amanda's art award thingy ᵒᵒᵒᴼᵒᴼᴼᴼᴼ

hello! here's my art award stuff that I've done during my time with Punch Records and Capital Xtra!

[art-award-uwu]

This was.... fun.

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Reflection

My understanding in events has developed a lot. I was more used to going to shows of a completely different genre, and when I organised shows in college we did it differently still since all the artists were different as well. I now understand more how shows with more pop music work.

My creativity has definitely developed; I’ve got so many more ideas for shows, how to promote them, what can we do to make the shows stand out from other local ones. I’m looking forward to the future now for when I next plan an event.

I’m more confident when speaking in a group now. If I have an idea, or don’t agree with something I’ll let my team know, especially if it’s to do with something such as venues. I can also now answer emails in more of a professional manner, since I never really had to contact the venue myself and other people did when I was at college.

My plans for the next 6 months are to continue working on myself as an artist and to try and find more opportunities in the music industry, such as working/volunteering for companies like MyMusicTaste, a fan run organisation, who are actually bringing a group I like called Monsta X to London in June!

I really enjoyed my time working on this project, and I am extremely grateful that I was given the opportunity to do so.

I’ll post some videos from the course in another post! But for now, here’s a picture from my bootcamp day!

[art-award-uwu]

Sharing Skills

Though I’m not a particularly skilful person, there are some things that I am actually alright at.

Apart from being a musician myself and writing music, I’m fluent in Spanish- and I would love to pass this on since it’s the second most spoken language in the world. Since I grew up speaking the language at home because my parents are from Chile and Uruguay, it really helped me become able to understand other languages like Portuguese and Italian and helped me pick up other languages easier even if they’re completely different, like Korean. Though I can’t speak those languages perfectly, I’m able to have correct pronunciation and learn stuff faster rather than someone who grew up monolingual.

The thing I love most about this skill is that it helps me feel so much closer to my culture. Growing up in England, it’s pretty hard to find other Latinos so I always felt a bit disconnected from everyone. I grew up with Latino culture at home which I’m more comfortable around, but outside everything is completely different and I still get thrown off sometimes by the differences. So when I meet another Latino person or just someone who can speak Spanish, it’s great.

 I love feeling connected to where my family is from, I love being exposed to a whole new world of arts- music, shows, films, books. Though it’s not necessary to be able to understand the language to enjoy something like music, I feel like it helps because some things can be hard to translate into another language and something like lyrics can lose its impact if translated into English.

I already share this skill with a lot of people, anyone who’s willing to listen, really. I always teach my friends certain words that are commonly used in my parents’ home countries so they can understand what’s going on when I speak in Spanish with my family sometimes since it just feels a bit odd speaking to them in English. I just also love teaching people languages.

I don’t have a particular aim, but I would love to help people become more open to things from other cultures that they aren’t familiar with, and I definitely think that learning some of the language is the first step to that.

I’ll only need a few resources- some exercise sheets that my sister has from when she taught English as a second language in a university in Chile, I’d only have to switch the language around. Of course, I won’t be able to teach the entire language, but I’ll be able to teach people basic greetings and how to talk about themselves within an hour.

I’ll definitely need to plan out a bunch of things if I was doing a lesson; what things would be too difficult, too easy? What shall I do if someone is struggling a lot?

I don’t necessarily need a backup plan for those, apart from things being too easy/difficult. I shall just add other exercises of different levels and give them to people based on how they are doing. If someone is struggling more, I’ll definitely give them extra support and ensure that their peers are also there to give support and try to help the person feel less anxious about not understanding if they are feeling that way.

[art-award-uwu]

Arts Inspiration

I have so many arts inspirations; not just from particular artists but from a whole music scene. The European metal scene is THRIVING for small bands; bands like Annisokay, Eskimo Callboy and others are examples.

But the one band that truly inspires me is my favourite band, Motionless In White.

Left to right: Ryan Sitkowski (guitar), Vinny Mauro (drums), Chris Motionless (vocals), Ricky Horror (guitar), and Devin Sola who played bass but has sadly left the band.

They inspire me for a number of reasons; musically because for being a sort of new band, only forming in 2005, they’ve already made an impact on the industry and are influencing newer bands. They’ve also got pretty cool influences themselves- especially in their first album, there’s Danny Elfman influences! Not a lot of bands would use him as an influence, but I admire how Motionless In White aren’t afraid to go out and be different.

Another reason they inspire me is because they started off so small, they even played a show at their school! They continued to work hard to make the best music they can, not for fame and fans, but because it is their passion. In fact, they’ve actually written a song about their journey called 570 which was the first single released for their most recent album Graveyard Shift.

Chris became interested in music because of his grandfather, and he actually explains it more here in this interview where he got a tattoo in memory of his grandfather.

In another interview, when asked who do they look up to, Chris explains that he looks up to people who make a difference and says “People have power, they can go up on stage with a microphone and people will listen to what they say,” he especially mentions in this bit two bands, The Ghost Inside and Stick To Your Guns. I’m a fan of both bands, and I can definitely agree with Chris. In fact, all three bands use the pedestal that has been created for them to spread positive messages. Despite the way they look and the angry sounding music that they create, they’re genuinely nice people and care for their fans and about the art that they create. Chris also mentions in the interview that he is inspired by Bleeding Through who have been inspirational to him throughout his entire journey in music- and Motionless In White actually got to have the vocalist, Brandan Schiepatti, feature in their song If It’s Dead We’ll Kill It! He then lists other bands such as Slipknot and Cradle Of Filth, who did he not only tour with, but had the vocalist from Cradle Of Filth feature in one of their songs as well!

