Artist development with 14-19 year olds in Bromley
Our 10 week project in partnership with Bromley Youth Support Programme took place between April and June of this year, challenging 14 young people, aged 14-19 to step out of their comfort zones to write music and develop their artistry.
The aim of the project was to engage young people from low socioeconomic and NEET backgrounds in a series of songwriting sessions and develop their artistry. Many of the participants were singers and rappers with an interest in creating their own music, and some were established artists who had released their own music already.
Taking place at The Link Youth Centre, Bromley, music leaders led the weekly sessions in two spaces – the Writing Room (the youth centre’s ‘radio’ booth) and the Recording Room. Bromley Youth Support staff were fantastic, recruiting 14 young people onto the project. The group told us how much they enjoyed having the ArtsTrain sessions each week and building a relationship with our music leaders.
The group explored new ways of writing; while ‘freestyling’ was popular in the group, they learnt how to develop their writing skills. Supported by rap and spoken word specialist, Yasmin, young people learnt how to turn their thoughts and ideas into lyrics. The young people enjoyed writing lyrics based on their personal experiences including, mental health and relationships. They created tracks in rap, drill, pop and RnB.
“We write something that means something. It’s personal, real life. Something that you can see the emotion in.”
Music Leaders, Yasmin and Damien
After they had finished the writing process, music leader and producer, Damien, guided the young people through recording their tracks on the mic.
It was amazing to see the group bond - everyone was eager to collaborate with one another and welcome new artists to the group.
“The writing was a bit hard for me, as I haven’t done it much. I love the amount of support we give each other. I got scared at first but then everyone hypes each other up. It’s really nice and makes you feel comfortable around everyone.”
One young person, Rosie, came into the sessions during the third week of the project. She is from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community and doesn’t attend school currently.
As a singer, she was excited to write her own music and has aspirations to become a songwriter in the future. Rosie told us that she had bad anxiety, arriving with her mum to her first session. She was nervous about interacting with the other young people, especially being the only girl in the group amongst 10 other boys. Each week, she attended with a friend or family member.
Rosie worked with Yasmin, initially, choosing an instrumental she liked the sound of, and writing over it. She then recorded on the microphone with music leader, Damien.
“We’ve been writing from scratch. We put music on and thought ‘how does it make me feel?’ - from there we put lyrics together. I wrote lyrics about my family and what I want to do when I’m older. I then added in harmonies too. The song’s called ‘I can be’ ( “I can dream, I can be what I wanna be”), about my experiences - about my sisters fighting in the car, my dad ranting!”
Yasmin and Damien introduced her to other young people that she could collaborate and write with one on one. Her confidence grew rapidly as she bonded with the group. Despite her anxiety, she was able to record and share her songs in front of others by the end of the project. Have a listen to her original track, I Can Be, below:
Music leader, Yasmin, felt that conversation and listening to the individuals brought out the best in their creativity:
“We dissected the themes and ideas behind the lyrics and I then challenged them to write from a more authentic perspective by connecting with them. I think they enjoyed the sessions more and appreciated their own work and abilities in a new way.”
Project support staff told us they were really pleased with the group’s progress and dedication to the project, and that they would love to run the project again with us.
“The young participants in the music project gained valuable skills and enhanced their personal development. Their self-esteem and confidence increased significantly.”
Big thank you to Bromley Youth Support Programme for helping us make the project happen and recruiting such a motivated group of young people onto the sessions!
Have a listen to one of the group tracks below: