Gemma Edwards has been DJing around the South of the UK for a number of years now. Describing herself as a professional emo, she is heavily influenced by the alternative music of the early 2000’s and 2010s, and shares this with her audiences at club nights and festivals around the UK. Her insights into the industry as a female DJ online and at physical events are on one level shocking, hearing of some experiences she’s encountered, but on another level, unfortunately not all totally surprising. Gemma is very open with her experiences and stands by the importance of sharing these, both good and bad, to help encourage positive change to not only the music world, but filtering over to general society as a whole.
When I started this project at the beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure how it would go. I wasn’t even sure I’d get anyone interested in being involved, but it’s been such a positive thing for me to do and I’ve loved it all, not only being able to do more of what I love, but it’s enabled me to meet and chat with some incredible humans who have some really important things to say. This week, I’m very pleased to share my conversation with Sam and Rach from Memory Palace, a band hailing from South Wales and Bristol.
At the end of February I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Amy, a truly beautiful soul, from Hampshire. Having lived and worked as a musician in London and now back in Gosport, we discuss the differences between the two places for musicians, and what may be necessary to encourage young women to go into different roles within the music industry.
If you haven’t already heard of Caity Baser, she’s Southampton’s own pop princess who went viral on TikTok during the pandemic and became a bit of an online sensation with her great vocals, contagious energy and funny videos.
For my second conversation of this project, I spoke with Josie Haskins, a young singer and songwriter from Hampshire in the midst of the startup of her solo music career. We spoke about the importance and power of community, and what beauty there is in those relationships with family and friends that have helped her to become the artist that she is today.
