culture.’ Adam echoes the growing encouragement for British jazz artists to flit between styles. He says it’s this innovative genre-fluidity that has enabled a distinctive sound to emerge, one that’s centred around jazz, but draws on various kinds of British music subcultures; not just grime, but broken beat and garage, too. Femi Koloeso - who is mentored by Gilles Peterson and Four Tet via the PRS Foundation-supported Steve Reid Innovation Award - points out that this sonic cross-pollination isn’t exclusive to the current movement: If you look at the history of jazz music, it's always used a mash-up of different genres to get its point across. And he’s right; we wouldn’t have birthed the acid jazz movement of the eighties and nineties without funk, soul and disco. Even hip-hop wouldn’t have developed in the same way if the genre’s earliest protagonists hadn’t sampled classic jazz tracks. So does this mean the likes of Moses Boyd and Shabaka Hutchings are developing not just a scene, but a whole new sub-genre? London-based composer Nubya Garcia, like many jazz musicians, finds the concept of genre somewhat limiting. ‘For me, I’d replace the word “sub-genre” with “sound”’. The saxophonist - who released her debut LP Nubya’s 5ive via
We didn't get a sound like this from being fearful of mistakes. We've just got to stay brave and honest. M64_JUNE 2017_23
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Jazz Re:freshed in May - is inspired by jazz but also garage and broken beat for its ‘rhythmical energy’. She continues: ‘I think genres can be a bit misleading in general - just because it makes you think of a box in which something has to fit.’ Although, there are musicians who see genre-titles as something necessary… ‘Calling it jazz seems a bit restrictive,’ says Nemali Kwaten of fast-rising hip-hop inspired duo Blue Lab Beats. ‘The term doesn’t really describe the specific scene that’s happening right now; with our own music we are influenced by jazz, grime, hip-hop, funk, soul and Hi-life. There should be sub-genre names so that people can understand the difference in sounds.’ While there’s no doubt the UK jazz scene is the strongest it’s been in decades, it’s not just in Britain that a resurgence in jazz is drawing in new influences, listeners and calls for more accurate sub-genre names. Kamasi Washington and Thundercat – key contributors on Kendrick Lamar’s album To Pimp a Butterfly - have propelled LA’s brassy, hip-hopswayed scene over recent months. And Harlem - recognised for birthing bebop halfway through the 20th century - is also producing a new wave of genre-bending talent. Just look at Braxton Cook, and siblings Samora and Elena Pinderhughes, who are coming through in the company of trumpeter Christian Scott. It’s Christian - who has won awards not only
Calling it jazz seems a bit restrictive… it doesn’t really describe the specific scene that’s happening right now. for his music but for his popular music app – who took it upon himself to tag his genre-fluid music with an attractive new label, ‘Stretch’. Also the name of his 2015 album and app, it’s a term he’s pushed to help audiences understand more about his approach to music. But back in the UK, musicians are yet to coin a phrase. Self-effacing, our British quirks strike again.
Above: Nubya Previous page: Femi Koloseo
This is where it comes to the tastemakers, broadcasters and writers. Will the UK scene – however we choose to title it – be able to continue its momentum? Brownswood Recordings, the label founded by Gilles Peterson, has supported a number of artists including Moses Boyd Exodus and Yussef Kamaal. Label manager Emily Moxon is confident in the growing support system: ‘It’s great that platforms like Boiler Room and Red Bull are supporting jazz now. ‘I think we just need to make sure that we create a sustainable ecosystem for the scene to flourish. This is about having visibility in a good mix of written media, radio shows that play the music, labels interested in developing artists and a live circuit for people to play - in the UK and internationally.’ So how else does Emily think that the scene should be championed? She says she’d ‘love to see a specialist jazz show on BBC 1xtra or BBC Radio 6 Music’. However we choose to identify or celebrate the UK jazz scene in 2017, it’s important to note two things: one) it needs embracing and sharing on wide platforms, and; two) good music speaks for itself. Sharing new music discoveries with friends is always worthwhile for the artists and listeners, but even if things continue as they are, we needn’t panic about the scene going away any time soon. Femi has a ‘trust in the sound’. Does he worry about the scene losing attention before it’s reached its peak? ‘The more “successful” things become, the greater the fear of making a mistake’, he states.
