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ACM's Student Newsletter April's Edition - Curated by ACM'S STUDENT COUNCIL

April 2021 Edition

This Newsletter includes:

  • Student Council Communication
  • Future Events - Student Led Initiatives at ACM
  • An Interview and Farewell with Business Lecturer Dave Cronen
  • Metropolis Blue Communication
  • Get to know Alyssa Palmer
  • ACM Student Council Rep Interview with Paulo Camaddo
  • Wellbeing information
  • Student Showcase - 'Running' by Jake Goodrum
  • Music Review Submission section
  • Conclusion and Thanks

Hey Everyone! Welcome to April's Edition of ACM’s Student Council Newsletter.

We are still pushing to use the Newsletter to amplify the student voice throughout the entire ACM community, we want to hear your thoughts, promote your initiatives and music whilst also providing a platform for any concerns or issues you may have. We would love to hear from you!

If you would like to be involved in writing or have anything you would like to include please contact us at:

content@acm.ac.uk

If you are interested in joining the Student Council *No experience needed* please check out the NEW Student Council Canvas Page

Student Council Communication

The Student Council have been representing ACM students since the start of the academic year to raise student concerns with ACM Staff and Kainne Clements, ACM Chairman, in order to work towards solutions.

We want to make ACM better for everyone. If you have any suggestions or concerns you would like to be raised at the next student council meeting please let us know by filling in this online form:

Student Led Initiatives at ACM...
Network n' Chill

Network n' Chill is an events and promotion platform that creates inclusive safe space for people to network, meet musicians and music industry professionals from all backgrounds.

Future Network n' Chill events...

Network n' Chill

If you want to form a band or are looking for band members, come to Network n’ Chill on 28th of April at 5 pm. The goal is to create at least 3 bands on the day.

Target audience: Students who are in a band or are looking for band members.

Metal Mondays

Are you a metalhead who loves chatting to like minded metalheads? The Heavy Metal Sessions have been so successful that we are now having the event every Monday as we wanted to have more opportunities to chat with each other and a weekly catch-up about everyone's work. It's great to network and we are slowly growing as a community too!

It starts at 5PM and finishes when the conversation ends, If you feel addressed, come and join the mosh pit \m/‎ .

The MC's Lounge

In this month's MC's Lounge, we are having Kung Tut (Marwan Elbergamy) and Smash (Ashwin Seegobin) as guests who will listen to your track and give constructive feedback.

Join us on the 11th and 13th of May at 5pm - Bring your tracks, bars and music video for Industry A&R Feedback!

Music Prescribed Mentoring Opportunities

Music. Prescribed. are a charity who take instruments and put them in the hands of marginalised and socially isolated communities, working towards reducing isolation and improving mental health, connecting communities and building self esteem.

Before lockdown, Music. Prescribed. were holding in-person group guitar lessons for visually impaired individuals at the RNIB head office in Kings Cross. Although during the lockdown, they have been providing their clients with weekly mentoring and guitar lessons via the phone - all of their mentors are volunteers.

They are currently looking for more mentors to join their programme as they have recently been referred lots of new clients. It is an unpaid, volunteer position but a wonderful opportunity and amazing organisation.

The Met Blue Podcast

The first two episodes of Season 2 of the Met Blue Podcast are now available! During series 2 we'll be featuring guests such as Jon Dunn of Parallel Lines and Ben from Ben's Records. Let us know who you'd like us to interview next!

Contact us at: content@acm.ac.uk

Check out the latest editions of the podcast here:

The Radio Society

An update from Ieuan Sanders the Radio Society Lead

At the radio society we have exciting news for you! We’ve been recording episodes of ‘Track by Track’ and our very first video live session both of which will be released this month. All this is available over at the societies canvas page and Instagram.

We are also continuing our monthly playlist showcasing the best new releases of ACM students and alumni

As always get involved over at the Instagram and Facebook group, email us or send us a DM we’d love to hear from you. We hope you enjoy what we have in store for you this month.

Have Your Say:

A farewell interview with Business Lecturer Dave Cronen

Interviewed by Aaron Teague

From working in a record shop, to directing entire record labels, Dave Cronen has done it all. His Motto, “The harder I work, the luckier I get” will echo through our minds and hearts, as Dave begins his next chapter in life, Post-ACM.

Dave Cronen

Why are you leaving our community at ACM and what has your time here taught you?

I’ve been at ACM for four years; I think it’s time to move on and try and work on an idea that blends academia and the music industry, to give new entrance to the industry, more opportunities and support, especially mentorship. This will hopefully start later on this year and I sincerely hope to have a connection still with ACM and hopefully help some of the students who are entering the industry with the beginning of their journey.

Ironically, my time here has taught me how to run a business! I wasn’t really doing that well before, which is why I probably came into higher education. It’s made me have a better overview of the industry and things like blogs and websites like Music Business Worldwide and CMU, I didn’t really go anywhere near. I wasn’t really that active with the MMF either. I’ve also learnt a lot from my colleagues, fellow lecturers like Patrick, Rachel and Matt Russell - Previous lecturers as well: Mike McNally was a big inspiration to me. I’ve learnt a lot from the students as well; the way they approach things, the music that they’re listening to and everything In general really. I’ve learnt a lot about my career and about myself as well.

You're known for your emphasis on the importance of grassroots venues, small businesses and entrepreneurs in the industry; so we ask you, as the new music industry, how should we be asking people to treat us in 2021 and beyond?

The simple answer to that is to be treated on an equal basis and on the level playing field so that people aren’t judging you. I don’t like the way in the industry and sometimes in academia as well, when people look down on other people. My mantra while working at ACM has always been that I don’t teach students - it’s always been that I’ve worked with students: we’re colleagues together. I think that’s something that can be taken forward to the music industry.

One bit of advice, is that students know a lot more than they think they know when they’re put into an industry environment. Remember that, when you’re networking or attending MIDEM or The Great Escape, there’s a very good chance that you know more about the industry than some of the people that you’re talking to - so take confidence and hope from that.

Many of us know you for where you are now in your career, but how and when did it all start for you?

I left school in 1984 and I went straight into working at a record shop in Portsmouth for three years, which was the best fun of my life. We worked in a really cool record store and I got to learn a lot about music - and everything else! Fortunately, in 1987, Rough Trade came along and offered me a job doing telesales. I moved about a little bit for a while; I was meant to move to Norwich, I moved to the Midlands, then, as I worked my way up, I moved down to London to the Collier Street branch of Rough Trade, where from ‘87 through to ‘89 I became Key Accounts Manager and Sales Manager - I was the director of Rough Trade when it went bust in 1991. I left Rough Trade in ‘92 or ‘93 and started to do international distribution and licensing. I worked over in Brussels for a couple of years before moving back to the UK, where I worked for Grand Royal with The Beastie Boys. I worked in London, LA and New York for the band and travelled with them a lot on their Hello Nasty tour. When that came to and end I ran the label for them as well, then in 2003, I started my own management company called Trust management, which ran up until I started working at ACM in late 2017.

What made you make the transition to becoming an artist manager? Did you get it right first time?

It was actually on the advice of Mike D from The Beastie Boys when I stopped working at Grand Royal. He recommended that I go into management because every time we had a label meeting, I took the side of the band more than the label, so he said it was a natural path for me. I took that bit of advice onboard and thought it was sound advice.

No. I didn’t get it right thirteen years later, let alone the first time. Like everyone, I made mistakes; worked with some great bands, worked with some bands that it didn’t really work out for but I learnt from it. I had a lot of success, worked hard, travelled a lot and got to meet amazing people all around the world - but it was the hunger to work hard and learn all the time that drove me on the management side.

