The BIMM Album Launch 2017
It’s possibly the most exciting part of the year for us here at BIMM. Last week students and staff from all the BIMM colleges came together at Notting Hill Arts Club in London to celebrate the launch of the six BIMM 2017 albums.
The BIMM Album is now in its 15th year and has become a mammoth undertaking and shows a true potential of our students. Every BIMM college curates an album, and all the tracks are recorded in professional studios in and around the respective cities.
Each college had approximately 200 applications, so the students who made it onto the albums should be incredibly proud of their achievements. We spoke to each BIMM college to ask them how this journey has been for them:
Andy Maclure, BIMM Brighton (Creative Performance Coordinator):
“We had a hard job deciding which bands to work with – we were helped by some fantastic industry partners from record labels and publishers, such as Atlantic and Reverb, and management companies such as Closer and Republic Of Music. This year we were able to record more bands than ever and students were also involved in the production process.”
Stephen D’Arcy, BIMM Dublin (Events & Guests):
“We had an incredible amount of amazing demo submissions for this year’s BIMM album, and the result is an excellent album of 10 tracks. Our students spent long days in the studio, working with our producers to make the songs as good as they can be and it comes across in the recordings – it’s a hugely rewarding process to be sure.”
Christoph Borchers BIMM Berlin (Events & Guests):
“The album was recorded at the famous Trixx Studios in the heart of Kreuzberg. Pete Smith (The Police / Stevie Wonder / Sheryl Crow) did the production and mixing, and it was mastered by Boe Larsen at MillFactory Studios Denmark. Being involved in the whole process of a high-level music production helps students to gain crucial studio experience, write better songs and most of all get a physical copy of their tracks.”
Mark Bowers, BIMM Bristol (Head of Music Industry & Artist Development):
“Each artist featured on the 2017 Bristol BIMM album has an authentic voice of their own, the mix of styles and genres here is incredible. It has been a pleasure working with each of them this year and creating music that really stands out in a world of mediocre bands.”
Leo Nicholas, BIMM London (Head of Industry & Liaison):
“We created a panel comprised of students and industry guests from Spotify, RCA and First Access Management to select our final track listing.”
Damian Morgan, BIMM Manchester (Head of Careers & Industry Liaison):
“This is the first year that BIMM Manchester has produced its own album independently. We feel it showcases the excellence of what BIMM Manchester has to offer and is representative of the diversity of Manchester’s music scene as a whole. We are very excited for people to hear BIMM Manchester’s’ 2017 album.”
At the BIMM Album launch party, one act represented each college and played to an audience of music industry personnel and BIMM colleagues. MOMAC, Corella, Maria Kelly, MIN T, Cameron Donald and Pearls were the acts chosen by a panel of industry professionals from each college. They’d all agonised over their decisions to create a capsule of what the six colleges have to offer and – indeed – all of the acts clearly proved why they’d been selected, impressing everyone at the launch with their wonderful performances.