HELMI OKPARA
Femi though, like the new wave of UK jazz artists, follows a new school of thought; one that’s humble, but quietly-confident. ‘We didn't get a sound like this from being fearful of mistakes. We’ve just got to stay brave and honest.’ Blue Lab Beats #fundedbyprsf
M64_JUNE 2017_25
MASTER OF MELODIES From abstract left turns in Art of Noise to orchestrating some of pop’s biggest moments, composer Anne Dudley has always lived a musical life less ordinary. Anita Awbi meets a talent at the top of her game‌
PROFILE
‘I remember I’d always get very excited by the idea that you could sample a door closing or a hammer and build a rhythm track from those abstract sounds,’ says shape-shifting composer, arranger and orchestrator Anne Dudley. She’s looking at the joining date on her Musicians’ Union card (1978) and remembering what life was like before her classical incursions into electronic pop helped define an important chapter in British chart history. ‘I’ve always loved doing that. I think the combination of electronics and orchestral music can be absolutely, rivetingly exciting if you get it right,’ she continues. It’s a style she settled on at the very start of her career, and one that helped whisk her from artful novice into one of the country’s most decorated composers. Anne’s rare standing is cemented by her Grammy, BRIT, Oscar and now Ivor Novello Award wins, all in recognition of her adventurous musical mutations and remarkable achievements. Picking up the PRS for Music Outstanding Contribution to British Music accolade at The Ivors ceremony in May, she modestly says of her 40 years of sonic adventuring: ‘Some people are naturally gifted and it just flows out of them, but for the vast majority of us, yes we have some talent, but the rest of it is technique, experience and hard work.’
In Visible Silence Raised almost exclusively on the light classical music of her parents’ record collection, Anne approached her teenage years with both an encyclopaedic brain for orchestral arrangements and an ear tuned to the ephemeral excitement of pop. ‘Does anyone remember [BBC Radio 2’s] Your Hundred Best Tunes?’ she laughs. ‘As a child I was an expert on all of that. Things like Suppé’s Poet and Peasant Overture, and Eric Coates, all of those wonderful bits of light music. I know all of that stuff.’ It was this solid grounding that helped sow the seeds for a crossover career that’s seen her collaborate with some of the biggest names in pop, pen an opera for the Royal Opera House, become Composer in Association for the BBC Concert Orchestra and build a name as a lauded screen composer. Following on from her graduation from the Royal College of Music, and the discovery that she had ‘perfect pitch’, Anne got a job at Trevor Horn’s studio as a string arranger. It was there she hooked up with likeminded experimenters engineer/producer Gary Langan, programmer JJ Jeczalik and music journalist Paul Morley. They instantly clicked over a deep appreciation of all the latest music gear and Art of Noise was born. The band’s first bite of the cherry was 1983’s Into Battle with the Art of Noise EP, released via Trevor’s ZTT label and featuring Moments in Love and Beat Box. The latter, a weird instrumental, rippled with jacking beats and samples of car keys in the ignition and water falling down a drainpipe. Its nod to both musique concrete and the burgeoning hip-hop movement propelled it up the American Dance Chart and, ironically, the Black Singles Chart.
