News Piece
Kanye West banned from entering the UK resulting in Wireless festival being cancelled.
Festival goers have been left distraught after hearing the news that the entire Wireless festival has been cancelled due to the banning of Kanye West from the UK.
Kanye West, legally known as Ye, has been under scrutiny for the last few years after many outbursts of controversial behaviour. Most noticeably his antisemitic comments. This has resulted in the UK home office revoking Ye’s visa.
These reasons listed and many more are all what have added up to Ye being banned from the UK and Wireless festival being cancelled. According to an article on the BBC, the main factor is the home office intervened to revoke his travel authorisation, ruling that his presence was “not conductive to the public good”.
Once hearing the news of Ye’s potential banning from the UK, the promoter of Wireless Festival said Ye has a “legal right to come into the country and perform” ITV.
Since his banning from the UK, Ye has offered to meet with the British Jewish community. Ye said “I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with the members of the Jewish community in the UK in person, to listen. I know words aren’t enough – I must show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here. With Love.” SKY. Phil Rosenburg, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews stated “the body would be willing to meet West, but only if he agreed not to play the Wireless Festival” SKY.
Ye’s banning from the UK are a result of his racist and antisemitic comments. A BBC article states: “In February last year, West started selling swastika T-shirts. Prompting the commerce platform Shopify to take down his web store”. This was followed by the release of the song “Heil Hitler” a few months after this incident.
The British government stated they “stand by the Jewish community” hence them deciding to ban Ye from the UK.
Opinion Piece
Wireless Festival cancelled following Kanye West’s ban from entering the UK.
Is it possible to separate the art from the artist?
On the 7th of April of this year, Wireless Festival was cancelled following the UK government’s decision to revoke Kanye West’s visa.
Kanye West, (who was supposed to be headlining all three days of Wireless Festival this year) is a hugely controversial figure. There was huge backlash over wireless booking him in the first place, with several major sponsors like PayPal (the festivals payment partner), Diago (owner of alcohol brands like Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan) and most noticeably: Pepsi (the festivals main sponsor since 2015) withdrawing from the festival (INDEPENDANT).
Instead of finding a replacement headliner, the festival organisers specifically Melvin Benn (managing director at Festival Republic) decided to stand by Kanye West despite massive backlash over his antisemitic remarks and the loss of all these major sponsors. This decision stemmed from a desire to offer a “second chance” to Kanye west (BBC), even though he has seemingly had many chances prior to this most recent interview.
Kanye west is no doubt and incredible and influential artist. With eye watering 77 million monthly listeners (SPOTIFY), 24 Grammy wins (76 nominations) (GRAMMY) and many more awards. This is alongside his sheer longevity, releasing his debut studio album “The College Dropout” back in 2004 continuing to release music to this day while still pulling in impressive numbers.
I am of the opinion that art and the artist are two separate things. I believe that just because an artist has done wrong, doesn’t mean that their art should be disregarded. Take Micheal Jackson for example. To this day, Jackson is still arguably one of the most popular artists in the world, even though he has been accused of some very serious allegations. This is in no way saying that I agree with either: Kanye West’s actions or the things Micheal Jackson has been accused. What I am saying is their music is some of the best and most influential music in modern times, meaning people should still be able to listen to and enjoy it, regardless of who it was made by.
On the other hand, I understand the struggle when it comes to separating the art from the artist because it is a hard thing to do, especially when they have done such extreme things. Ultimately, I agree with Kanye West being dropped from Wireless Festival. This is because although he is a great artist, I believe he needs to be taught that actions like this are unacceptable, regardless of whether they are linked to his mental health or not. On the other hand, I do not agree with the cancellation of the entire festival. I feel this way because firstly, the people who had bought their tickets are no doubt going to feel let down even though they will be receiving a full refund. Secondly, Wireless could have easily found another headliner, equally as big and good as Kanye West. The fact it was cancelled because the organisers decided to stand by Kanye West is somewhat admirable though.
Feature Piece. (Rolling Stone)
SI MCGRATH: LOCATION RECORDING AND AUDIO ENTHUSIAST
The free lance producer turned lecturer sheds light on how he got to where he is today.
Earlier this month I sat down with Si McGrath. To get some insight into what he does within the world of production and what made him decide to go into teaching. Si was very happy to talk to me and gave some great insight into his practise. Ranging from where he started his production journey, playing gigs and songwriting in the mid 90’s and realising the 4 track tape machine they were using to record their songs to send off to record labels wasn’t quite cutting it quality wise, so Si decided he needed to make ‘better mixes’. This is what informed Si’s decision to get into studios. This is what lead Si to start studying at Leeds Conservatoire, the want to learn how to produce. This is around the same time Si and his business partner started their production company “Hightone Productions”.
Si’s life seemed to moving fast at this point, as he stated when he started the process of his degree he was in a relatively new relationship. But by the time he had finished his degree, he was married with a child.
