Round House Project

Millennial S.S. Round House

M illenial Sound System is a multicultural, genre-bending Sound System. Born from an international collaboration between the Roundhouse, B•Mundo Label and Circo Voador in Rio de janeiro, this group of young creatives in all walks of life bonded over their mutual love of music and combined their diverse influences from UK, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Jamaica. The result is a refreshing mix of original compositions, freestyle rap, vocal improv and video art, encompassing hip hop, electro, R’n’B, classical, grime and trap.

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To begin with, my first thoughts looking back to this project reassures me that developing connections and taking care of these relationships can bring me in contact with different artists, places, venues, also opening doors to new experiences, projects to develop myself and my career. Topic that I have been reflecting every now and again after some classes and workshops at Guildhall, such as with the artist Paula Varjack,

I wouldn't even have known about the Round House Sound System project if it wasn't by an indication and credibility of Ali Godfrey, Generation Arts director. When I finished my Drama training in 2016, Ali linked me with Johnson Etienne (Spider), lead artist tutor and producer at The Round House. On my first meeting with Spider, I was talking about that I was exploring and producing music on my own, so he invited me to be part of this project that he was starting out called Sound System, which he said that this project would be great for my development and gain more skills in producing music.

I was excited to start a new project in an iconic historic building where Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and much more artists have performed before, and it would be a place where I would be meeting knew emerging artists and creating new work. I didn't know exactly what would happen through this project at the beginning. But I was with a mindset of being open to learn anything I could. I was there to elevate my game.

We were around 14 people among singers, rappers and producers that would be meeting every Thursdays, from 6pm to 9pm every week for 3 months. On our first session, we were asked to bring a song that we made, or a song that we like from any artist. On the following week, I brought a song that I wanted to produce a very similar style at that time, (Middle - DJ Snake). However, the rest of the group where showing whether songs that they had produced, sang or rapped on it. They were on top of their game whilst I was still developing my skills of music production. I felt inspired for the huge opportunity to learn with them, fame feeling I have at Guildhall being part of a mixed artists.

I also was uncomfortable sometimes through the sessions for not being on the same level as they were, because I also wanted to offer my art to feel part of the group as this was a collaboration project. I wanted to have my touch on the musics we were creating, instead of being there just watching and learning how to produce or DJ. So through the sessions I started to bring some ideas in what I had more experience according to the context of the situation, such as playing guitar or persecution in some songs, which felt good as I was having an input in the work.

We got an invitation to play at the Sound Clash festival at the end of the project in a month time, and as we were a Sound system, we would not have guitars and percussion on the stage. As I was exploring and listening to Rap around those months, (J.Cole - No role moldez), but actually paying attention on the lyrics, instead of just the beat as I have been all my life. I stared developing my interests for rapping watching the rappers performing and having fun in round house, also hanging out with Reme, (Rapper from my class, Guildhall colleague). I have been reflecting that the environment that I am surrounded with definitely shapes me, which is a good thing to learn and absolve new things, on the same note I think I also have to be careful to don't lose focus depending on the situation.

In my experience, a performance is a good opportunity to push myself to learn and develop new skills with a growth mindset. This was an opportunity to perform and reflect on the live experience as part of my overall growth. I saw the opportunity to rap for the first time in a session when we were producing a song and the singer and the rapper of my group already had recorded their parts, so there was a verse that someone could do something, and I pushed myself to do it. I tested a Brazilian rap on it that I liked. Which was hard as I didn't had any experience rapping. The main thing I learned that day was feeling the beat of the track, so I could change the tempo of the verse I had in my mind to fit with the tempo of song we were making. I was getting there, but I had a lot of work to do still. Feeling the beat, trusting myself, letting the flow of the tune take the words, quality of voice, delivery and intention behind the words, plus managing the adrenaline in the moment for being in front of younger artists that have years in the game. It was a new world for me. A new challenge, a new game that was interesting, as I saw that some artists such as Kendrick Lamar or Akala carry in their songs ideas to change and open peoples minds. Which is an inspiration for me to keep going and inspire others too be a better version of themselves.

Around those times I was constantly researching videos on YouTube for advises, tips to learn and develop techniques, such as to improve my writing, flow, punch lines and delivery. Also at Round House and Guildhall I would ask opinions and tips for the rappers, and listening to artists, reading their lyrics together to understand more how they work and do it, such as Eminem, which he is a insane master with his word play.

There are many things I take forward from this project;

- Being aware and taking care of my connections, as you never know which path they can take you to.

- Always coming into a space with an open mind that you can learn anything by observing others practices. Such as rapping in this case.

- Being flexible to apply different approaches and techniques that I have learned in workshops at Guildhall, such as to help with writing block, Rick gave an exercise to open your eyes and look at the first thing you see, and write the first things that comes to mind. Exercises like that helped me to keep going and be more comfortable and confident in this project.