Taking synth-pop on an ambitiously abstract left turn, their innovative use of sampling technology massively disrupted the status quo and quickly delivered international hits Peter Gunn (for which they won a Grammy), Kiss and their seminal first album In Visible Silence. Testament to its stature within the annals of early electronic pop, Art of Noise recently rebooted to play the million-plus-selling album in its entirety at Liverpool Sound City 2017. ‘We had no idea that what we were doing would be remotely commercially successful,’ Anne says. ‘I think we thought it was in the vein of the avant-garde classical composers, like John Cage and Stockhausen, but then the boys would keep putting these hip-hop beats on it,’ she laughs. ‘There was me thinking I was following in the footsteps of these great, innovative, contemporary composers, and we ended up winning the Best New Black Act Award from Billboard [in 1984], which is probably my proudest moment!’ Cue more laughter. As chief keyboardist and arranger, Anne was having a whale of a time. Polyphonic synths were just coming in, led by the Prophet 5 and Minimoog, and she was all over them. Immersing herself in oscillators, waveforms and filters, she dug deep into the basic fundamentals of electronic music, where everything is a little more freeform… ‘I get quite annoyed when people think Art of Noise was just all computers and computer music, because nothing could be further from the truth, really,’ she says. ‘It’s really more like a jazz group. There was a lot of improvisation; there was a lot of playing about with the sounds, really trying to get interesting chord sequences. They’re not always incredibly evident, the chord sequences, but there’s a lot going on there and it’s quite dense. It’s so far from being written by computers.’
Big breaks Although you may not instantly recognise Anne’s face – or be familiar with the Art of Noise back catalogue – you’ll instinctively know when a track has been touched by her hand. Her command of both electronic sounds and real instrumentation was so in-demand throughout the eighties that her synths and strings appeared on the decade’s biggest cuts, from ABC and Frankie Goes To Hollywood to Lloyd Cole and The The. Her classical flourishes and harmonic flutters were so compelling that bandmate Gary Langan dubbed her ‘the master of melodies’ in Art of Noise. But it was her work as arranger and orchestrator on ABC’s massive debut album The Lexicon of Love that really turned heads. The platinum-selling record went straight to number one in 1982 and featured the perennial tracks Poison Arrow, The Look of Love and All of My Heart – all carrying Anne’s soaring melodics. ‘I was quite young, in my early twenties, and I was let loose with a full-sized string orchestra and a pretty good budget,’ recalls Anne. ‘I found myself conducting the strings in Abbey Road Studios for The Look of Love, which is still a huge hit!’
M64_JUNE 2017_27
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PROFILE
Anne Dudley, and far left, The Art of Noise
I think The Lexicon of Love was a very happy marriage of Martin Fry’s wonderful, ambitious, free-ranging songs and my penchant for doing these big arrangements. The whole record is still so highly regarded that she’s been taking it out on tour with Martin Fry and ABC since 2012, most recently with the Southbank Sinfonia in London and later this year at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. ‘I think it was a very happy marriage of Martin Fry’s wonderful, ambitious, free-ranging songs and my penchant for doing these big arrangements,’ she says of its success.
Orchestral colours Anne’s marriage of classical and contemporary pop sounds originates from an early love of the iconic songwriting and production duo Gamble and Huff. Their magic on records by Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield and Patti LaBelle deeply impressed Anne, and helped her join the dots between the strings she loved and the pop she adored. ‘I was very taken with the big arrangements that were coming out of their studio. They created the “Sound of Philadelphia”, which combined a really hip, cool rhythm section with brass, strings, celestes and xylophones, and all sorts of interesting orchestral colours. That was definitely one side of my influence,’ she explains. Anne’s open-ended approach to the boundaries of pop and classical helped snag her first gig writing music for adverts in the mid-eighties. Art of Noise had a great track record with sync - their abstract electronic ambience lending itself to trailers, films and adverts - so it followed Anne’s solo sounds would be in equal demand. She was soon flourishing, consistently offering a fresh take on the prevailing studio sound. ‘I see things in a very classical way. I’m always analysing things in terms of their harmony, and counterpoint, and how they’re actually put together,’ Anne explains.
