Panel discussion titled Local to Global: Mobilising rural music communities in a digital age with Tabitha Mudaliar (Chair), TJ Bawden (Feis Ross), Chris Wemyss (MacArts), Robert Shields (ONR) and Stephen Watkins (Mixed by Saw).
For long enough, the distance between musicians, lack of venue provision and fewer arts organisations in rural areas means there are fewer opportunities for young emerging artistes compared to metropolitan hubs. Despite this, music in rural areas is thriving. Since the advent of the pandemic, a fast expanding network of rural music communities across Scotland have seen digital technologies transform the way in which their D.I.Y. music networks are able to collaborate creatively and form alliances. Producing unique performance techniques, experimenting with genre conventions and reaching out to an international audience, this D.I.T. (do-it-together) approach, creative autonomy and control is retained and celebrated in shared non-commercial spaces run by the artists themselves. This panel seeks to explore these shared ideologies and practices across the remote parts of the country.
TABITHA MUDALIAR
Tabi Mudaliar is a Creative Producer of short and feature films, promotional videos, digital media, cultural events, training events, radio shows, and podcasts. She is also a writer and radio broadcast journalist. In addition to her own creative writing, she has freelanced for BBC Radio Scotland, Alive Community Radio and has had her work published in various literary magazines and blogs. Tabi produces and presents her own weekly magazine radio show, ‘TotallyTabi’ on Alive 107.3fm. Her work focusses on showcasing the arts and culture in Dumfries and Galloway, and Scotland. She is passionate about creating opportunities for and giving a voice to creatives who are not always heard or seen, whatever their age, background, or ethnicity. Tabi is a Creative Producer for DG Unlimited and a Director of the South West Media Factory CIC.
T J BAWDEN
Teya-Jean graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2012 with an MA in English Literature and returned in 2014 to complete a MSc in Creative Writing. Her career in the arts was nurtured at Eden Court Theatre, where she assisted the Creative department for two years in a role that taught her everything from how to write a Rabbie-Burns-themed murder mystery from scratch, to composing and playing a live score for a theatre production for Under 5s. In early 2019, she migrated back to her roots in traditional music and joined the Fèis Rois team as the Community Engagement Officer. As a folk singer-songwriter herself, Teya-Jean can be seen gigging around the Highlands and is also a fledgling writer with a little poetry and short story success. When she’s not tuning her guitar, or zipping around Ross-Shire with various instruments in her Mini, she can be found scouting the local hills with her dog, Limòn.
CHRIS WEMYSS
Although Chris has been a lifelong music fan and amateur musician his music Industry career only started in 2009 as founder and then latterly Chairman of Sound Out a community music group that went on to run the highly successful Stowed Out Music Festival (2012 - 2018). The Festival brought Scottish touring acts such as Tidelines, he Van T's, Bossy Love, Scott Hutchison, Shoggleniffty to the tiny village of Stow In the Scottish Borders.
ROBERT SHIELDS
ONR (pronounced “honor”) is singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and self-taught producer born Robert Shields who was raised in rural isolation on a sheep farm in the Scottish Highlands. Inspired – not to mention bored – at his family’s farmhouse on cliffs overlooking the North Sea, Shields began writing and performing his own songs aged 12 or 13. With such an isolated childhood, his songwriting was his form of escapism, a craft he was intent on perfecting first and foremost. His hard work caught the attention of a manager who flew him out to LA – his first time out of Scotland ever – culminating in a label war, yet he understood the heat of success and still didn’t feel quite ready, both mentally and musically, and turned all of it down. He continued to hone his skills by fine-tuning his songwriting and perfecting his live show, performing hundreds of gigs across Europe, eventually touring with acts like Bastille and Jake Bugg, while immersing himself amongst Scottish hit-makers Lewis Capaldi and Calvin Harris. Now Shields has finally figured out who he is as a songwriter, making music that is true to himself, of which he is proud. He recently signed a deal with Warner Records and is currently prepping for the Spring 2020 release of his Must Stop EP, four sparkling synth-pop gems with an anthemic rock undertow that are almost entirely written, played and produced by Shields himself in his home studio in Dumfries and Galloway.
STEPHEN WATKINS
Stephen Watkins aka SAW is a top music mixer and record producer from the Scottish Borders. He specialises in crafting explosive over the top sounding ALT. POP. records for non-boring bands who want to make something bombastic and un-ignorable. His unique abuse of signal processing and off the wall mix techniques keep him positioned as a favourite choice for lead single mixer by indie artist managers and labels. You can find him hitting the pipes 24/7 at '' The Church Of Hits '' - his production studio located within a former chapel in the MacArts venue complex. Clients include HoneyBlood, Carla J Easton, EchoMachine, Man Of The Minch, The Moon Kids and Rylah.