Students shine at Syco songwriting camp
BIMM London recently collaborated with Syco Entertainment in a songwriting camp for twenty-one performance, production and songwriting students. The weekend-long event was the first time ever that Simon Cowell and Sony’s joint record label, talent agency, music production company and publishing house has collaborated with a third party institute such as BIMM.
Michelle Humphreys, Head of Artist Development and Events at BIMM London, helped implement the event in tandem with Music Business alumna Marissa Rodney, who interned at Syco through BIMM’s ongoing industry outreach scheme before starting a full-time position in the company’s A&R department.
The camp made use of BIMM London’s rehearsal and recording facilities and saw the students pen songs to-brief for some of Syco’s most prominent pop artists including Louis Tomlinson (One Direction), Dalton Harris (Winner of X Factor 2018), Courtney Hadwin (Winner of America’s Got Talent 2018) and Grace Davies (Runner up of X Factor 2017).
“The songwriting camp at BIMM completely surpassed our expectations.” Said Syco A&R team member Russell Hunt. “We were taken aback by the students’ talents and the dedication of the staff. A definite success.“
BIMM London Songwriting Programme Leader Ian Sillett was on-hand to assist the students with their collaborations and realise the full potential of their work.
“It was my privilege to help with student participation and oversee the creative process; listening and observing as the ideas developed from their beginnings, to getting the song tracked in the studio. Hearing the tracks afterwards made it all the more worthwhile to invest our time and resources into these amazing extra-curricular opportunities.”
In today’s mainstream pop industry, many hit songs are the product of multiple sources of creative input from songwriting through to production. It seemed appropriate then, that a key focus throughout the weekend was on the exchange of ideas among the young songwriters.
“It was a high pressure, high energy weekend and the students rose to the occasion with nothing but professionalism and enthusiasm.” Said BIMM London’s Head Of Songwriting Lisbee Stainton.
“Witnessing the calibre of work that they were able to produce in such a short space of time was very exciting and I’m sure it is something that staff and students alike at BIMM would love to repeat as a valuable experience for all.”
