As I write this I'm sitting in my hotel room in Madrid trying to make sense of the events of the last two weeks - it seems like simultaneously a really long time and a really short time, which I guess it is. Term 1 of the Red Bull Music Academy is over and in another week the second lot of 30 participants will come through for a similar experience to the one I just had. These are a few words from me to try to explain what it's like to be a part of this Academy.
I grew used to the daily ritual of the Academy but it is a gruelling one. Every day we would meet in at the lobby at 10:30 to go by coach to the venue - the Matadero Madrid - a cultural facility built in the ruins of an old slaughter house. The heavy plastic curtains are still in there and some walls are covered with some indeterminable and slightly worrying grime but despite this it has a really nice feel with lots of open space. The music area of the Matadero was Maria Langarita and Victor Navarro, I had a conversation with them about their love of bright colours and this love was really apparent in the design of the space.
The hub of the music area of the matadero is the food hall. The staff and participants all eat together for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it is during this time that some of the most interesting meetings and conversations happen. After breakfast there is a 12PM lecture, followed by lunch and then a 3PM lecture. After this, and before the evenings nightly schedule of gigs across different parts of Madrid, there is time for the participants to collaborate in the studios. There are 9 "bedroom" studios as well as a fully equipped large recording studio. Scattered around the facilities are various vintage synthesisers and drum machines as well as a grand piano, a mellotron, a vibraphone and drums and electric pianos.
This part of the Academy is where the studio staff wander around for those who have questions or need help with equipment. Inevitably everyone does at some point. It was surprising to me how little the big studio got used but it was really indicative of the general production style of this term's participants. This year the participants are made up of musicians and music producers from 96 different countries around the World. The common thread among us was an interest in electronic music and a drive to make music that is our own but other than that everone's background and interests varied enormously. The collaborations are a really good way to encourage participants and staff to work together and learn from each other - "how did you do that?" probably reached the thousands in its play count.
Every participant performed at one of the events and an effort was made to match the participants' material to the event style. I made my debut as Boy Crush at the Tormenta Tropical Evening in a grand marble building that sounded terrible but looked amazing. On the same night were El Guincho and the legendary Tom Ze but the most memorable in some ways was Senor Coconut who played his music exclusively from an old modified Game Boy and who stripped naked and danced in the crowd for about half an hour. Another participant opened for Mf Doom which is something quite remarkable to have on one's CV. Many of the gigs are available to be streamed online and it was always so cool to get out into the city and see the people you hang around with every day do the things that they all do so well - one girl is named Eleni and she is tiny, even smaller than my mum, but her stage name is Giganta which it turns out is super appropriate as her music is so powerful and she is so commanding that after the gig it was hard to see her in the same way as before.
For me the main highlight of the Academy was the lectures - I found every one to be really inciteful and inspirational and somehow reassuring. Even if I didn't particular enjoy the music outside of the lecture room I would enjoy so much their thoughts and attitudes and really appreciated the different perspectives offered on music making. The lectures take the form of a question and answer session on a couch with questions from the participants at the end. The interviewers were from the Academy staff and were without exception well researched and conducted. Many of the lecturers had careers that spanned decades so it was a real challenge to give the attention that was due to each time period but this also was well achieved. There was an incredible sound system on which to listen to the selected music and it was really gratifying to hear the same simple truths repeated by so many different styles of lecturer.
Over the two weeks we gradually learnt about each other and about our different tastes and countries and backgrounds. Being from New Zealand was very novelty. I had the chance to speak to Tom Ze and he said that there was a lot of curiosity in Brazil about New Zealand and that it seems like a very mysterious place. Facebook is going off right now with participant and staff friend requests - lots of "BFFs for lyfe" and lots of valuable contacts made. It was amazing for me to be a part of something like this and I am so super grateful and feel super lucky that I had the chance to have this experience.
The Red Bull Muisc Academy website has so many pictures and videos for interested parties to check out as well as archives of lectures and radio shows by some participants as well as daily diaries from different perspectives - I really recommend getting on there and looking around.
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