Media ace Since the nineties, Anne has worked on a string of prominent films from The Full Monty (for which she won her Anne Dudley #fundedbyprsf
Oscar) to American History X, The Crying Game and Black Book. On television, her music has soundtracked Jeeves and Wooster, Trial and Retribution and, most recently, Cornish period drama Poldark. Transfixed by the series’ plotline and 18th century setting, Anne famously registered a persistent interest in the project. ‘I read the script and thought, “I really have to try and get this.” My agent said, “No, I think somebody else is doing it,” and I replied, “You’ve got to get me a meeting on this. Go back, try again,”’ she laughs. ‘With something like Poldark, I knew immediately what sort of music I wanted to do, and I knew that the music could add another layer to the story.’ So what for Anne makes a really brilliant film or TV score? She’s definitely not into ‘Mickey-mousing’, she says, where the composer reflects every single leap of on-screen emotion. But equally, she’s not impressed by ‘bland’ scores that have no dynamic changes. With series three of Poldark on the TV scheduling horizon, she’s been engrossed in her own score, watching scenes dozens of times. ‘The best cues are really detailed,’ she offers. ‘I admire people whose music carries you from one place to another in a musically satisfying way, but they’ve been able to conceal their art. That’s the aim!’ she says. Alongside Poldark, she’s also just released the solo piano album, Anne Dudley Plays the Art of Noise, and is producing Poldark star Eleanor Tomlinson’s debut solo album. With just a few moments left with Anne, I ask if there’s any advice she has for younger songwriters and composers: ‘Pursue your dream and do your own thing,’ she says. ‘Be true to yourself. If you’ve got the talent, ambition and drive, there really should be a place for you.’
Art of Noise In Visible Silence, remastered, is out now.
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building the trust Although few people dispute the importance of music in their lives, it can be easy to overlook the composer or songwriter at the heart of it all – especially when they’re so often eclipsed by the dazzling personas of the artists who bring their songs to life. Long gone are the days when a songwriter’s name was indelibly printed in clear black font on vinyl or CD. Today, barely a trace of their contribution appears in any tangible form, as they’re almost never credited on digital music services. And, while public perceptions of the music industry remain synonymous with glitz and glamour, the reality of life for many young and unestablished songwriters and composers would probably surprise people. Rather than hanging out at award ceremonies, many traipse from studio to studio working on spec and for the love of music alone, reliant on that huge hit to make all the effort worthwhile. It’s clear that composers and songwriters working today face a number of substantial financial challenges. Supporting songwriters Where the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) campaigns to highlight inequalities within current economic models and provides a range of support services to its members, the BASCA Trust is a charity focused on the general public, with education and training, and funding for songwriters and composers. The Trust is currently working on a new initiative with PRS Foundation to help with this – the Writer Producer Fund. It’s particularly unique in that it is the first dedicated grants or major funding programme of its kind to recognise the importance of songwriters and writer-producers at the heart of the music industry’s success. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to support them through the next stages of their careers. Vick Bain, chief executive of BASCA and a trustee of the BASCA Trust says: ‘The culture of music is always changing. The Writer Producer Fund offers songwriters and writer-producers, who are often “behind the scenes” of great music, the capacity to gain new skills and develop professionally in their careers. This scheme reaches out to communities of music creators who are not necessarily performers; and perhaps have not been able to access such extensive support before.’ With a background working across record companies and writerproducer management in the UK, Bhavesh Patel, Programme Manager for The PRS Foundation, is well aware of the challenges writers face in the industry. He says: ‘It’s rare that songwriters or producers are paid for the actual time in writing or recording sessions - even if they are more established. It takes time to build a substantial catalogue of music which will continue to earn for you in the years to come.’ This means that songwriters and producers are often under pressure to diversify their skills in the recording studio. Although there are positives to be taken from this, it does mean that there is less time for creators to focus on developing and honing their craft, especially at the early stages of their career. Carla Marie Williams, who has co-written for artists including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Craig David, Girls Aloud and Kylie Minogue agrees: ‘I can seriously say the Writer Producer Fund will most definitely be a crucial new resource for songwriters wanting to invest in themselves and create new opportunities for their careers, whilst maintaining momentum. The fund will inspire and motivate a community of songwriters and will hopefully help to increase UK songwriters’ success worldwide. Exciting times!’
