Inside Local Music
Thursdays 5pm to 6pm - Meet and listen to local musicians - Presented by Simon Neild
Inside Local Music was created to offer local musicians the chance to chat about and showcase their work on the radio. We concentrated on original artists, offering maximum exposure of their work.
Simon Neild (the producer and presenter) setup a small recording studio with the specific intention of giving these artists the opportunity to record a set for his radio show.
The studio was reasonably well equipped with a 16-track digital desk linked to Cubase. It had an array of good microphones allowing for the different recording requirements. The last 12 years has seen him record around 1000 tunes for broadcast
Once the tracks had been recorded, he interviewed the artists in his studio then packaged their tunes and chat for broadcast. All the recordings were given to the artists free of charge.
A lot of the musicians he worked with have had little or no experience of recording, so a session like this was extremely helpful to them, offering the studio experience original musicians need.
So that is the back story … And then Covid hit….
A long period of playing archive material and doing Zoom interviews with artists kept the slot alive but lacked the energy and appeal of the previous year’s shows and was certainly not award winning!
Whilst wondering how to breathe life back into the show, Simon noticed that one of the artists, Paul Simmons, with whom he had worked with on several occasions was doing walking tours of several very scenic areas around our town. He called Paul and booked himself on the tour.
Armed with just a recorder, they set off for a lovely walk in the freedom of nature, a trip which took them through meadows, historic woodlands past streams and ancient trees. As they went round Paul chatted about the walk, his music and how he had been coping with life during the lock-down.
Thus, with a new energy, ‘Outside Local Music’ was born!
Simon set about contacting lots of local artists and asking if they would like to take him on their favourite walk and chat about their lives, their music, and the beautiful scenery we would experience on the walk
On return he would create the show, using the remarkably interesting conversations with the artists and their music.
Audiences enjoy listening to people chatting about interesting topics and love all the background sounds that are recorded as we walk through woodlands, along beaches and cliff tops. The beauty and peacefulness of being outdoors, made the artists open up, thus producing some brilliant and highly informative discussions about their music, life experiences, creative journey, and all-important mental health issues… how they had dealt with Covid and how they were going to recover their careers.
During covid, many local artists were completely neglected when it came to financial support and a lot were forced to move on to different things. They loved the fact that a radio station was taking a keen interest in supporting them!
Show Sponsorship
Inside Local Music is sponsored by AMATA, The Academy of Music & Theatre Arts at Falmouth University. Please click on the logo to read more about them.