- Expressing my ideas and visions for the group as vocalizing them, they can sparkle other minds to create and perhaps take the project to a more interesting path. I need to work more in expressing my ideas, as I might hold them back, if someone in the group already got strong visions in what the group should do.

What was special from this project is that being in a place observing who you are surrounded with, absolving their skills and taking opportunities to try something new, can lead you to go through some interesting experiences.

Perhaps with a mindset in the process, as taking risks as an experiment should help me to improve in not wasting time thinking if you should take a risk or not. But overall, I am really happy to have the opportunity and I look forward to go through similar situations to grow and learn.

Round House

Exchanging emails

End of a session

Through the sessions, usually we would split in to smaller groups to create new songs. In this video we were showing another group the music we made on that session. This session in particular, was where I first gave a go into rap on a session. A verse from a Brazilian group called "Racionais Mcs - Estilo cachorro ". In those weeks I had in my mind what Detta said in a class at GuildHall, "You guys need to get comfortable showing unfinished work'' practicing showing unfinished work at Guildhall also helped to build my confidence and to try new things.

As this was my first time, I wasn't comfortable rapping in front of the rappers, even more showing it to all of them. However in the other side I was intrigued to hear the response they would have, they enjoyed and gave me some tips, made me feel good to try more. Using my voice was something that I always was curious to explore, but never stepped up to do it, and it was really exciting and vulnerable to be trying something new.

I started to feel more comfortable with that verse through the sessions, and used it to make my way into rap.

Jayo a rapper, was giving me tips and he got interested into Brazilian rap when heard me that day I first tried. The result of that was then in a gig I would do this verse and Jayo would say,"ok ok Leo, let me try something here then.." and he would rap a couple of lines from my verse that I was teaching him. This reminds me of Paulo Freire, the exchanging of information between teacher and student, no glass is empty.

My first gig Rapping - Made in Brazil (Bar/Restaurant)

"Racionais Mc's - Estilo Cachorro" verse.

I remember on this gig, I would be rapping my verse behind my group whilst they were already performing, to see if I didn't forget the lines, which I didn't for the Portuguese verse. but on the week of this gig, I started to write my own verse in English, and I kept changing words and switching lines to see how it would work better. Gave it ago in this gig, and before I tried I said, "ok let me try something in English then.." I forgot most of the few lines I had. I took it in a casual way laughing with my group, and passed the mic... I guess the public didn't really realize it was that bad.. well, I hope they didn't.

The best teacher is to get things wrong. that day ashamed of myself in one side and proud on the other. I learned that even though I wrote my verse, I need a time to practice and experiment with it in different occasions before a gig to make it a solid piece. Adrenaline can make simple things get complex.

Secound gig - Locked Tavern Pub

Mixing arts is something that I love doing, and it has becoming more clear as being in class with a mixed group of arts at Guildhall. When I was on the tube going to a rehearsal, listening to the track I had to perform, I had the idea to create a scene whilst waiting for the drop for my verse. The intro of the song reminded me as a ring tone, giving me the idea that someone was calling me, so I was asking my group or the audience..

" Who is it calling me? What? Who?

....Who am I ?!

beat drops

Here is the Brazilian, ain't no normal civilian,

I got ideas like Bob Dylan,

"Don't criticize what you don't understand"

My accent, super fluorescent... ... "

These were my first bars. I was writing these whilst I was at work in Superdry, just for practice.. which I ended up performing. I was also writing something more challenging and meaningful in English and Portuguese. But it wasn't finished yet, and was too hard for me to perform, which I used for a Guildhall immersive Festival performance.

Locked Tavern Pub

Racionais Brazilian verse, and Jayo trying it too.

Rising SoundClash

This was the end goal for Millennial Sound. Spider got us to open the festival on a proper stage, with everything we wanted, which was really exciting. Unfortunately our set was too short and we had to cut a lot of our performances resulting in me not performing, there were a song which the rappers were free styling but I didn't had the courage to do it, although I really wanted. I wasn't ready for that. Which gave me more gas to perform in the others gigs later. Instead, I helped to get the public high in the vibe dancing and playing around on stage. A feed back we had from Spider was that our set was missing more chill-out songs, to have some nice contrasting moments, which gives more dynamic, colors and flavors to our set. We were learning lessons, applying and adapting as we were performing.

Millennial Sound doesn't play together anymore, as after the main gigs everyone started to get busy with other stuff. I want to bring them back one day, perhaps bringing different artists into it, or create a new band/sound system.

I am interested to see which path each of the artists of Millennial Sound are going to take, some I see through social media that still doing projects. Well, I got to be aware of them and who knows in the future make some collaborations.

Why Eminem is one of the most impressive lyricists ever?