We met the inspirational music production masters making a real splash with innovative live music in the Cultural Quarter. Omar Mohamed tells us the story of how and why Manic Music Productions took a leap of faith to float new monthly showcase for young musicians.
“I think Next Wave is going to be huge,” were the words of city-based music producer, Matt Cotterill in the run up to its launch.
“There’s huge potential with Next Wave. So we’re kinda going in all guns blazing and want to get it out into everyone’s consciousness in the city.”
Manic Music Productions’ ethos, as Cotterill explained, is to support the Leicester music scene and encourage local talent. What better way to do so than by creating a platform for young artists to perform? Next Wave is such a platform – the brainchild of city director and composer Jed Spittle.
It got underway on December 3, and has continued to run on the first Saturday of every month thereafter. Six pre-registered performers set up to play six twenty-minute music sets, to an audience gathered in the screen lounge café at Phoenix Square from 11.30am until 2pm.
In terms of the way it works, each artist begins by playing an Introduction Set, with a view to working their way up to eventually becoming a Featured Artist. Achieving the status of Featured Artist brings with it a greater amount of stage time and the chance to have a track recorded, courtesy of Manic Music Productions. Cotterill added: “The thing with Next Wave is that whilst we want to get involved, potentially, from a recording point of view in the long-term, the primary emphasis is to get people in and performing.”
Manic Music Productions, who reside at Phoenix Square in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter, have access to three different workstations all running different digital audio workstations and they offer training in music production techniques all the way from pre-production to mastering. “The music industry can get quite convoluted with musical styles,” Cotterill said, adding “whilst I like seeing an artist that does different sorts of music, I think it’s good to see somebody who has a strong sense of musical identity and has their own stamp and personality.”
