CHARLIE CHAMBERS

Professionals Related to my Roles

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1. Nuno Carvalho - free lance worker who runs weekly gigs at my pub. He does this at multiple venues and does the sound at Ronnie Scotts.

We met (05-11-2025) 

Notes:

We met at O’niels on Wardour Street on Wednesday and discussed the life he leads as a free lance musician. His week is based around venue liaison when putting on events whether that be at the same venues or new ones. He explained ‘while new venues can be tricky when planning an event it is also crucial to communicate with regular venues to ensure different types of events are possible.’ We discussed the problems with using venues without visiting them and the problems they can lead to such as ‘lack of space or lack of equipment’. Marketing is also crucial in his role as you need an audience to put on a show. For example in the pub I work at he created posters to display around the pub and gets them sent to our social media for promo.

 

 

 

 

2.  Dayna Silva. - Marketing MGNT at my pub

 

After work on Saturday 16th November Dayna and I sat down to discuss marketing and media after we finished work. She is a part time social media content creator so I spoke to her about her experience and advise she has at using media to promote a product.

 

Main Points

• The target audience - she talked through how although there are paid methods of reaching an audience, certain hashtags and key words, especially on tie took, can trigger a connection with certain viewers based on their searches

• The Product - ‘consistency is key’ said Dayna as she stressed the importance of having a consistent social media precedes in relation to the product. If the time frame is approaching your channel should look visibly obvious in relation to what is about to be dropped.

• Time - Dayna also mentioned that the timing of certain posts is and can be interesting. In a morning people may be more inclined to read your posts whereas on an evening they just want to watch something given they may be more tired or are relaxing.​​

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It was an interesting conversation and it made me more confident when using social media   

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3.  Sunday Night Live Music Meetings

Every Sunday I manage a shift at the pub I work at in Soho, Dean ST where we have live music from 8-10. As the musician in the pub I run this shift to be there as a technician if anything goes wrong. I set pup the mixing desk and two speaker set up. I do a soundcheck with the artists who predominantly play with a guitar and vocal. I mix the sound applying basic EQ and compression to the instrument and voice and after months of doing this I have found a nice balance that works in the main bar area.

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I have started sitting down with the musicians after we close to talk to them about their craft and howe they survive as full time musicians in the current climate in the world. we discuss how they find work and how working freelance can have positives but a long list of risks and difficulties. 

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• Santiago 

A Spanish singer songwriter and a close friend of Nuno. We talked about his ability to use his multi lingual skills to his advantage. during his set we had multiple Spanish tourists in the pub. He started playing Spanish songs through the set and communicating to them between songs in Spanish. This is great crowd work and a perfect example of winning over an audience and keeping them involved. We discussed how playing covers can be hit and miss depending on the crowd but he stressed the importance of having confidence in yourself and thinking outside the box when trying to manipulate a crowd like speaking in a foreign language.

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• Molly ​

Molly Wishhart is a London born singer songwriter. She is a full time musician, plays weekly gigs and also does session songwriting and piano work. Her USP is her mixture of jazz and pop and phenomenal piano playing. She has a gorgeous voice that really tears the roof off and grabs the attention of every audience. From behind the bar I can see the level of attention the audience give her and she really captures the brilliance of live music. She has a great social media presence and she told me how consistency is important when an independent artist and constantly keeping on top of social media and having a constant posting presence is key to drive followers and attention.

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• Charlotte

Charlotte Campbell is also a London born singer songwriter and recently released a song called 'Everybody is leaving London' whilst also embarking on a UK tour. She played at the pub 2 months prior to this tour so we spoke about how she booked and approached an upcoming tour.

• She told me how performing constantly is vital. in between playing shows most nights, she also busked outside the millennium wheel to gain attention and prepare for the tour.

• she discussed the anxiety around going to other cities she is less known and trying to win a crowd over. she also spoke about the financial difficulties been an independent musician trying to make ends meet.

• she stressed the importance of collaboration and networking. she had a friend who would drive her around the UK slo she saved a significant amount of money there. she also has a friend who went with her who had been on tour before so had lots of advise on staying healthy between shows.

it was a really interesting interview with someone literally living as a real musician and a good insight of the logistics around living as a freelance worker. 

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References

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"What’s funny about it is the audience comes last in service to the audience" - Rick Rubin

R.Rubin (2023)

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Here Rick Rubin is referring to the musicians way of making music and how individuality is more important than catering solely to your audience. This is interesting as in most of the cases I found when interviewing the artists they claimed they focused on appealing to their audience as a priority. However it is also important to note that all three of the musicians I spoke to have their own unique aspects that support Rubins idea. For example, Charlotte could easily have turned her track 'Everybody's leaving London' into a full on pop song but she kept her folk elements as that's her stylistic choice. Similarly with my bands upcoming EP, I debated using programmed drums as it seems to becoming more popular in modern production, however I wanted our sound to reflect our style which leans towards bands such as Arctic Monkeys and Oasis who both use real acoustic drums. once again proving Rubins point that the audience comes last.

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A marketing aspect comes into Rubins idea also when considering the music is the product and the audience is the buyer. If you stay true to yourself you can market yourself as original and unique as possible whereas if you consider the buyers needs to much you end up losing originality within the product which in turn becomes something that's probably been already made.

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Quote

​"I was slaving over words for months ... it didn't have to be like that - we could be the heroes of our own stories" - Frank Turner

 

Frank Turners book 'Adventures in Songwriting' is a collection of some of his songs and the process of writing them and how the songs came about. In the first chapter he speaks about his first solo song after he just left a punk band called Million Dead and the changes in writing solo folk music compared to Punk music. The song titled 'The Real Damage' references a heavy night out Turner had with friends and how that story could be turned into a simple folk song. Much like the musicians I spoke to, writing from your experiences seems to be the common theme and we all relate to real life situations such as a hangover after a heavy night. Therefore, for Turner and all songwriters simply writing about real life experiences can connect with an audience without having to simply think about them in the songwriting process.  

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