Conscious Artist Development Days 2020
Our vision is to keep building the Conscious family of artists and creatives, working with our collaborators in the region and beyond to share resources, exchange knowledge and build the hip-hop community, while supporting local artists to realise their goals and potential.
In the world we knew, three times a year the Conscious artists gather at Campbelltown Arts Centre for a series of development days to meet with key people within the music industry to share knowledge and build relationships. In these disruptive times of COVID-19 with distancing regulations in place, the 2020 Conscious artists A.GIRL, Spvrrow, Slim Set and T Breezy along with some appearances from the 2019 alumni Becca Hatch, Mirrah and Jessica Jade met on Zoom across four days connecting with five guest presenters who all shared their knowledge and experience in the music industry.
The first day got down to business discussing artist/manager relationships and career planning with artist managers, Vyvienne Abla, (Artist Manager and Festival Producer of 4ESydney) and Ricky Simandjutak, (Artist Management of ONEFOUR, Rebecca Hatch and I.AMSOLO).
Day two was led by David Vodicka, Partner from Media Arts Lawyers. David presented the artists with practical legal advice including how to approach conversations around artist-producer agreements and how to crunch the numbers between master splits and publishing splits. Independent Art Consultant, Paul Mason provided insight into the Australian funding landscape and cycles and shared tips with the artists on how to prepare for grants and project plan.
Day three was a step by step guide on how to build your own home studio with Stefan Du Randt, Engineer at Studios 301. The artists were shown how to make the most of their homes especially during COVID-19 times and how to get the best out of your equipment.
The final day was a collaborative reflection of the presentations and each artist shared their creative outlets to get through isolation. A.GIRL shared her social media hacks during COVID-19 and her self-care routine in times of stress. Slim Set gave some lessons on social media promotion and shared their creative process in video art direction. T Breezy gave the artists an insight into his song writing, sharing what inspires his lyrics and music and Spvrrow revealed her party planning tips on how to throw an unforgettable launch party.
Although physically coming together to create is difficult to achieve right now, the artists and speakers discussed how this time could be used to realign, set goals, plan out the steps to reach these goals, and invent new ways to collaborate within your own network and home.
One common thing that resonated throughout the four days is the power of music especially through times of uncertainty. Whether you’re a musician, producer or fan, music can open possibilities and together we can all get through this.
Escape and listen to the latest tracks by the Conscious artist on our Spotify playlist.