WM Case Study
When WM first came with another young person he was very quiet, made no eye contact and although he contributed to the song his friend made, told him to delete his part as he didn’t think it was good.
I didn’t see him for months until I got a text from someone asking if there was space on the project and it turned out to be WM. He started to come on his own, and within weeks was coming regularly and always punctual. He wrote prolifically – mostly tales of ‘road life’, with quite negative and violent content. At first, he wasn’t open to feedback, but the more I found common ground with him the more he relaxed/opened up. I know some of his friends already, am familiar with where he lives and have been several times to the area in Jamaica where his family lives; that helped to open up conversation.
Gradually improvements in his mood/communication and curiosity about the wider music business started to show. He made more eye contact and asked more about how I was, what I do and talked about the madness that some of his friends were getting into; always insisting he wasn’t involved in what they were doing.
I put him in touch with another OS mentor who introduced him to a music publishing opportunity. At first, he jumped at it but as he got into it he changed his mind, deciding his songs weren’t ready yet.
Soon after, he seemed to get depressed. He came to sessions with his head down and went back to not saying much. But his songs were becoming more varied, not so much ‘road life’ content, more thoughtful/detailed material about relationships (with friends and girls) and expressing more about what he wanted out of life.
One day he asked if I could help re-house him, telling me about issues he was having with his mum. It turned out that a) he didn’t want it escalated to Social Services and b) there were already notes on the Children & Families system about his situation. We talked a lot about this over the next few sessions, and about the fact that his dad was not the father of his younger siblings. Eventually, he told me he’d moved out to live with his aunty (Dad’s sister).
His depression seemed to recede; he appeared to become more focused/relaxed and more independent, getting chattier again and discussing a much broader range of topics, outside just music.
We started to talk music career plans – self releasing/publishing and using social media more proactively to get his music heard by industry professionals. Every session he would show me new people he was following on Socials, asking me what I thought. He also started to recommend that some of his friends should attend the project, telling me “I thought it would be good for them”.
Last month he called to say he had been invited to attend an audition in a London studio for a satellite label run by Sony Music. They accepted him onto a development deal – no money, but the chance to work with industry producers to help develop his songs. They even sent a car to pick him up, which really impressed him.
“Last month he called to say he had been invited to attend an audition in a London studio for a satellite label run by Sony Music. They accepted him onto a development deal – no money, but the chance to work with industry producers to help develop his songs. They even sent a car to pick him up, which really impressed him.”
“Gradually improvements in his mood / communication and curiosity about the wider music business started to show. He made more eye contact and asked more about how I was, what I do and talked about the madness that some of his friends were getting into; always insisting he wasn’t involved in what they were doing.”
“His depression seemed to recede; he appeared to become more focused/relaxed and more independent, getting chattier again and discussing a much broader range of topics, outside just music.”
“What are you doing with LB – it’s like he’s a different person… it really surprised me how much more open he has been lately and talking a lot about your project and what he’s doing on it. So I just wanted to let you know that he’s definitely a success story for you guys.”
LB Case Study
LB first came to a One Spirit session because he was told to. LB said he was happy to "have a look and see what it’s saying”. He has a stutter, and although he said he sometimes wrote songs, he wasn’t sure about being comfortable doing it in a session. We played some music and chatted and he wrote some lyrics to a song about his ‘uncle’ (a family friend he was close to when he was younger) and how he'd been killed by his sister’s boyfriend. After the first two or three lines mentioning this the song lyrics drifted into a pretty violent attack on the perpetrator and then more generically described how LB himself is someone to be feared on the streets in his area.
I asked if he wanted to explain the situation a bit more, as the lyrics were a lot to take in. Unfortunately the session ended & he asked me to keep the paper he’d written lyrics on til next week, when he said he wanted to return.
The following week he wanted to record something and didn’t care if the stutter was a problem.
He read his lyrics and then said “wow, they’re pretty extreme aren’t they?” I suggested he must have had that issue on his mind specifically that day and he laughed. I asked if that was what he wanted to record, and he said no – “it’s a true story, don’t get me wrong, but it’s too much, I mean it seems weird now reading them back, they’re so violent”.
He asked if I could help him write a ‘real rap’ song, which is a genre more associated with self-reflection and personal/emotional issues. For the next 2 sessions we worked on a couple of pages of lyrics that talked about him growing up, losing his ‘role model’ and what happened as he got angrier as he became a teenager. He wrote about bunking from school, getting kicked out, getting ‘picked up by olders’ (ie ‘groomed’) because he was just ‘out there on these streets” and how all of that ended up with him losing control and being sent to jail.
In the 4th session we recorded the song-he just admitted that he would need to work on his delivery (‘flow’) as he’s not used to recording or hearing his voice.
At this time he was asking me to keep anything (sheets of paper) that he wrote on – as nothing can leave the YOI it was getting stored in the manager’s office. In week 5 he asked if I could get him a lyric book. I happened to have a (quite nice!) moleskin notebook at home I hadn’t used, so I brought it in for him. Every time I have seen him since, even if it has been on a day when he is not due to have a session, he has that notebook in his hands.
The Education Manager asked me recently to speak with one of the mental health workers about LB. I was afraid that maybe he had back-slided a bit and been depressed, but she asked “what are you doing with LB – it's like he’s a different person. He told me about the sessions he’s been doing with you, and obviously I know what you do and we’ve spoken before, but it really surprised me how much more open he has been lately and talking a lot about your project and what he’s doing on it. So I just wanted to let you know that he’s definitely a success story for you guys. Well done – it’s making my job easier!!”
“We worked on … lyrics that talked about him growing up, losing his ‘role model’ and what happened as he got angrier as he became a teenager. He wrote about bunking from school, getting kicked out … and how all of that ended up with him losing control and being sent to jail.”
“He asked if I could get him a lyric book…. Every time I have seen him since …. he has that notebook in his hands.”
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HMDT Music, twice winner of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Education and winner of the Excellence in Music Theatre Award is a leader in creating inspiring projects for young people, particularly those facing challenging experiences, through which it aims to enrich learning, broaden awareness of and help fight inequity and transform lives.
