Bryton here on the morning of day 5 at Project Wild Bootcamp! It has been a busy, but incredible past few days! Not only have we been learning from the informative keynotes each day, we have also been flexing our creative muscles both on and off the stage.
The Study
The sessions have all been insightful and have opened our eyes to some of the facets of our business that we can focus and improve on. The first session that stood out to us the live performance session with Tamara Beatty. There are so many small tweaks and tools that can transform our live performance. Even as simple as slightly rearranging our songs to help build the momentum of the song in a live setting can take our show to the next level. I am beyond excited to explore to work with Tamara in our one on one sessions to see how Annika and I can take our vocals and performance to new heights.
Annika working with Tamara Beatty during here keynote on vocal health and performance.
Another impactful session that will bring exponential value for Leaving Thomas was the grant writing session held by Laurie Brown. As an independent artist it is so important to know where there may be additional funding for projects that we are working on. This additional funding would relieve many of the pressures and stresses of how we are going to make the financial part of our project work. Understanding what FACTOR, AFA and other grant funding organizations are looking for when we submit our grant proposals was enlightening to know and will certainly help us be more successful when applying for grants for Leaving Thomas.
The Stage
When we haven’t been in the “classroom” we have been either on stage or in the studio. It has been great to be on stage with the incredible house band and showcase our live performance ins front of all of our peers. The feedback that we received last night after our showcase was very insightful. Getting some styling guidance from Kate Matthews has put us at ease because she has helped us strategize how to put on stage and off stage outfits together that complement each other, without being too “matchy”.
The feedback that we received from James Murdoch was helpful as well. Thinking about trying to make eye contact with each individual in the crowd at least once during a performance will go a long way in making our audience feel more apart of each performance.
Finally, our feedback from Tamara Beatty was great as well. Thinking about ways that we can take our vocal performance to the next level and separate ourselves even more in the industry is something that we are always looking to do. Tamara suggested trying to make the vocal production of our songs sound a little more like a duo, versus Annika singing lead, and myself singing background. This is something that we started working on recently with our latest single “Kiss About It”, so I am very much looking forward to hearing Tamara’s thoughts on how we can elevate that part of our performance in our one on one session with her this afternoon.
Performing during our showcase.
The Studio
Last but not least, each evening we have been working with our wonderful prouder Brad Simons, his Nimbus engineer assistant, Jackson, and our cowriter, Jeremy Grey, to produce our song, “That Place is You”. It has been a fun experience to work with creatives that we have never worked with before. Our main objective when working on this track has been to experiment and stretch ourselves creatively to make something unique. Seeing as it is a collaboration, we felt that trying something new that none of us have ever sonically tried before would be the best way to get as much out of the exercise as we could.
Writing the song prior to camp with Jeremy, working on pre production with Brad, recording with the session players, and piecing the song together with vocal arrangements has been so collaborative and fun! We will be putting the finishing touches on this song this evening and we are all excited to hear each other’s songs at the listening party tomorrow night!
Recording Acoustic guitar in the bathroom of our makeshift studio!
Repeat
I think I can speak for each artist here at bootcamp, that each day and every day has brought so much value to each and every one of us. The learning sessions, performances, and the production has provided a truly well rounded experience and an opportunity to grow as artists, performers and business owners. Annika and I are so thankful to have had this opportunity and are excited to see where this experience will take us after we leave bootcamp.
