Studio Shpops:
SHPOPS was initially created in 2009 in Brussels in order to get young musicians and artists connected under various different projects. The idea of SHPOPS Projects is to promote young artists whilst also developing and promoting socially driven initiatives. The first project ‘Foreign Exchange’ was a compilation CD bringing together artists from across Europe in order to show peopl
e what they were all up to and to raise money for a Youth Empowerment and HIV Awareness programme which I was involved in in Uganda. (CD freely available at http://soundcloud.com/shpopsprojects/sets/foreign-exchange/)
Whilst in Uganda I set up some small music projects with young people in order to engage them in learning and to have them working together with positive goals rather than hanging around doing nothing, or worse, creating conflicts between themselves and the community around them. I asked groups of young people (both in and out of school) to write songs or to draw pictures which tackled issues that affecting the young in rural communities. The results were incredible and the kids got really involved in the projects both in a creative and educational light. The winning group was promised that their song would feature on the next SHPOPS CD and was also left with a guitar which was kindly donated to SHPOPS so that they could continue their writing and learn an instrument. They were able to perform live, for the first time, playing electric guitars for the first time and performing in front of quite a large crowd on the same stage as some of Uganda’s biggest artists. The word spread, their confidence grew and they have since been invited to play in local communities across Kamuli District singing in schools and community centres and spreading the messages which they sing about – HIV & AIDS Awareness, advice to young people, love songs, covers. I also had the opportunity to meet some great young up-and-coming hip hop artists in Kampala and artists across Uganda and am working on ways in which to expand the collaborations done with artists in Europe and the USA. We are now working on more concrete music projects focusing on educating young people and helping them engage with and tackle issues that they face in their communities which may be taboo or which other youths might benefit from learning about. This project will falls under SHPOPS’s ‘Conscious Youth’ programme. Focus points are to:
- Engage with young people in a creative manner & enable them to think in more creative ways.
- Provide access to recording facilities for those involved in SHPOPS.
- Identify existing projects which use music, dance and drama as central methods of sensitization and education.
- Promote these existing project through documenting their work in the form of films, CDs and spreading the word online.
- Link existing projects to each other to strengthen their networks and capacity.
- Focus on working with young people. 78% of Uganda’s population is under 25. They are not sitting in positions of power and their voices are often side-lined. They are dynamic, creative and intelligent and need to be engaged with. Previous work includes:
-Working in both primary and secondary schools with a variety of different groups. Recording the primary school music groups’ songs about issues affecting young Ugandans.
-Recording The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) Jinja Drama Group who are an HIV positive choir who use their experiences to sensitize rural communities through music, dance and drama.
-Recording & working with artists in Kamuli and Jinja districts and in Kampala.
-Working with artists in rural communities who have little or no access to instruments, musical education or recording facilities.
- Conscious Youth Uganda album documenting the work of artists and projects.
- Radio interviews at SMART FM promoting the project.
- Connections with a studio & venue in Jinja offering free recording, video recordings for youtube and performance opportunities of artists working with SHPOPS.
- Contributing to recording for Cyno MC’s (End of the Weak 2010 Uganda Champion) album which will raise funds for his heart treatment. Cyno was diagnosed with a life threatening heart condition for which he and friends across the world fundraised to send him for essential life-saving surgery in Germany. His on going treatment remains expensive and an album would help him to raise more funds and be promoted as an artist. The future for SHPOPS? We are currently starting the process of setting up the Conscious Youth side of things as a registered charity and would like to dedicate more time and effort to SHPOPS and its development. It is important that SHPOPS remains dynamic and flexible and keeps promoting artists. However, it is also essential that the programmes we start on the ground are needed and not just implemented for the sake of it. As part of Masters research I will be visiting various projects across the UK and Uganda learning from how best music can benefit communities and young people. It will then be clearer whether SHPOPS needs to set-up its own Uganda office offering a space for young people to record, practice and learn more about music and the issues they face as young people in Uganda. We would like to work through existing organizations where possible as there is already some great work taking place, it just needs structuring, guidance and support. We are setting up a mobile-studio which will be used in Europe and in Uganda to record artists, projects and promote collaboration between artists under SHPOPS. The compilation CDs won’t stop, they’ll get more interesting and diverse – focusing on different things. Some might be creative remix type CDs, others based on social problems such as homelessness, poverty, corruption, some might focus on a certain region of the world…the possibilities are endless and we’re exploring them. We will run workshops with children and adults tackling these issues through music and offering our view on how music can help to build and strengthen relationships. We’re working on getting a short film together about our work both here and in Uganda. SHPOPS will aim to promote these artists and projects in a non-profit format with money both helping involved projects and the development of STUDIO SHPOPS . The idea really is to learn from and promote existing projects and fill a gap where one exists. CDs of recordings are offered freely to the artists involved for them to use how they choose (souvenir, promotion, fundraising) – we offer the recording and the CD, it is up to them to choose how to take it forward. Conscious Youth aims to work ethically. When working with TASO Drama Group we understood that the recording of the project meant a day out of paid work sensitizing communities and we decided to offer a donation which would match the fee they would earn on a sensitization visit – much needed money for food, water and extra medical needs of those living positively. The items which we sell are sourced from projects supporting women’s groups to provide for their families, the T-Shirts were hand-painted and screens made by artists who are out of work and need the support. Items made by artists in Uganda are bought straight from the source supporting those individuals – the more you buy, the more they get and the stronger our partnerships become. In turn, projects support these artists too enabling them to keep working at what they love and trying new things. In the future we see ourselves setting up training programmes in the studios which we partner with. These would teach essential computing skills and music production skills to young people and those trained would become trainers themselves teaching the next groups to come through. Fundraising partnerships exist through linking schools and music groups in the developed world with those in the developing world. There’s a lot of potential here and we’re learning how to tap into it. Website: www.studioshpops.com
Music: www.soundcloud.com/studioshpops
Contact: [email protected]
Facebook: Studio Shpops