The first band I managed, I managed for a year and it didn’t really go anywhere - but very soon, we got an Ivor Novello Award winner artist, called Ian Archer, who’d just won the Ivor for Snow Patrol, which is when our management company started to get on people’s radar.

We all know you as Dave Cronen, our beloved Mentor, Colleague and Friend, But what are some of the other roles you have held in the industry over the years? Is there a favourite?

Behind the counter at the record shop is definitely one of the greatest roles I’ve had - refusing to sell Lionel Ritchie albums to people was good.

Label manager for Grand Royal was really good fun. I was the international manager for a company called PIAS in Brussels and I did a lot of licensing around the world for that which I really enjoyed.

I’ve really enjoyed management too. Working at Rough Trade was also amazing because we were having number one singles and albums: I was a cocky 21/22 year old at the time, going into war trying to get 100,000 records shipped for a KLF single.

I’ve been very fortunate to have many roles and I’ve enjoyed them all but at some point, when you stop learning, you just want to move on and learn something else.

What was it like managing Johnny Marr? Did your working relationship with him influence your love of the Manchester Band era in any sense?

I always liked the ‘Manc’ scene, even before I was working with Johnny. It was great managing Johnny. We were friends for a long time and then, unfortunately, his (then) current manager got diagnosed with a terminal illness. His name was Joe Moss. Joe was the guy who inspired Johnny to go and knock on Morrissey's door to start The Smiths up, so Joe was a legend, so to work with him up until his death was an honour. It was a privilege to work with him.

Working with Johnny after Joe's death was an honour too - it was hard work but it was really good fun. I think we achieved a lot. We had a couple of top ten albums, travelled the world… Johnny wrote a biography (Set The Boy Free) that I worked with him on; we had to do the press and promo for it all around the world. I learnt a lot from Johnny. Some of my ideas made it through, though, I’ve always said that I represent artists rather than manage them, so I never really went to Johnny with many ideas but the ones that I did: we did a Record Store Day cover of Depeche modes - I Feel You which was my idea, the live album Adrenalin Baby was my idea… many, many, many years ago I planted the seed of doing a biography which eventually came together when I was working with him. I also persuaded Johnny to do the Queen Is Dead Box-set, which was the first time that unreleased Smiths material had come together. That was done on a run in December 2016.

I’ve always loved Manchester bands. Anything on Factory Records… some more obscure ones as well. We used to work with the Inspiral Carpets, New Fast Automatic Daffodils… we nearly signed Doves to Grand Royal, and Doves are one of my favourite bands of all time.

With an impressive career, spanning several decades, yet always remaining relevant, what is something you have noticed that always remains a constant key to success, across the ever-changing landscape that is the Music Industry?

Hard work.

A really good work ethic. Focusing. Have fun - but focus all the time. You see that with a lot of musicians. I used to divide musicians into two sides: one being the people who were there for the rock and roll and the ego… the other side, we used to call them ‘Lifers’... where, someone like Johnny, someone like Tim Wheeler from Ash, Ian Archer… when they get up in the morning, as soon as they’re up, they’re doing something musical; whether they’re writing a song or producing, or working on an idea - and it’s having that business ethic and work ethic of sticking to it.

That’s the one consistent I’ve seen across the years and I think it’s a really important thing.

I say this a lot, but the mantra “the harder I work, the luckier I get”, really rings true in my own career and in a lot of peoples careers.

What's next for you post-ACM?

I’m managing again. So, I’m managing Wesley Gonzalez, who’s signed to Moshi Moshi Records, I’m managing Mush, who are signed to Memphis Industries - and I’ve just recently started, with my partner Claire, managing a band called The Bug Club from Welsh-Wales in Cardiff, who are signed to Bingo Records.

