Urban Music – A foot on the escalator

Arts organisations around the country are increasingly involved in promoting new artists  including those working in urban music. Richard Brown looks at how The Junction is working with one musician from the east of England.
Escalator is Arts Council England Easts talent-development plan for the region. It encompasses theatre, dance, arts and new technology, visual arts, new writing, and classical jazz, rock, pop, club and folk music. The last of these areas  rock, pop, club and folk music  is project managed by The Junction, a performing arts venue in Cambridge well known for its club and gig nights.

The styles of music that Escalator for Music is working with largely reflect the population of the eastern region, and this means that mostly the styles are guitar-orientated rock and indie bands. However, an increasing number of interesting and diverse artists are being talent scouted and brought to the attention of the Escalator listening panel. One such artist is Kenny M.

Kenny Ms day/night job is as a professional commercial party DJ for a large pub chain. Kenny has recently started making music with a local producer Pete Bear  aka the Zombieboy. Their music is probably best described as Urban though others have dubbed it Chav Punk. It uses drum n bass style bass lines and beats with a kind of The Streets-esque vocal. They are popular with car magazines (Max Power, etc.) and reflect the kind of car culture with which many young working-class people in the eastern region are preoccupied.

The duo goes under the name of zombieboynkennym. Their songs reflect the experiences of their target audience and are largely about sitting in cars smoking dope, cruising, getting off with girls, binge drinking and dissing wannabe gangsters  its a kind of sex and drugs and rock n roll for the noughties. Kenny is an interesting artist who is trying to find a voice for himself and those around him. He is expressing his thoughts on the times and environment in which he and thousands of others are living. Kenny tells it as it is, warts and all, but, through his eyes, a sense of the spirit of the times is evoked that shows a positive side to a sub-section of society frequently misrepresented in the mainstream media.

The difficulty for artists in Kennys position is that they need to raise awareness of themselves to the music industry, but they are not usually in a financial position to be able to afford to develop their product  or pay for the services of a specialist music publicist who would work to generate a buzz through the media. Escalator is providing Kenny with regular mentoring sessions and his mentors have just helped him to prepare an application for funding under the Arts Councils Grants for the Arts scheme. If all goes to plan, Kenny will finish his recording and have a self-release CD out soon. The aim of this release is not to sell in shops, but to generate interest from the wider music industry with a view to re-releasing it with a significant record company budget to break into the mainstream.

Kenny could have a bright future in the music business, but he needs a leg-up to get up the first few rungs of a very long ladder. With the help of Escalator mentors and Arts Council funding we hope that he will soon be on his way to bigger and better things.

Richard Brown is Head of Music at The Junction CDC.
t: 01223 578000; e: [email protected]