The entire band have worked so hard on everything, and it has taken a toll on some members. Joshua Balz, Angelo Parente and Devin Sola were all members but have chosen to part ways with the band due to the impact touring for almost non stop for so long as left them. Even though it’s sad that I wont see them on stage anymore, I and a huge majority of fans can agree that we’re thankful to have the music that they’ve left us with and that they’re putting their health first.

In summary, I loved revisiting old videos of them and seeing how young they were at first and how they wanted to do so much- and they have. They’ve achieved every single one of their goals, and I could not be any prouder of them. I am so happy to call them my most favourite band of all time.

[art-award-uwu]

My experience

On April 21st one of my favourite bands, Shields, had their album release show for their debut album Life In Exile- and I was SUPER excited! After releasing their second EP, Guilt, four years ago they FINALLY came out with new music and it’s so good!

It took place at Boston Music Room in London, which is the place I saw them last year in November for the second time. This show was my 5th time seeing them.

My ticket.

And here is the show poster!

I thought the show was amazing- not just because they’re one of my favourite bands, but because of how they put so much effort into every single song that they perform and even between the breaks they carry on.

I especially enjoyed how they literally got into the crowd- I was so sure that their guitarist, Sam, was about to kick me in the head.

As you can see, there was quite a lot of people at the show.

Let’s play a quick game of Where’s Amanda

Honestly, I would not change anything about going to this show. I loved everything; the support bands, the crowd, meeting Shields again and them being really happy to see me. They went out of their way to say hello and hug me and kept thanking me for the gifts that I made for them back in February when they opened up for Escape The Fate at Koko- which meant a lot to me that they still remember me.

I’d definitely recommend seeing Shields to anyone- if they’re into this kind of music. Or even if they’re not- it’ll be a new experience for them. I really believe that they’re the future of UK metalcore; they’re not generic like all these bands that are out nowadays. Anyone can listen to Shields and know that it’s them straight away.

This show has definitely inspired me to go to more shows, especially in this genre, and to travel around more for concerts and tours. There’s a feeling and atmosphere that you get when you go to these shows that I struggle to describe; it’s a feeling of togetherness and knowing that everyone in that room is there for the exact same reason- to enjoy good music. And knowing that there’s other people who connect to the lyrics as you do, it’s comforting. It helps you feel less alone and it gives you time where you can be free and just careless and happy, even if it’s just for a few hours.

[art-award-uwu]

Here’s what my friend thought of my review!

[art-award-uwu]

My experience

On April 21st one of my favourite bands, Shields, had their album release show for their debut album Life In Exile- and I was SUPER excited! After releasing their second EP, Guilt, four years ago they FINALLY came out with new music and it’s so good!

It took place at Boston Music Room in London, which is the place I saw them last year in November for the second time. This show was my 5th time seeing them.

My ticket.

And here is the show poster!

I thought the show was amazing- not just because they’re one of my favourite bands, but because of how they put so much effort into every single song that they perform and even between the breaks they carry on.

I especially enjoyed how they literally got into the crowd- I was so sure that their guitarist, Sam, was about to kick me in the head.

As you can see, there was quite a lot of people at the show.

Let’s play a quick game of Where’s Amanda

Honestly, I would not change anything about going to this show. I loved everything; the support bands, the crowd, meeting Shields again and them being really happy to see me. They went out of their way to say hello and hug me and kept thanking me for the gifts that I made for them back in February when they opened up for Escape The Fate at Koko- which meant a lot to me that they still remember me.

I’d definitely recommend seeing Shields to anyone- if they’re into this kind of music. Or even if they’re not- it’ll be a new experience for them. I really believe that they’re the future of UK metalcore; they’re not generic like all these bands that are out nowadays. Anyone can listen to Shields and know that it’s them straight away.

This show has definitely inspired me to go to more shows, especially in this genre, and to travel around more for concerts and tours. There’s a feeling and atmosphere that you get when you go to these shows that I struggle to describe; it’s a feeling of togetherness and knowing that everyone in that room is there for the exact same reason- to enjoy good music. And knowing that there’s other people who connect to the lyrics as you do, it’s comforting. It helps you feel less alone and it gives you time where you can be free and just careless and happy, even if it’s just for a few hours.

[art-award-uwu]

Events

I’m part of the events course, which I’m super happy about! I have experience in planning events so it’s awesome that I get to do it all over again.

I want to learn more in this course. Though I’ve done events before, they were mainly in a college setting or I was doing a different job within events. This time I’m working in stage management- which is totally my thing!

I’d love to gain any opportunities in the industry through doing this, whether it is performing or just sound engineering- it’s all good to me.

Here is a photo of us in the production team discussing plans for the event. We were talking about when people should go on and planned the layout; how many DJs and beatmakers are performing, whether we should have someone on straight away when doors open, e.t.c.