It's not every day that you get to interview someone who has a direct impact on the future of Irish music. Even though we have been blessed in recent years with the talent coming out of this country, giving the next generation a platform is the most important thing. Barry Lennon, who is the director of the Irish Youth Music Awards, is one of those people giving the next generation a place to grow.
Feature Photo by Roisin Blade
In terms of his background in the music industry he seems like the perfect candidate for such a project. "Well I ran The Richter Collective Label and managed bands like Enemies, so I worked a lot in that area. I would have been coming into it with that skill set as well having a background in community television. I was also involved in doing the Parlour TV series as well as the Community of Independents and was the series producer on both of them."
The project itself was set up nine years ago by Youth Work Ireland, which is a national youth organisation (one of the biggest in Ireland) as well as being a registered charity. The Irish Youth Music Awards will take place on Saturday April 16th in the Aviva Stadium. Before the big event, though, there are a number of smaller regional events that take place. Barry explained to me how it is set up - "There's 15 different regions and at each of the regional events the remit is that they perform at least one original song." From there, as he explained, it's decided by the students. "After they perform they all vote in private to select one representing act and one representing song for their region." So the performer who is selected might have to sing someone else's songs at the Aviva, so really it's all about being able to adapt the song to your style.
That's not to stay that the event is all about the performer, it encompasses all aspects of the music industry. From the lights, the sound, and everything else in between it's a real group effort. "There's kind of a whole ecosystem, so it isn't just the guy on the stage or the girl on the stage, there's a whole army of people there backing them up." So those behind the scenes also get their chance to represent their region at the event. The aim is to give young people the skills to progress and thrive in the industry, whether that's onstage in front of thousands of fans are being the one who is in charge of booking tours overseas.
There will also be a number of different workshops on the day as well. "We have the likes of Dan Finnegan from Paper Trails, Alan Cullivan who's managing And So I Watch From Afar and The Thrills. We also have James Byrne who's performed with Villagers and SOAK as well as managing Girl Band." Those are just some of the names for the management panel, because of their partnerships with BIMM and IMRO they also have some of the best in the business presenting workshops in bass, guitar , vocals etc. These include the likes of bass tutor Paul Moore, multi-instrumentalist Tully Gunawardhana and vocalist Shelley Buckspan.
Since it's the ninth year of the event they are always looking for ways to improve the experience for young people. Barry explained what the focus was for this year. "We're significantly increasing our educational hub this year to make it bigger, because we felt that was a really important space to provide for the young people." He is a man who knows the importance of music education as well and when I asked him about what he thought of having music as a core subject in primary schools he came up with a well reasoned answer. "I think it's definitely important, but I think the other elements that are in it such as stage management, production management, graphic design and photography are important as well." He even coined a term for it - "I think nearly a music, creative industry course would be brilliant for young people"
In terms of the overall winners, or as they are known 'the recipients', according to Barry they will get "a full back line from Music Maker, which is two guitar amps, a bass amp and a drum kit." That's only the beginning though. "As well as that they will be recording an album in Sun Studios in Temple Bar," which Barry said is really all about "bringing young people into a professional environment and letting them record in a professional studio." Again it includes the whole team, so it's not just the performer who gets to experience this studio environment. The winners will also get their own press campaign for the album and will have it distributed nationally.
At the end of the day though it's not all about the winners. The event is really about giving young people the skills and confidence to progress in the music industry. As Barry perfectly put it "If they create a group and go on after that, for me that is the success of the event. You're seeing brothers and sisters of those who took part in it a few years ago now taking part this year. So there is a cycle to it, the success is really the longevity of what comes after and seeing what acts have learned from it, that's really the big success of the event for us."
The Irish Youth Music Awards take place on Saturday April 16th at the Aviva Stadium. Tickets are priced at €20 including booking fee. For more information about the event you can visit their website here.
Photo Credits: Ruth Medjber