Gateshead's Glasshouse ICM celebrates up and coming musicians with Summer Studios
The residency programme allows up and coming musicians to hone their skills, and use the centre's facilities and expertise
Gateshead's The Glasshouse International Centre for Music are at the centre of a project to give up and coming musicians a headstart in their careers.
The Summer Studios Residency allows emerging musicians, producers, rappers and bands to make music and connections over 6 days - with access to the Glasshouse's facilities, studios and expertise.
Rianne is the producer for the Artist Development Programme at the Glasshouse, and explains they hope the Residency will encourage acts from outside the North East to come to the region - and return when they have finished;
"I think it's really great to have yes, the North East artists here, and be able to have that space and time on their doorstep,
"But also to bring other artists in for the North East artists to connect with - hopefully then, to create a network across the UK
"Just to give them that space and time to connect with their peers, which I think is so crucial.
"For those artists to be able also come from outside the region - they're also making connections here
"So say if they want to come back and gig - we can pass them on to Cobalt, who do a brilliant Fresh night, the Cluny, and the Grove."
Rianne explains they want to show off the best of the North East, and it is so important to have projects like this outside of London;
"How that works in terms of being outside of London - is all these artists come together and they are quite often from different musical worlds,
"So they get to create their own community for that week,
"There is so much talent here in the North East, we have an incredible music scene,
"We have people doing pop, doing punk, we've got folk - we've got every kind of genre you can think of, and it's such a beautiful melting pot of sounds and genres and just individuals creating their own music and style."
Cherry Seraph - the solo alt-pop electronic project of queer producer, artist and multi-instrumentalist Soph Russell - is one of the artists who's been involved in this year's residency.
"The Cherry project is a solo one, so everything I do from the creation of the sound, production, instruments, vocals and live performances - it's all me,
"I'm influenced by lots of artists such as FKA Twigs, Art School Girlfriend, Siouxie and the Banshees, it's really varied!
"I got involved with the Glasshouse Summer Studios project was someone sharing the residency with me on socials, sometimes I don't catch everything in time on socials, but this time I did - and I'm really really glad that I did!"
"Summer studios is a 6 day residency where you can have a space to really dedicate some time to the art you're working on, whatever genre it is, whatever your vibe is,
"So for example you could use the time on the residency as a space solely to rehearse, or create demos, produce, write... it's really broad what you can do with that time.
"It's really somewhere you can tailor yourself, and your workflow to what you'd like to do in that time.
"One thing that's really cool is you also get to meet other artists, which is forever something which I think is really invaluable
"Because sometimes it is hard to make those connections depending on where you are in the UK, and because there is often a disparity between the music scene in the North and the South of the UK."
Soph tells us it's not just about making the music, but that community as well:
"Basically making some really great friends, who are like minded, and also artists
"These people I've come across who kind of span different genres, these people were also under-represented within the industry,
"So it felt very empowering to be inside that space with them.
"I think when you're doing gigs and you're always out and about you don't necessarily get to create such meaningful connections so it's been great to have that time to do that - to cultivate something that's been really lovely and beneficial in lots of ways."
You can find out more about Cherry Seraph online.
You can watch the videos of the artists involved via the Glasshouse International Centre For Music's YouTube Channel, and find out more about the artists online.