So, I’m managing three bands - but the main thing is the mentoring company that I’m trying to set up, which will be called The Joe Moss Agency, as part of Joes Legacy. As I said, he was the guy who persuaded Johnny to knock on Morrissey's door - and he managed The Smiths for most of their turbulent career. So the company is in honour of him, really - and it’s to mentor young managers coming through to the industry.

The reason I mentioned Joe in it is because I don’t want it to be ‘London-centric’; I want to mentor people from all over the country.

The Joe Moss Agency is something I’ll be launching hopefully around September time.

On behalf of everyone at ACM and Metropolis Blue, we all will sincerely miss having you around. The energy, wisdom, and humour you bring to any situation always captivates, motivates, and keeps us on track when things get rough. To all of us, is there anything you'd like to say, as an ending note?

I’ve loved it.

I’ll be working with Met-Blue people up until the end of the academic year and I love that.

Some people dip in and out, some people are there week-in-week-out - and I love that. I think that Metropolis Blue is a really, really great tool for ACM to have. On my request, Kainne has gracefully allowed me to continue with Met-Blue until the end of the year - because I think we’ve got something really special going here. We’ve got a functional record label, where we’ve got two releases out plenty more on the way. We’ve got engagement teams, students having weekly meetings, talking about marketing and branding, A&R and everything that comes with it - and I love that and I’m proud to be a part of that.

We’ve had a few attempts of Metropolis Blue and at first we didn’t get it right - but now, I think we’ve really got it right. I think Jamie Hayes is key to this because he’s held it all together. He’s extremely diligent and his communication is excellent.

I’d like to say thank you to all the students. The students have kept me here at ACM over the past four years. The interaction with them: the ones that I teach on the business pathway, the ones that I’ve met from other pathways through Metropolis Blue, networking events or through tutorials - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. People don’t realise how inspired I’ve been from the students, so I just want to make that clear.

Anyone who gets to read this, whether it’s Kainne (who I’ve got a lot of respect for and who has always looked after me for the four years that I’ve been here), my colleagues, lecturers and to all the students alike, I can’t thank them all enough for everything that they’ve done to support me.

I got dumped into my first three-hour lecture, with no preparation in January 2017 and I’ve come on a lot, to the point where I’ve been able to do lectures in front of 250 students in the Electric Theatre. I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve had to try and teach myself how to be a good lecturer - and I think I have been a good lecturer. I think I could have been a lot better if it hadn’t been for COVID - but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.

Photos Include: On the phone taking bookings at Grand Royale (middle left), Dave's press passes from his career (bottom left) and Dave on his first day at Virgin Records (bottom right)

We at the Newsletter, Metropolis Blue, and the Entirety of the ACM Student Community, would like to thank Dave, for all of his relentless efforts during the past few years.

Every Lecture, every tutorial, every piece of advice given, every lesson learned and every joke cracked - it all adds up to an absolutely irreplaceable and invaluable experience in knowing Dave. We all sincerely hope that this is the end of the chapter, not the book - and that we’ll all encounter Dave throughout our careers in future. We all truly will stand on the shoulders of this giant, as we move out of these uncertain times and pioneer the new music industry

We wish you the very best of luck Dave! Thank you for everything!

Metropolis Blue Communication

Metropolis Blue is ACMs student-run record label. Our aim is to expand over the next academic year, with teams to support artists we’re working with.

We’re also looking for more student artists, producers, graphic designers, photographers, social media experts, A&R’s, managers and session musicians to join our roster. If you think you fit the bill we’d love to get to know you here:

An update from the Metropolis Blue Campus leads

April has been an exciting month for us over at Metropolis Blue. We’ve successfully released the Alyssa Palmer Single “Break Another Heart” - and we are well under-way with plans for numerous diverse and edgy future releases!

You can find out more about Alyssa in our “Getting To Know Alyssa Palmer” interview feature further down the newsletter.

Our A&R team has been working relentlessly hard to ensure that the creative visions of our artists are met - our goal always being to ensure that we enable our artists’ ideas and creative vision to become a reality.

