#carlycussen

This week I got the oppourtunity to go a Music Potential event that was being hosted by Punch Records at the prestigious Access To Music College in Birmingham. It was a hectic day to say the least, waking up at 5am is (As I doubt is anyone’s really) my idea of fun! But nonetheless, dedication to the cause persists and I was up and out the door ready by 7am for the 2 hour drive it takes me to travel from Nottinghamshire, to Birmingham. I arrived just before 10am thinking I’d have to wait ages in line, it’d be extremely busy but, to my suprise, I was the first to arrive!! (GET IN!!!) and better still I got a PARKING SPOT!! (Only driver’s will fully understand the mini happy dance you do when you realise you dont have to rush around looking for a space!!)

So once I’d parked up, and aticipation almost boiling over, I hastily made my way towards the venue and when I got through the door it was just how I pictured, INCREDIBLE. Though the building iniatly seemed small, it was decorative and seemed to have more than enough room to compensate for the numbers that had yet to turn up today.

I was going to be doing 2 sessions throughout today. 1 was a session in Radio with Capital Xtra presenter & insanely talented Sacha Brooks, and the other was with world-famous music video maker Carly Cussen (Who’d done the vids of all kinds of people from Olly Murs, Little Mix, Wretch 32 and more recently Krept & Konan)..... No Biggie then?!

I was all but a rather big bag of caffeine-induced rattling ball of nerves and excitement. I was so eager to meet them. Afterall, these were how do you put it? SERIOUSLY TALENTED WOMEN. And It wasn’t just them that we’d have to look forward to, we had performances from Brummie rapper RoxXx, a former Music Potential Attendee Namiwa Jazz, aswell as Q&A’s with industry giants PBN and Capital Xtra’s Breakfast Host Jez Welham amoung many more, if that wasn’t enough?! There was so much amazing things happening all at once it was ALOT to take in. But I was well and truly in my element, it felt like I was part of something amazing and that in itself was amazing to be part of!

Once I’d been registered people started filtering in and my gosh, there was alot of people. We were all kindof like Jacket Potatoes in an oven! It was at first a bit intimidating being that there were SO many talented people all in one room but the atmosphere was electric, and before I knew it it was time for the first session.

We were introduced to Sacha and her team, and after a breif introduction of everyone in the group (Which was around 16 people) we were split into 4 groups. My group consisted of myself, a girl named Ayola Lee and a guy called Christian. Once in our groups we were told to produce 3 links. 1 top of the hour, 1 content link and 1 crunch & roll (Otherwise known as a 20 seconds speed link with instrumental music towards the vocal). I put myself forward for the crunch & roll link straight away as I’ve done that type of radio before, and it’s the type of radio I want to do. Fast paced, energetic and on point. So Christian took the content, and Ayola the top of hour. Now all that was left to do was decide on what these links would actually have in them. It took us a good while to really think of things, especially with it being only 10 minutes into the session and only 5 more until we were going into recording....NO PRESSURE THEN!?

With such a short time to really digest and get our things together, we all wrote down our peices in a bit of a haste before heading down to do the actual recording. Once in there, it was a bit intense. If someone farted it wouldnt have made people even flinch. We were all so focused! You know what though, it made it really fun at the same time, because I like showing off, and when it came to my turn, I thought I’d smashed it. I did a happy dance, only to be told that it actually was 2 seconds UNDER. 2 SECONDS!!! I couldn’t do that, so ever the perfectionist, once everyone else had had their turn, I went back and did it again....NAILED IT. I was buzzing, almost like the moment you JUST catch the bus after running full pelt for it, or you’ve just scored the winning goal in a football match. That feeling.  That intense burning in the pit of your stomach which makes you go, this is what I should be doing. I even got a “That was really good” from Sacha’s assistant, Sefa!!! DAY MADE.

With everyone’s turn being had, and my second recording finished, Christian wanted his to be done again also. Beforehand, me and my group sat down to sort ourselves out for the second attempt at it and I noticed that he was struggling a little. So I helped him construct the content link, what it should have in it and what the purpose of it was. He knew from doing it the first time that he wanted an event, but that was all he had. So I asked him, what has happened in your life recently? Any funny stories? And then he told me about this girl on instagram who he’s got talking to and basically she told she was at UNI, only to discover later on instagram that in fact, she’d actually just had her PROM. ouuuuuuuch! I told him to put it in there as I thought it was a really good peice to tell. We added in a few  extra bits and he was ready to go... “Well done!” Everyone said as he finished doing his recording. I can’t deny, as much as I loved doing my performance, for me this was also another huge highlight of the day. I’d helped someone out and it sounded so much clearer, more concise and as they say, you can’t teach what you don’t know. I was so chuffed with the outcome and it made me feel ecstastic to pass on that knowledge. Elated, the session came to a close.

After a bit of a break and spot of lunch, we all gathered back in the reception hall. Once there we were treated to some exceptional performances from rapper RoxXx, and former Music Potential attendee Namiwa Jazz. We even had a bit of a sing along which was cool!

Finally, we all made our way to our 2nd and final session of the day and my choice was Music Video Production with the brilliant Carly Cussen. At first, I was quite dubious about the session. I picked it because I do vlogging and out of the others it made sense to go for that one. And whilst I enjoyed getting some new knowledge on who runs the production side of the video, I was left a little empty after. However, I don’t believe at all that this was because of the session itself, I just think that this wasn’t my ideal cup of tea. I make entirely different videos, and whilst Music Video Production is essentially similar in the process to making videos in Video Production, my little vlog’s aren’t quite as elaborate or indeed on the same scale as a music vid. I guess I hadn’t really thought about making a music video before this, so whilst useful I may/may not make use of it in the future in truth. Nonetheless, It was useful information to know,if I do ever decide to venture into that world.

Something that took me by absolute suprise though, was the tutor. I love hearing about people’s stories. It fascinates me to know where people started but I did not expect for her to list off basically all the music videos I watched as a young teen. It really took me back when she told me her first vid was Wifey Riddim- Tinie Tempah!!! (Anyone remember Channel U? That was what it was called before AKA)... I did feel rather old at that point! But it was crazy, to think, I’d been watching those vids, not knowing who directed them, and now, suddenly here she was in front of me. It all felt a bit deja vu. But still, Very, very cool. Finally, after having a bit of a Q&A with Carly, and a few selfies, it was time for me to head home.

I will take away so much from this event, particularly, because it helped me to unleash many invaluable skills I was unaware I had. Ultimately, in a nutshell I feel like I’m finally on the right track with my pursuits and it’s all kindof coming together, slowly, but surely. The trick of this trade is to not give up, and I realised that I’m on the right track, because I have no interest in going back. Only a lucky few will get picked out ultimately from that day, I hope I’m that lucky!

Fingers Crossed.