More Music is a music education charity based in the West End of Morecambe.
With community projects for all ages and abilities, regular gigs, festivals and its own recording studios, More Music is a well known organisation who are very much a part of the local landscape, and I know many a ‘muso’ who have come up through their programmes or performed with their events.
Girls Can is More Music’s campaign to address the imbalance of women’s representation in music, celebrate young women’s achievements and provide opportunities to explore areas of music and technology, where barriers often exist.
The programme
From the 10th - 12th Dec 2021, five young women from Lancashire took part in the programme to develop their musical, technical and performance skills, with the guidance and support of inspiring professionals to:
- Construct their ‘sound’ collaborating with musicians and producers
- Write and record tracks
- Explore the process of releasing music
- Master the art of rehearsal & performance preparation
- Develop their profile as an artist, technician & musician
- Develop sound tech and lighting skills
The crew
Rachel Parsons: Youth Programmes Manager and Music Leader at More Music, Music Lecturer at Lancaster and Morecambe College.
Harriet North, Sound Engineer
Sarah Angel, Musician, Model and Stylist
IORA (AKA Holly Phelps), Musician
Introducing Rachel Parsons
During her 25 years experience as a recording and touring drummer, Rachel saw first hand, the underrepresentation of women in the music industry;
never, in my 25 years of playing in a band, did I ever encounter a female sound engineer whilst touring and that all the albums I had recorded over the years had been engineered by men. Not to say there aren’t any women working as sound engineers or producers, but recent statistics show us that only 2% of producers known to be working within the music industry are women. 2%!!!!!???
- Girls Can at More Music
Likewise - in my 10 years of working in music and events photography, visiting venues up and down the country and covering some of the largest festivals in the UK - I have only ever worked with 1 female sound engineer, back in 2019 at Comedy Feast in Lincoln. This being said, artists usually need to develop their own skills around sound engineering, and setting up their tech, and everyone has to start somewhere right?
Introducing Harriet North
Harriet was pretty sound. She was incredibly knowledgeable and super helpful; she was happy to explain her lighting set up to me, and even make little tweaks to help me get the best lighting for my shots.
As a photographer, I always try to say hello and introduce myself to the tech folks if I get the chance. Engineers spend ages setting up stages with cables and equipment, so they’ll know the layout of the venue, the best access points and where not to go (essential if you don’t want to piss anyone off) and also who’s who.
Alongside Rachel and Harriet, the development sessions were facilitated by musicians Sarah Angel and Holly Phelps who are both singer/songwriters and recording artists.
Introducing Sarah Angel
Bolton born soul-child, singer-songwriter and model Sarah Angel has been flaunting her experimental-soul sound over the past year in her hometown and beyond.
‘I survive from the art I make’
- Sarah Angel
Sarah was a fantastic assistant on my portrait shoot, spotting locations and showing the girls how to own the space. She also led a warm up activity where we all became waves - very apt for our seaside location!
Introducing IORA
IORA is an electronica pop/folk artist based in Manchester and has been named as a resident artist at the Roundhouse in London. IORA’s music is a combination of vocal and instrumental harmonies, married with electronic samples and sounds, intriguing the audience with its originality. Follow IORA on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.
Holly had some great ideas to explore lyrical techniques; when discussing metaphors, it became apparent that most of us in the room were wearing Dr Martens boots which lent itself well to ‘walking in each other’s shoes’.
Rachel, Holly and Sarah led the group of girls through a weekend of self discovery, learning and celebration. The power of women uplifting other women proved to be transformative, as the girls began to form connections, make friends, and really come into their strides as artists.
The camaraderie in this space was inspiring, and went to show that when we work together and support one another, everyone wins.
One of the key moments for me was photographing the girls as they recorded and mastered their tracks, they had achieved so much over 72 hours, and realised their previously undiscovered potential.
The programme finished off with a playback party, where the girls’ parents were invited to listen to the final tracks. Although some parents couldn’t be there, the sense of togetherness and pride in the room was deeply moving.