Creative Showcase: Slowlife

Meet Slowlife (Dan Bowen) an indie/folk act based in Colchester. Dan is kindly coming to perform for our Creative in Colchester event on Thursday 23rd February.

We got Dan to come in and create an ‘I make’ picture for our ongoing photography project capturing members and local creatives in the town. To find out what makes Slowlife tick we asked a few questions:

Tell us a bit about your journey and where you are today.
I spent the first 18 years of my life in the north Suffolk town of Lowestoft and began playing the guitar around the age of 12. I was more of a lead guitarist at first, but started writing my own songs around the age of 15/16, but didn’t really perform them for a few years after, whilst I studied, travelled and lived around a few different places. Having been in a couple of bands, last year I formed Slow Life and played a few shows around Colchester on my own for the first time. I decided that I didn’t really want to be a stereotypical acoustic performer and after an inspiring trip to see Gruff Rhys live, I went out and bought a loop pedal and a selection of instruments to perform my songs as you might hear them on record. So on stage I am accompanied by guitar, percussion and melodica and I literally build some of my songs. I’m now gigging in Colchester regularly and am focussing on performing around the country and getting my music heard.  

What do you think of our membership hub and Colchester’s growing Cultural Quarter?
I think its great! I moved to Colchester two years ago with an offer of decent employment and knew very little about the town, and knew no-one who lived here! I was pleasantly surprised by the active music and arts scene, and made several friends and was able to develop my own music and get involved with events. Its a nice little community really and most people seem to be keen to help each other out, which is nice. For a town of it’s size I think Colchester punches above its own weight in a cultural sense and theres a lot of talented people here….

Give us a sneaky peak of what you are working on right now.
I have just finished recording a debut EP at Long Track Studios with producer Nathan Wacey, which is going to be called BEAR. Its being mixed at the moment, and I’m looking to release it within the next few weeks. It has six songs on it, and I have played every instrument with the exception of the drums. Its a mixed bag of songs really, theres a couple of melodic tracks, with the vocal line leading the song, a couple of reverby guitar-led tracks and also one track which is built up on a multi-guitar, percussion and vocal loop. All songs have catchy hooks and I’d like to think are easy on the ear! Inspiration for the songs comes from protest movements, cross-european adventures and socialist German football teams!

Cheers Dan. Great to hear you are inspired by socialist German football teams. All members are invited to our event on the 24th to hear Slowlife play and enjoy architecture themed talks from Hat Projects & Studio Can Can. Visit our meetup page for more.

Creative Showcase: Rhonda Merrick

Meet Rhonda Merrick, our acoustic performance for our Creative in Colchester event this Thursday. She popped in to participate in our ongoing photography project “I make…” capturing our members and local creatives in the town.

We will be streaming Rhondas performance live Thursday evening so even if you can’t make the event, make sure you visit our site to digitally partake in a night of acoustic charm.

Tell us a bit about your journey and where you are today.
In 2011, I wrote songs everyday. The project was called My365. The viable songs will need to be finished/recorded/remixed/sorted into albums and genres/distributed/played live in front of people and used in a variety of other ways over the next several years.

While I taught myself to play the guitar fluently… I dabbled with other instruments, recording hardware and software and started to build a following.

I made my own website and eventually figured out how to connect it to all my other stuff online.

This year I’ve ‘slowed down’ to one song a week that’s shared publicly. I called it Tuesday Tunes and I’m far more organised from day one than I was last year.  I still write several songs a week…but I don’t HAVE to and I can post whatever I happen to like that week… it will give my songs an element of surprise…the one’s I don’t share as they’re created.

What do you think of our membership hub and Colchester’s growing Cultural Quarter?
I’m from New Orleans originally…home of the French Quarter…so I’m all for a bustling arts centre in town.  I like the flexibility in the support that’s available for creative people.  I’ve also found audiences in Colchester have been wonderfully receptive to my music.

Give us a sneaky peak of what you are working on right now.
It’s an open secret that I received an offer from a major record label. I accepted the offer through my lawyer, but with some conditions. It’s now down to them to accept my terms or walk-away.

So, while I’m in this sort of waiting period… I decided to keep going on my own.

I’m working on making my music and gigs fan-driven.  If someone hears my music and would like to have me bring the guitar and come sing in their town, then can book me themselves, right on my website. When 20 or more people in the area want me to come out…then I will.

I’m also thinking of putting some of my favourite original versions of my songs up for sale. A web design and marketing company offered to handle upload and download sales for no monthly fee at all and the lowest fee I’ve ever heard of when someone buys a song.

I used to think I needed to have production and professional instrumentalists before I could do that…but I can’t afford to hire those people, so it’s a catch 22. Sort of like buying your first house… difficult, but not impossible.

I don’t want to impose or expect anyone to do work for free… so if I’m going to move up to the position where I can hire people to do what I need, then I need to tour and sell the product I’ve made myself. I get messages from people all over the world who absolutely love my songs… I think an album or an EP of just me and my guitar will move things along.

Eventually, I plan to work with a handful of producers and sound engineers I’ve met online and musicians I’ve met online and at the Bull.

Thank you Rhonda! We can’t wait for your performance on Thursday.

Creative Showcase: Mrs Swishing

Meet Jenna Gregory (pictured) part of the creative duo with Rechenda Smith behind Mrs Swishing.

Tell us a bit about your journey and where you are today.

