2020 Conscious Wrap by L-FRESH The LION
2020 was a challenging year. The best word to describe our collective resolve to make something of it is, resilience. In amongst the COVID19 pandemic with the music industry shut down, Conscious adapted and continued to provide a way for its artists to keep building, growing & developing their careers. Our artists & our team showed resilience.
We entered the year off the back of an inspiring 2019, with the Conscious concert rounding off a year of kicking goals with our first cohort of artists: Rebecca Hatch, Mirrah, Zeadala, Nardean and Jessica Jade. Continuing the vision of working with conscious minded artists, the type of artists who understand the impact of their music and have a desire to leave a positive change in their communities, we selected Slim Set, A.GIRL, Spvrrow and T Breezy for the 2020 program.
A key value of the program is community: engaging with community and fostering community. With that at the forefront of our minds, we actively work to bring our artists together in real space so they can build with one another and ride with each other as they progress throughout the year. That was obviously disrupted this year. Instead, we held 2 virtual industry days for our artists, giving them an opportunity to connect with each other and music industry representatives. They heard from experts in music management, entertainment law, business management, grant writing and music production.
Conscious collaborated with 4E Sydney (Sydney and Australia’s longest running Hip Hop festival and conference program), seeing the festival host a segment of its COVID revised digital program at Campbelltown Arts Centre. A combination of our 2019 and 2020 artists performed a showcase and spoke on a panel event as part of the festival and conference.
Our artists, no doubt had challenging years, facing industry uncertainty and having had to adjust their plans constantly throughout the course of the year. Yet despite those challenges, it was inspiring to see them continue to evolve and kick the goals they set for themselves this year.
A.GIRL produced and released a dope music video for her song Lola. The song and video, both are statements to the strength and power of her music. Together, A.GIRL and Spvrrow delivered a workshop for young women at Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre. It was a massive highlight for the year for both of our artists and for the young women who attended the workshop. They’re still raving about it today. That being a testament to the generosity and caring spirits of both A.GIRL and Spvrrow.
Spvrrow has spent her time this year working on new music. One of my highlights for the year was being able to drop in to one of her studio sessions at Studios 301 to hear what she was working on. It’s truly a privilege to see artists come in to their own, finding their voice and developing their sound.
The same can be said for T Breezy, who has been relentlessly working on new music. This year saw him release a number of new singles and music videos with his record label Trackwork, and spending time developing his style and sound in the studio.
Slim Set released their single Solar, sharing their love for Western Sydney on this gem while being a commentary on our political inaction on climate change. It’s a conscious-banger. Similar to A.GIRL and Spvrrow, Slim Set also spent time in the local community this year, with Kal delivering workshops for local primary schools in the area, running lyric writing and performance workshops as part of a transition program for students moving into high school. The school marked it as a highlight of their year. And Zac developed a 3-part video workshop for high school students focusing on the intersection of music practice and technology.
On top of our 2020 artists releasing music, 2 artists from our 2019 cohort released the EPs they worked on during their time on the Conscious program. Jessica Jade released her EP titled Bet and Zeadala released her EP titled Chapter 23.
To end the year, we celebrated our artists with the Conscious Presents concert. Delivered in partnership with Inside Sets, the performance was live-streamed and then re-streamed on Twitch, at a later date. Both Jessica Jade and Zeadala joined our 2020 artists at our end of year concert to coincide with the release of their EPs.
Despite COVID-19 throwing up constant hurdles throughout the course of the year, Conscious continued to solidify its presence in the Australian music industry landscape, as a valuable professional artists development program for conscious-minded artists from Western Sydney. It is quickly becoming a cornerstone of artist development infrastructure in the region. I’m looking forward to seeing it grow further in 2021.