Music students in sync to gain TV industry experience

Music students from Huddersfield are having their compositions exposed to large audiences on British TV, while also getting around the coronavirus pandemic to learn practical skills in the music industry.

Popular daytime shows such as Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas, A Place In The Sun and Homes Under The Hammer feature incidental music – known as Production or Library Music – and have recently featured work from the University’s current music cohort. Such library music provides subtle texture as accompaniment, as well as valuable revenue for composers and musicians thanks to repeats, streaming and sales to overseas markets.

Huddersfield students have linked up with The Nerve, a music library that is backed by leading lights in the TV, Music and creative industries. And the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic has been tackled successfully, with students like Mark Fabian and Alex Smith releasing 12 albums of original music in 2020 that are now available on The Nerve with several tracks already cropping up on TV.

Study Music and Music Technology at Huddersfield

As well as giving students a chance to earn money while still at the University, producing sync music is offering practical insight on working in the music industry while still allowing the creative juices to flow.

“It can be difficult for students to get started in the industry, because they may be starting out with a purely artistic view of what they can do,” says Dr Julio d’Escriván, Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound for the Moving Image. “But they need to understand that they are part of an industry, and it’s an industry that needs assets.

“Our students have produced professional-standard pieces that are indistinguishable from those made by industry veterans. And in addition to that, they have done an amazing job to produce so much music of such a high quality during the pandemic.”

Despite the separation enforced by lockdowns and restrictions, students like Mark, Alex and others at the University have been able to collaborate remotely using technology at home or in the Richard Steinitz Building on campus. Basic tracks were recorded, then sent to musicians to be worked up and later included on albums that can now be accessed via The Nerve.

British factual and daytime TV programming is a lucrative market, but there has also been scope for more personal projects. Singer-songwriter Olivia Clarke has collaborated on an album for The Nerve, while also producing another of her own and Jack Williams has released a ‘gypsy jazz’ album in the style of famed guitarist Django Reinhardt in his first year.

Two students have also built upon their success in 2020, when a Nerve panel judged their music to be outstanding, leading to a chance to record their own albums. Evan Martin - pictured at the top of this article - and Sean Brown have both had released EPs of electronic music, while Abbie Howard’s A Reminder of Home is a collection of wistful orchestral compositions.

Current students are tapping into a network of around 100 composers via The Nerve, but also there are strong ties with Huddersfield alumni. One such is Felipe Gutierrez, who as well as working as a freelance sound engineer and composer since graduating in 2018 has worked with Yusuf Islam – the renowned singer-songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens – and interviewed British record producer Steve Levine for Sound On Sound magazine.

“I am thrilled to see how well my students are doing,” adds Dr d’Escriván. “They are having greater commercial success than I was able to have at their age. I am looking forward to seeing their careers blossom into established composers in the screen and film industry.”