Our Quality Control Team has sent out a total of 36 track-tailored artist feedback reports since its inception in February, and we are always taking on new submissions!

To submit your release-ready tracks, please send them to jhayes@acm.ac.uk

You can also email us to become involved as an A&R and be a member of a release team!

We at Metropolis Blue would like to say an additional and sincere thank you to our Co-ordinator Dave Cronen for all of the hard work and insight he has injected into our label since relaunching. His support and influence has been key to our functionality and we are forever grateful for all of the expertise he has provided us with. Thank you, Dave!

Alyssa Palmer Release

We got to know the queen of Diva-Pop Alyssa Palmer following the sparkling debut of her first single 'Break Another Heart'

‘I want it to be a bop, I want people to be able to dance, I want to make sure that people are having a good time’

Alyssa Palmer explains when asked about her vision for her sparkling debut single ‘Break Another Heart’ which launched into the world on the 8th of April. The track is written in anticipation of the return of energising club nights aiming to excite her fans and lift spirits through the wait.

Despite her Diva Pop persona and bouncy musical style Palmer stands apart from the crowd with her deep and meaningful lyricism. ‘I don't just want my music to be just meaningless bops. I want bops that people can emotionally connect with’ teasing us with insight to her second single already, she depicts the story of overcoming bullying as she herself was bullied for wanting to pursue a career in music.

Her music delves deeper into personal topics including anxiety and losing a loved one. Striving to convey messages in a way which is optimistic, allowing her to adopt a ‘big sister’ role to her audience, providing an outlet for healing in a comforting and happy way. She quotes a myriad of influences which have led her to this point, her sound influenced by the pop melodies of Mabel, Raye and Khalani and Ella May but her style of lyricism brought to life with the help of Bastille ‘I’ve queued up numerous times at 5am in the morning to see them front row because I just love the way they write their music - it may not be my style but I want convey something like that and put out a good message’.

Palmer dreams of touring the world with no boundaries, as she regularly fangirls in the front row at concerts after queuing for hours, daydreaming of one day taking centre stage. Regardless of the size of the crowd, connection is something she wants to champion and when she performs, her goal is for her fans to leave the venue feeling like they've truly resonated with her. She explains that her career aspiration is to be able to support herself purely from her artistry and not have to worry about getting a ‘proper job’ - proving to all her haters that this is what she was destined for.

‘Break Another Heart’ came into being a long time before it was pitched to Metropolis Blue, and the concept was born in her student accommodation before the first lockdown of 2020. Her talented roommate OGM; a producer, helped Palmer knit together the melodies and vocals that bless us today. However, It wasn't all plain sailing, as the original recording of the song was lost just as soon as the track was accepted at MetBlue. Undisturbed by this Palmer re-recorded the song making changes and polishing the track to the flawless fiery anthem we hear today.

You can listen to the track here:

Palmer closed off her interview with us by showing her appreciation to Metropolis Blue and the team who have helped her to prepare for her Debut. ‘The team behind me are absolutely amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world’ she adds in appreciation to Metropolis Blue: ‘I think it's an amazing collective of students you get to meet and work with and I’m very appreciative of that'.

Go show some love and support for Alyssa over on her social media pages - she's an artist you’re going to want to keep your eyes on!

April's Student Council Representative Interview with Paulo Camaddo

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm Paulo, a second year music business student, senior rep and I run a student events project called Network n' Chill.

Tell us more about your career ambitions and what you’ve got going on alongside your studies

You never know, but I want Network n' Chill to be an events company that will allow me to earn money and live out of music. I would also like to provide financial support to artists, friends and people who have helped me along the way.

Alongside my studies, I run Network n’ Chill and manage 3 artist: Ruby Robinson, Morgane Matteuzzi and Sound Junkeyz.

Why did you join the student council and what does it mean to you?

