Edinburgh College Serves Up a Musical Feast
An inspiring Scottish musician has become the first act to be signed to a new Edinburgh based record label set up at the college he graduated from.
Callum Easter, who graduated from Edinburgh College with an HND in Sound Production and is one part of the popular Edinburgh five-piece The Stagger Rats is set to release his first solo single ‘Honey Money Bees’ in the New Year through Record label Feast. Callum aka Fridgemaster, whose unique sound merges elements of dub, psych and minimal house, said: -“I’m excited about launching my first single through Feast. It has been a very creative process and I’ve learned a lot. Having time to develop my music whilst learning production techniques has been really rewarding and I am very grateful for the support and advice that has been given to me during my time at College and since my involvement with Feast. My new single is based around the concept of money and power and the feeling of disillusionment that generally goes along with these kinds of issues in the world today.
“It was originally intended to be a folk song when I wrote it playing acoustic guitar but after broadening my palette sonically at Edinburgh College it developed into something more heavy, more fitting to the lyrics and what the song is trying to portray. For any aspiring artists or engineers out there I would definitely recommend studying at Edinburgh College and working with Feast. The resources are second to none and it is a great place to develop skills and gain experience needed from a realistic working perspective.”
Feast was created by three lecturers at Edinburgh College in late 2010 through an initiative called Bright Ideas and was set up as a sustainable business from an educational perspective – giving past and present students invaluable experience for future employment opportunities.
Those on the label and at the college have access to its vibrant creative centre known as Cre:8 which has outstanding facilities for students and musicians, sound engineers and TV Producers and has already been used to host London punk rock band The King Blues amongst others.
Richard Harrison one of the founders of Feast and a Course Leader in HND Sound Production at Edinburgh College, said: “Cre:8 gives students the opportunity to gain vital practical experience within real parameters and work with ex-students, who are now producers and an army of local talent which gives them scope to understand the processes involved in real time production. Past and present students can learn the tricks of the trade in sound production which made global talent like Dr Dre, Brian Eno and Mark Ronson famous as the recording studios are filled out with cutting edge technology including audio consoles from Solid State Logic and Toft. Solida State Logic was recently used by in-demand mixer and producer Bruno Ellingham to remix Massive Attack’s seminal Blue Lines album and Toft is the baby of Malcolm Toft who is the recording engineer behind the Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ and David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’.
“This gives you an indication of the type of high end technology we have and who knows how far some of how our students go if they put in the blood, sweat and tears – we could see the next Dr Dre or Mark Ronson.”
The modern fully equipped auditorium allows performance space for gigs, films and other events. Through this Edinburgh College project, Feast brings together managers, musicians, bands, engineers and even the filming students inline with education to create original music and videos.
Students at Edinburgh College benefit from study and performance opportunities unrivalled in the sector. Previous students have performed live at the O2 Arena and collaborated in a concert with Jon Lord at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh while recent students have attended master classes in music and sound production with the producer of Oasis.
All students are assisted to find employment through a partnership with ‘Music for Scotland’ or provided with the opportunity to start their own business in a college commercial incubator unit.
Edinburgh College was formed as a result of merger between Edinburgh’s Telford College, Jewel & Esk College and Stevenson College Edinburgh. As a £60m business, it is one of the biggest FE colleges in Scotland and accommodates more than 35,000 students – the biggest student body in Edinburgh.
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