The Brighton & Hove News gets the rundown on this exciting new venture……
How did this Brighton project start?
We at FourFace Productions started looking at live streaming as a way to support local up and coming bands, solo artists and producers back in the summer of 2020.
Due to the terrible year we had last year with COVID, we really wanted to do something for local music, in order to help them get content out there and to promote themselves. So we set up a specific YouTube Channel under the name of ‘Fourface Digitial’ to showcase Brighton music.
Every week we welcome one or two bands into the legendary Concorde 2 in Brighton to video and record a few songs, and do a short interview which then ends up as an episode on the channel. Concorde 2 has a long history of supporting local bands and projects and has been kind enough to let us make use of the venue over this time for free.
Covid has hit everyone in the industry hard, with both venues and working professionals alike making no money over the last year. The fact that everyone involved has given their time and space for free so far just demonstrates how strong the spirit of the Brighton music community is, and how much we’re all looking towards gigs coming back.
We are now also offering our streaming/video services for hire at competitive rates, so anyone needing help to put on that stream or record a gig to keep the fire stoked on their projects can head over to our socials and discuss with us.
Who is involved, and what experience do you have?
FourFace is made up of Tom Burch and Sethro Tull, with lighting director Paul O’Brien.
Tom has been a freelance sound technician in live events for 18+ years. He tours with various bands and can be found acting as an all round technical whizz at Concorde 2. Film editing, computer programming are also strings to his bow.
Seth has been promoting live music shows for over 9 years, more recently under his own promotion company Black Rabbit Productions, and has always aimed to give local bands support slots at his shows, including putting on the ‘Best Of Brighton’ mini festivals, involving local music, street artists, street food vendors, local breweries and guest appearances.
Paul has been involved in lighting live events from Theatre and live music, to corporate and TV including more recently live streaming. For the last 10 years he has been the Lighting Director at Concorde 2 in Brighton, and over the years has worked with artists, companies and projects as diverse as Starlight Express, Ed Sheeran, English National Ballet and Loyle Carner.
The core team can call upon an extensive network of industry professionals who have been instrumental in helping out behind the scenes; the Fourth Face of the operation.
What can we expect?
We will be filming and recording three songs from each artist or a 20-minute set for the producers/DJs and putting this together as an episode for each artist. The ‘Fourface Digital‘ channel on YouTube serves as a place to watch and hear local up and coming talent, and supplies bands with new content to get out to their fans. Everyone involved is doing this for free, and it hopefully acts as a symbiotic relationship which helps to keep the scene alive until we can meet in person again. New content will drop every week, so be sure to subscribe and check the notification bell to be prompted when new content is up.
What is the plan going forward?
No-one knows what the future looks like even in the next 6 months, so for now we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. If people enjoy watching the acts, and it gets the bands, the venue, the working professionals some exposure – we’ll consider it a job well done. And when we do reopen to a degree where gigs can happen, even if socially distanced at first- show your support, grab a ticket and come watch a show! The music industry is a huge employer in the UK and something we can’t afford to lose.
Have you had any support?
We’ve spent a good chunk of our self-employed grants to get to this point where we can do this, including buying all the equipment to film and record the acts.
We couldn’t have done a lot of this without the support from Concorde 2. They’ve allowed us to use their fantastic venue free of charge, as they are also very keen to support local grassroots music and give back to the music community. Concorde 2 is such an iconic venue in Brighton, it is amazing to have them on board. So a big thank you to Russell, Tina and James at C2 for all their help and support.
We have also been donated a pair of ATH-M50xBT limited edition headphones by Audio-Technica as a prize that will be given to a subscriber when we reach 1000 subscribers, and we are in talks with a few other companies about the possibility of sponsorship. In general we’ve found everyone very enthusiastic about anything that supports grass roots music.
Where can people find you?
Our socials are;
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/fourfaceproductions
Instagram – Fourface Productions
Twitter – Fourface Productions
Youtube – Fourface Digital (where the episodes will be put up)
How do people get involved?
Bands or artists can get in touch via Facebook, and all we ask is they go and subscribe to our channel, and also have a following of around 1k+ follows on their socials, and are active promoting their music. Also, all music must be original material. It would be best to private message us, with links to their socials and their music. We are looking for all types of artists and genres, the more diverse the better.
We’re offering the multi camera live stream service to artists, promoters and venues, so drop us an email if you want more info at fourfaceproduction@gmail.com
