With an ambition to showcase the best of Carlisle’s hidden music scene, twenty-year-old Adam Evans has started up his own YouTube channel featuring local artists playing in unique environments.
“So far I’ve recorded an acoustic guitarist in Bitts Park, a singer next to the famous curse stone and even bagpipes under a railway bridge,” Adam, from Milton Keynes, said. “I want to promote all sorts of music in Carlisle and show the depth of talent the city has.”
Whilst studying towards a degree in performing arts, Adam has discovered a whole host of musical talent at the Brampton Road campus. “I know so many young performers that want to get themselves noticed. By setting up my own YouTube channel I can hopefully allow people to discover them as future recording artists.”
The project, called Live Amateur Music Everywhere, or LAME, will make up the final grade of Adam’s degree, which he finishes in May. Drawing from the experience of his course, including seven stage performances and an original theatre piece, Adam says he can learn so much from putting his study into practice: “I’m quite a confident singer and I started playing guitar last year. Meeting other artists has inspired me to try different styles and my own ability is improving as a result.”
Adam’s aim is for his videos to go viral and start making money so he can pay the performers for featuring on his channel. “There are not a lot of opportunities to get paid as a live performer in Carlisle. I’ve watched videos on YouTube with artists only half as good as the ones I’ve filmed and they have millions of subscribers. There are a lot of people on YouTube that have made successful careers for themselves and have even become famous. There is certainly money to be made.
“If things go well I may look into a YouTube investors scheme and possibly roll it out in the wider area,” he added.
Recruiting a Film and TV student to help produce the content, Adam’s videos are unique in the sense the music is stripped down to its bare bones and placed in unusual natural surroundings. “All you need is a passion and an instrument so you can literally take the music anywhere. Recording in a studio gives a better sound quality but I like the idea of how raw music can be, especially when you strip it back, it becomes subtle. There are so many beautiful places in Carlisle and it’s a great place to film.
“You get people walking past, we don’t do retakes so it’s really natural. You can hear cars and birds going past, it adds character to the performances and the videos.”
In just a few months when Adam graduates from the University of Cumbria, he plans to move back to his hometown of Milton Keynes and look into a career in set design, an area he specialised in whilst studying.
CAMPUS 