Quantize: The EP

May I introduce our debut EP, "QUANTIZE."

All tracks recorded at The Pump, Kitts Green
Tracks engineered & mixed by James "Vice" Kennaby for Street Soul Productions
Thanks to Curtis Clacey, Ben "Alto" Smith and Eudina Jarrett for session support
Graphic design by Vice
Photography by Imke Daugs

Music4HH features in Bordesley Green newsletter

Esther, our project manager sent this article to the Bordesley Green Detached Project newsletter about our project.

Quantize Live at the Vibe!

 On 17th December we were welcomed to the Vibe to launch our CD and perform some of the tracks live. We were joined by Ben the amazing sax player and some talented young musicians from the Vibe. Even though there were some technical hitches and some problems with timings, we had a great evening of music, from hip hop to rock, indie, jazz and metal. It was great to see so much support from the local community, family, council workers and young people coming to cheer on our music-makers.

The young people that we have been working with over the past few months put a lot into this performance - it was the first time a lot of them had performed in public. This whole project has been about learning new skills and working together with new people to create some music - and this performance was a celebration of that. I can't believe the change I've seen in some of our young men - going from hardly knowing anything about music to writing and confidently performing in just a few months; it's an amazing achievement!

In moody black&white because the camera's busted and made everything purple. Also it looks cool.

As well as the young musicians, a lot of people have worked really hard to make this project happen. Our music leader James has been a brilliant creative producer, working round the clock at times to make this CD and performance happen. Esther is a dedicated project leader who can bring out the best in anyone. Thanks also to our youth workers: John, Zainab, Tanvir and AG. The staff and young people at the Vibe were supportive and welcoming to us, and thanks to them for hosting the performance. Finally thanks to our guest musicians and workers who've helped over the course of the project. Now it sounds like I'm accepting an Oscar. Enjoy the video of a few highlights of the performance!

Live at the Vibe!

We're celebrating the launch of a CD of original music written and recorded by young people of Hodge Hill with a live performance on Monday 17th December at the Vibe in Birmingham. We're so excited to see the result of months of hard work from the guys and our music producer James Kennaby. Please come along to support!

PHOTOSHOOT!

Guys, this is so exciting. Our photos have arrived from professional photographer Imke Daugs. They are amazing. View more at our facebook page: facebook.com/music4hh

 

More behind-the-scenes footage

Here's a video showing an insight into our glamorous lives as music producers. Our fantastic photographer Imke has sent over the finished pictures so look out for them here soon.

Behind the scenes at our photoshoot

We worked with a professional photographer from the Medical Illustration team at Heartlands last week - she was amazing and worked really well with our young people. We're so excited to see the results!

Fun sessions at the Pump!

A little video showing the hi-jinks we get up to at the Pump. It's a bit misleading, we actually spend most time in the studio rather than playing ukulele. But only film the ukulele bits apparently.

Quantize!

We started a new set of sessions last week! This mini-project is called QUANTIZE and it's a bit different from what we've been doing so far! Some of the young people from Naseby and Hutton have joined with some new recruits to write, record and produce a CD of their own music. This is taking place at The Pump, which has a professional recording studio and lots of useful specialised spaces for these workshops. It's a much better environment for these sessions really, as the youth centres were often busy and provided lots of distractions.

We're working with MC Vice (James) from Street Soul Productions plus some special guests to create this exciting project! I think it's really great that by the end of it, the young people will have learnt so many new skills (writing, studio recording, CD production) and will have a brilliant end product that they can keep.

Our first session last week focussed on working together and producing a concept for the songs, and writing some first lyrics. We also had a little introduction to the recording studio, and ate lots of biscuits.

As always, if you are under 18 and live in the Hodge Hill area (or know anyone who'd be interested) get in touch by leaving us a comment, message us on twitter @Music4HH or via facebook.com/music4hh, email music4hh@gmail.com.

Rapping!

We've come to the end of our sessions on rapping, beatboxing and lyric writing. Here are some of the tracks that our young people have created with James!

These two are from the youth clubs, so James had more time to work with them on lyrics and got their input about what the backing should sound like. He also sampled some of their beatboxing and included that too.
Naseby crew - Drastic by Music4HH
Arceus - character rap - norton hall session 2 by Music4HH

And these are from the sessions at the hospital:
Mckenzie - character rap - heartlands hospital session 3 by Music4HH
Haider AND Baabar - The Adventure by Music4HH

James's music class! - Filmed by Nafees (thank you!)

Rapping with James

We are lucky enough to have another brilliant rap artist to run some sessions with us! James Kennaby is working with our young people in the hospital and the youth centres, helping them to write their own lyrics and create their own music tracks.

James encourages our budding rappers to write about what they know by thinking of different things about their lives: activities and hobbies, their family, their thoughts and feelings. Often he gets the young people to compose a section each and adds them together to make a longer verse.

Here's some lyrics that the young people came up with and James has set to music (which I will upload later!)

The Adventure

His name is Red Arrow
He lives in London
And he really loves jumping
He wears adidas
Cos he's all class
He wears red from morning to bed
And because he tried parkour
He's got a broken leg

His friends call him odd
Because he loves playing COD
And when he's online
He talks to his friend Todd all the time

He says he drives a Subaru but that's not true
Instead he's learning to drive in a Daewoo
He fancies a chew so he goes to his friend's barbeque

He travelled to Australia to meet his friend Dalia
Whose washing machine had a recent failure.

Isn't that great? I'm particularly impressed by the washing machine reference.