Celebrating creation Later this year, the Trust will hold its inaugural David Ferguson Lecture, in honour of the late composer who campaigned tirelessly for songwriters and composers. David Ferguson (pictured above) was a previous Chair of BASCA and he believed it was essential to empower younger generations of writers who remain uncertain of their publishing rights, especially when working within increasingly complicated economic models. Indeed, he himself was pressured into signing over the rights in his music to a production company, which he refused. When David died, he left a third of his estate to the BASCA Trust to support its charitable aims, in particular raising public awareness of these issues. The David Ferguson Lecture will offer music lovers an opportunity to learn more about how music is created and the issues facing composers and songwriters as they try to make a living from their creativity. The event takes place on 1 November 2017 at Kings Place, London. Speakers include Goldie, Roxanna Panufnik, Andy Heath and Andrew Orlowski. Silvina Munich, also a trustee of the BASCA Trust, and Repertoires and Creators Relations Director of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) comments: ‘Music enriches lives and has the power to have a wider positive impact on society. We must encourage creators to honour their craft and remind them of the substantial value that their work has.’ For more information see bascatrust.org.uk
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song writing
i wrote that Peter Perrett, singer, songwriter and founding member of London punk-rockers The Only Ones, penned the band’s most iconic track
Another
Girl,
Another
Planet almost exactly 40 years ago.
Its
classic
songwriting
and sardonic drawl brought a welcome flush of melody after the austerity of punk, and has since earned ‘evergreen’ status as one of British new wave’s most covered tracks. Here, Peter tells us how it came about…
When we formed The Only Ones 40 years ago, it felt like the most exciting time musically. As a new band starting out, you could get exposure immediately. We did our first gig in January 1977 and released our first single [Lovers of Today] in March. I remember sending it to the four weekly music papers, Melody Maker, NME, Sounds and Record Mirror, and it was Single of the Week in all four of them. There were queues round the block for our next London gig. We felt as though the world was at our feet. Around that time, I wrote Another Girl, Another Planet. I used to enjoy meeting lots of girls and always thought it was like visiting a different planet every time. Each girl was different, in different ways, so I assumed it was a worthwhile experience… The stupidity of youth! Once I matured, I realised that just being with one person was actually more beneficial.
MARK ALLAN
Back then, people thought I was referring to my well-known adherence to the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. They presumed the song was about drugs, but it was actually written about my infatuations: that was what I was most addicted to at the time. We recorded it in the summer of ‘77 at Escape Studios in Kent. We used a 16-track recorder, and John Burns was the engineer. His contribution was massive; he put the backless reverb on the toms for the intro and that’s what gives it a surging pulse and makes everything more exciting.