I joined the student council because I wanted to meet new people and know what was going on in ACM. I also wanted to know more about the other pathways and their realities. Every student voice deserves to be listened to, heard and taken into consideration. I think it's an important role that the council should do and strive for. To me that is very important"

The Student Council would like to encourage you to reach out to the ACM Safeguarding team if you have a concern for yourself or that of someone else accociated with ACM.

Starting Well - A look into Safeguarding Lead Chris East's Wellbeing blog

There are moments in life when plans don’t go quite how we envisioned them, a few things get in the way or we have to press the pause button for one reason or another.

That doesn’t mean you have to completely stop…

If we look back at our lives we can see that most of our perceived setbacks have actually been accelerations on a path we never knew we needed. By remodelling our thinking regarding the journey we’re set on, we can capture these moments by meditating on what was learnt, then re-envision them not as bumps in the road but as an unplanned stop to stock up on resources, learn new lessons and check the map before continuing on our journey.

If we just stop at every stumbling block or set back, what have we gained?

It’s at these times like these that we learn our greatest lessons. It takes a sense of purpose to enable us to progress.

Even small things like getting up at a suitable time in the morning and starting your day well is so much more than just improving your mental health, it also benefits your productivity, social skills and provides opportunities that you probably didn’t perceive that you would ever be offered.

Planning something for the day gives you purpose, waiting for someone else to do something for you will only delay potential.

If you haven’t got anything planned for today, why not?

For more information check out the following links:

Wellbeing
Student Showcase - 'Running' by Jake Goodrum

Jake Goodrum is an insanely talented artist and producer making waves with his individual Pop-Rock tunes. He isn't one to be confined to just the one lane and loves genre hopping - having played and practiced the guitar for 10 years, nothing is off limits.

Turtle Tempo Blog describe him as having 'a sound completely of his own', whether he's making modern day emo-tinged bangers, feel good anthems or pop singalongs, it's all Jake Goodrum and it was probably written at 2am, as he admits all his best ideas flourish in the small hours of the morning.

Whether you like Pop, Rock or Hip-Hop we guarantee you will like something Jake has made.

His latest single 'Running' is an addicting and completely unique blend of Hip-Hop and Rock with a dash of Pop for good measure. All these genres are effortlessly woven together with Jakes signature Goodrum touch he's known and loved for.

You can listen to the track here:

'Running' his most successful single to date tells the story of struggling with creativity in lockdown'

'I wrote Running about struggling with creativity in lockdown. when you're on your own it can be hard to focus and for a lot of 2020 I found it hard to get any ideas out for new songs, which for me is the best way I can express myself. When I realised that, it came really naturally and I just wrote exactly how I was feeling. It's one of my favourite songs I've done yet because it combines everything I'm listening to at the moment. It was also mastered by Metropolis, who did a killer job.

You can go and show some love for Jake and his music over on his social media:

Jake Goodrum

We would love to feature as many Student Releases as possible so please get in touch for the chance to be featured in next month's Student Showcase:

content@acm.ac.uk

Spotify Playlist

Interested in what other musical talent we have here at ACM? Check out the THIS IS ACM playlist on Spotify, Showcasing the best of ACM Birmingham, Guildford and London's Student Music:

Would you like to have your new release reviewed or featured?

We are aiming to review several new releases every month! These will be non-biased and honest reviews aiming to be constructive, and critical whilst also celebrating the talent ACM has to offer and giving you the opportunity to promote to a wider audience.

If you’re interested, please send a link to your track and a short bio to the email below and we’ll get back to you!

content@acm.ac.uk

Logo By Gina Ardines

The next issue of The Student Newsletter will be available on the 28th of May!

We really appreciate your feedback, let us know what you think! and if you have an ideas or would like to be featured get in touch at:

content@acm.ac.uk

Or let us know through the google form attached:

Thank you so much for reading! - The Student Council Newsletter Team

Student Newsletter

Written and Edited by: Olivia McQuillan