Mrs Swishing are Rechenda Smith and Jenna Gregory (pictured), a creative duo from Colchester. Rechenda now works on marketing projects and email campaigns, whilst organising sewing, knitting and art projects as a hobby, including her scheme Crafty Types. Jenna writes for fashion mags, including Marie Claire and Look, whilst geeking out with video editing, SEO and blogging in her spare time. We have worked together over the past six years on PR and media campaigns and have decided to join our creative forces and our passions once again to create Mrs Swishing, a clothes swapping and sustainable fashion community.

What do you think of our membership hub and Colchester’s growing Cultural Quarter?

It’s fantastic that creatives can join together with the membership hub. There are so many creative people in Colchester, but at times in the past ideas have fallen flat as there wasn’t the external support to help them grow or nurture them. Now people can come together at 15 Queen Street to get an idea off the ground.

Give us a sneaky peek of what you are working on right now.

We are putting the final touches to our first clothes swapping event which takes place at Wivenhoe Cricket Club on the 15th January. For those new to the concept of swishing, the idea is people bring up to 10 items of good quality, but unwanted, items that they want to swap in return for something new. People can end up with new clothes and accessories they love whilst their old items have gone to a better home. The whole process will beat those till prices plus promote ecological and sustainable fashion.

We’re culprits to clothes hoarding, but have always swapped clothes amongst ourselves. But when we read over £1.6billion is spent in the UK on more than 500 million items of unwanted clothing, we decided we should be swapping on a bigger scale to get others to swish too!

For tickets, rules of the rails and all other info go to Mrs Swishing on Facebook, Twitter, or email us.

Thank you ladies. Grab some old frocks and get down to the Wivenhoe Cricket Club tomorrow for the first swishing event of the year. Visit the eventbrite for more.

Creative Showcase: Joel Fisk

Blues Guitarist, Joel Fisk
Hokie Joint

Tell us a bit about your journey and where you are today.
My journey began at the age of 4, when I first picked up a guitar. I decided to take it seriously at the age of 14, and haven’t looked back since.

Influence by similar Blues artists, I co-founded Hokie Joint with singer JoJo Burgess in 2007. Since then, we’ve gone on to release 2 albums with Dutch record label “CoolBuzz”, as well as with playing festivals with the likes of Jamie Cullum, ZZ Top, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck and the late Solomon Burke. In October 2010 we recorded a session at Maida Vale studios, which was aired on BBC Radio 2 the following month.
The band has continued to grow throughout its life, and has encouraged me to play solo gigs as well as fronting my new project, The Struck Bats with Stephen Cutmore (Hokie Joint) on drums and Rob Barry (Wolfpack) on bass. The fact I can spread my work around several different bands, not forgetting Tim Aves’ Howlin’ Wolf-influenced ‘Wolfpack’ means that I’m always on my toes at gigs, and never become complacent with one band. Each act helps me improve different aspects of my style, whether it be technical ability, stage presence, vocals or song writing.

What do you think of our membership hub and Colchester’s growing Cultural Quarter?
I’d say the membership hub has quickly become a catalyst for all things creative in Colchester, and is a great platform for any emerging artists in the area. I’ve only just started to be involved with the 15 Queen Street, and it’s various creative outlets, and already The Colchester Circle magazine has been a massive help to me, what with running the feature on me in November’s issue, and inviting me to perform at their 1st birthday bash. From what I’ve experienced, if something is creative and “happening” in Colchester, then 15 Queen Street will be involved!

I hope the opening of firstsite and the regeneration of St Butolphs will be another reason for Colchester to be put down as the cultural centre of the North Essex area. The talent in the area is astonishing, not just musicians, but all things arts-based. Having lived in Colchester for 7 years, I’ve seen a few great music venues close down, but at the minute there are so many venues putting on such a variety of acts, it really gives a chance for bands to get out of the rehearsal room and get onto the live scene, which is the most important thing for a musician!

Give us a sneaky peak of what you are working on right now.
Right now I’m working on writing songs for The Struck Bats, as well as pushing the name of Hokie Joint as much as possible. I’m aiming to have an album, or at least and EP for The Struck Bats to release in early 2012. Along with a tour of the north of England with Wolfpack in December, and various solo shows scattered around the area and further afield.

You can hear Joel play with the Struck Bats at his new night “Joel Fisk… and Friends” at the Bull on Tuesday 20th December. Looks set to be a good one, thanks Joel.

Creative Showcase: Johnno Casson

My name is Johnno Casson and I currently make music as Snippet, which has been described as quirky, intelligent, infectious pop music or sometimes I make music just purely as Johnno Casson.

Read More

Creative Showcase: Daniel Colaianni

Daniel Colaianni
Head Designer
www.dascolchester.co.uk

What do you do? How do you get to where you are now?

I am a web designer at the age of 13. I have just set up my company so I still have my journey to take but this is just a little bit about me.

What surprises made you smile along the way?

Some of the surprises I have had is probably seeing peoples reactions when I say I design websites. Most people think wow and others think I’m having a laugh.

What do you think 15 Queen Street can do for people like you living in the town?

15 Queen Street can me get out there into Colchester and help me meet other web designers in and out of Colchester.

What does the future hold for our town – how do you hope to involved?

Our town is going to grow and evolve into something bigger, better and brighter. I hope to always be involved.

Do you have any tips for people embarking on a career within the Creative Industries? Whats the most valuable thing you’ve learnt.

Don’t be afraid of what people think and don’t be afraid to ask people, all they can say is yes or no.