Any songwriter is lucky if they’ve got one song that transcends their immediate audience. The vocal track I recorded at Island Studios in St Peter’s Square, London, because Ed Hollis and Steve Lillywhite were house engineers there. They’d come to a gig of ours and said, ‘Oh, let’s pick up the multi-track and go.’ So I just did one take for the vocals, which was unusual for me. The rest of it was finished off at Basing Street Studios [now Sarm West Studios] in Notting Hill. I remember we had to transfer it from 16-track to 24-track, which was tricky back then. We had to get the roadies to go down to Kent, pick up the 16-track machine and bring it to Basing Street to transfer. It was all a bit of a palaver. Any songwriter is lucky if they’ve got one song that transcends their immediate audience – one that other people know the words to, but don’t know who wrote it. Although the initial idea behind Another Girl, Another Planet was very childish, it created a great song. I’m pleased that it’s helped people who weren’t around at the time discover the rest of my music. It’s always a massive compliment when people cover it. All my songs are very personal, so I’m flattered this one had a melody that can be interpreted by other singers. I think
The Replacements did the first cover of it I ever heard, but various people have done it since. Hearing iconic voices like Michael Stipe or Robert Smith and The Cure singing it at sound check makes me really proud. I’m very grateful to the song. I remember reading somewhere how Blink-182 discovered it. It was in a film called Me Without You that drummer Travis Barker was watching on a trans-Atlantic flight. He thought, ‘What the fuck is this?’ and made it his duty to find out. The band covered it and their version was used on an MTV reality show called Meet the Barkers. Very weird! Looking back, I feel very fortunate that I was around in London in the seventies. In 1975-76 The Pistols were completely unlike anything else. Then punk became very fashionable and lots of people started to fit that songwriting stereotype. So it was very easy to stand out and be different. All you had to do was play a melodic break. I never wanted to be like anyone else, and I think that helped. Another Girl, Another Planet Written by: Peter Perrett Published by: Domino Publishing m64_june 2017 _33
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The Queen and Benjamin Britten open Snape Maltings Concert Hall, 2 June 1967
Dr Nicholas Clark, a leading expert in the life and work of late composer Benjamin Britten and Librarian at the Britten-Pears Foundation, looks back to the opening of Snape Maltings Concert Hall 50 years ago. The idea for a new concert hall at Snape arose from a long-held desire, of the Directors of the Aldeburgh Festival, for an auditorium large enough to accommodate a full size symphony orchestra and chorus, with seating for audiences both great and small. Plans had previously been proposed for an opera house situated in Aldeburgh, but both space and cost proved insurmountable issues.
Photo: Clive Strutt
By 1965, when malt-drying operations had ceased in the Maltings at Snape, the opportunity finally arose. Under the guidance of Festival Manager Stephen Reiss, a lease was obtained from the Maltings’ owner George Gooderham. Arup Associates were engaged to undertake the conversion of the interior of the largest Malt House, under the supervision of structural engineer Derek Sugden. Sugden wrote in 1967 that the hall’s acoustics would be ‘judged by everyone first-hand during [that] year’s festival’. The hall has been praised consistently since then for its excellent sound quality for both live and recorded music.
34_june 2017_m64
Benjamin Britten had observed these buildings when he lived in the Old Mill at Snape, where he composed the opera Peter Grimes, in the early 1940s. Just over 20 years later the Maltings would serve an entirely different purpose: becoming a major new performance venue, a site where recordings could be made, where two of Britten’s operas would be filmed, under the composer’s musical direction, by the BBC. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were invited to officially open the new Maltings. On 2 June 1967 they travelled to Snape, having first taken lunch at Britten and Peter Pears’ home, The Red House, in Aldeburgh. Her Majesty, who was welcomed by a trumpet fanfare and cheering crowds, congratulated the festival organisers whose hard work, faith and determination to establish a celebration of the arts in that part of Suffolk had witnessed a major new development: a versatile new performance space to cater for both the local community and visitors. The opening concert began with an arrangement by Britten of the National Anthem. He had also composed an overture
to mark the occasion. First performed by the English Chamber Orchestra and a chorus of East Anglian choirs, it was appropriately named The Building of the House. Other music in the concert was just as celebratory and included Frederick Delius’ Summer Night on the River (appropriate for a concert hall whose outlook was the River Alde), Gustav Holsts’ St Paul’s Suite, and Handel’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day. Although ruined by fire in 1969, the Maltings was rebuilt and was ready for performance again by the 1970 Aldeburgh Festival. To celebrate what, to many, had seemed an impossible achievement, the Queen returned to Snape to attend the first concert in the newlyreconstructed hall. Britten and Pears attracted many of the greatest musicians of their day to the Maltings: a tradition that continues. Five decades since its first opening, the hall remains the centre of the Aldeburgh Festival, and a year-round venue for great music-making by professionals and non-professionals alike. The Aldeburgh Festival runs until 25 June.
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