ReBalance is a pioneering three-year programme which will provide one week’s studio recording time to a core female band, female musician or female solo artist each month in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As well as the studio and engineer, they will be provided with accommodation and travel (applicants must be based within the UK) which will be covered by Festival Republic. At the end of the year, Festival Republic would commit to giving these successful acts a slot at a Festival Republic or Live Nation Festival. In addition, Festival Republic will be supporting women who want to work in sound engineering and production by offering studio apprenticeships.

In the recent Women Make Music Evaluation carried out by PRS Foundation, it was highlighted that women represent 16% of UK songwriters and composers and that there is a lack of women in other roles across the industry, e.g., “…Engineering, in particular, is viewed as an almost entirely male ‘closed shop’.” ReBalance responds to this by supporting both artists and up and coming female engineers in a programme which offers valuable studio time and industry support. The aim of the project is to strengthen the talent pipeline and progression routes for female artists and engineers.​

Selection process and panels

Artists and engineers will be nominated by industry experts (labels, managers, streaming services, publishers, promoters, agents, journalists, etc) who will be invited by Festival Republic and PRS Foundation to nominate their choices. A selection panel will then shortlist and select the successful artists and engineers from this nominated shortlist. The selection panel will change over the year in line with availability and demand.​

The selection panels will take place quarterly and will include Melvin Benn (MD of Festival Republic), Vanessa Reed (Chief Executive of PRS Foundation) and Lucy Wood (Festival Republic, Talent Booker), alongside a rotating pool of industry experts including Nadine Shah (Songwriter and Musician), Alexis Petridis (Journalist), Natti Shiner (Fickle Friends), Natasha Bent (CODA Agency), Laura Barton (Guardian/ BBC Radio), Stephen Bass (Moshi Moshi), Jen Long (East, DICE), Kelly Chappel (VP Touring, Live Nation), Isla Angus (ATC Live), Tim Dellow and Toby Langley (Transgressive), Kate Hutchinson (DJ and Journalist), Ghostpoet (artist), Mandy Parnell (Mastering Engineer), Grace Banks (Artist/Producer), plus many more.​

Apprenticeship scheme

There will be two chosen apprentices over the three-year programme. During the first 18 months they will work with engineers in-house at Old Chapel Music Studio (based in Leeds), during the second 18 months of the programme they will be the lead/co- engineers on the project.

For more information about ReBalance, please click here

This article was originally published at FestivalRepublic.com.