Although graduating from Leeds Conservatoire, Si expressed the fact that he did most of his ‘learning’ once he had left university. This is as a result of just getting involved and doing things, learning on the job. Around this time the production company was the busiest side of Si’s work. This was until they started getting bands in the studio and they became the “Cool studio” around leeds which is something to hold on to and make the most of as much as you can because this “Changes constantly”, as Si stated.
I asked Si what his most notable project is and the project he is most proud of. Si then went on to tell me all about him doing the sound design and music for the stadium tours for west life and busted. Westlife and Busted are two bands in their own right. Westlife are an Irish boyband and Busted a pop punk trio. The work Si carried out involved creating tracks and music applying to whatever would be shown on the stage on this world tour. This also included creating foley sounds for these videos. Si talks about in the Westlife cartoon of them walking through Chicago, one of their ‘avatars’, steps in a puddle. And in order to create a sound for this, Si filled a paint tray with water and recorded himself stepping in it.
The project Si said he is most proud of is some work he did with a theatre company. Doing compositions and sound design for big tours. These were taken abroad and played at festivals around Europe. This is where Si got a lot of opportunity to experiment when it came to found sound and field recording. As a result of all the research he put into this area, he ended up using this as material for what he teachers here at Leeds Conservatoire.
I then decided to shift the narrative of this interview onto Si’s reasoning for getting into teaching. He started teaching at the Conservatoire in 2011 (completing his masters degree in 2016). This is as a result of being asked to come in and do talks about how him and his parter go about running their recording studio in Leeds. Ranging from the business side of running a studio, the musical aspect and how Si and his business partner got into it in the first place. They would also have groups of students from the Conservatoire come and visit the studio to see in person what it is they did there and how they set up ect. This resulted in Si finding jobs being advertised for studio tutors at the Conservatoire, he got the job and began teaching 1 or 2 groups a week.
At this same time, Si ended up moving out of his studio in Leeds as he was working with theatres doing a lot of sound and lighting and his business partner was working with another company outside the studio which resulted in neither of them being there very much. This is after them being at the studio for about 10 years and deciding to go their own separate ways. Si then moved all of his things from the studio into Eiger Studios, in Beeston. As soon as Si moved everything in there, things started to take off as a recording studio again, resulting in Si’s production work shooting up again, getting loads of clients in that studio and a lot more theatre work too. Si goes on to talk about the incredibly heavy work load he was taking on at this time. Working with around 9 different bands at the time, sometimes working 12 hour days for 18 days straight!
I was very impressed with Si’s track record in the world of production. Gaining some very valuable insight into what it takes to create a career for yourself in this industry. A word of advice Si left me with was: Say yes to everything.
Album Review. (The Guardian)
LAUSSE THE CAT: The Mocking Stars album review – imaginative story telling accompanied by detailed and complex musical ideas.
This whimsical and eccentric album takes you on a journey of a lonely cat. Following on from his first album ‘The Girl, the Cat and the Tree’. Narrated by the London born rapper, this creates a really interesting juxtaposition, blending child like story telling with hard hitting drums and bass, gorgeous harmony, profound lyrics. Expertly produced, primarily by Lausse The Cat himself. I would describe Lausse’s delivery as more spoken word than rap, while sometimes delivering his words in a more melodic way. There is dialogue sprinkled throughout this album, often taking a comedic approach.
A stand out track for me has to be “I.D.W.G.A.J” (standing for ‘I don’t wanna get a job’). The instrumental is lead by a soft and plucky synth lead, accompanied by saxophone, clarinet, strings and swung drums. I really enjoy the fact that this isn’t just rap music, it is a very thought out composition. Including found sounds of things like bird sounds, definitive sections within the song. The main reason I am drawn to this song is the fact Lausse is talking about a very relatable thought of not wanting to work jobs. At one point in the song a lyric says ‘I wanna die, olive skin, beer belly with a smile on my face, chin chin to life, bye bye to grey skies above me’. This is a statement of wanting to enjoy a fruitful and relatively simple life – something I think we can all agree on in some way. Another section of the song I like it the ‘chorus’ if you can even call it that as this song has an almost random feel when it comes to the arrangement of the sections. Lausse (accompanied by stacks of gang vocals) Shouts ‘I DON’T WANNA GET A JOB… YAAAA’. again, this brings me to the joining of the comedic element and seriousness of the message he is getting across in this track. This section is closely followed by a trumpet leading into an absolutely epic horn section. which if im honest, gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it – the harmony is just so beautiful. He then goes back into the ‘I DON’T WANNA GET A JOB’ section, further implementing his feelings on the matter.
Another stand out song for me is ‘Keep On Walking’. A mellow track starting with him setting a scene of him at a party. Accompanied by expressive keys and a lovely sax line. The drums and bass are a huge factor in this song. At times the groove is really intricate but for the most part it is very straight forward, this makes those intricate parts really stand out. The lyrics in the chorus also hit hard for me. The line ‘so I keep on walking just go, ain’t no place made for me, I’ll stop when I find a home, till then I’ll bop on my feet’
Si McGrath Interview:
