“I cannot remember a time when I did not have a love for sound” said Matt North.  He was in the first cohort of BA (Hons) Audio Production students and has successfully pursued his passion as a sound recordist. Matt is on LSM’s mentoring pilot (thanks again!), which links professionals with our students: “Media mentoring is going great. It’s good to be able to pass on advice to soon-to-be graduates using my knowledge and experiences. I would have found media mentoring really useful in my final year.” See Matt on-campus for ‘Headspace’.

He will be joining sound industry professionals on 30th April. Senior Lecturer Zara Healy’s organising the networking event for radio and audio students, which will be on a first come basis. More nearer the time, but you can see the audio & radio guest list below! First a career update from Matt:

“After graduating from AP in 2012, I started work as a Technical Operator for Ideal Shopping Direct, across their range of shopping TV channels including Ideal World and Create & Craft before being promoted to Audio Operator, where I mixed over 500 hours of broadcast audio across the company’s network until last June when I was fortunate enough to land a job as a Location Sound Recordist for a small kit & crew company called Videoheads, based in White City in London. Since then, I have been recording location sound for a wide range of TV programming, commercials, corporate and legal films with credits including Crimewatch, iTunes Festival 2013, The Gadget Show and have recently come back from shooting in the Philippines in conjunction with BBC’s The One Show & Sport Relief. I also work on audio post-production at home in whatever spare time I have for both short and feature films.” ‘Headspace’ is a joint LSM radio and audio event where students can meet 10 industry professionals, some are our graduates.
You’ll get a chance to talk to all the guests during short informal sessions, within small groups. The idea is to network directly with them and make new contacts, get advice on any aspect of careers (e.g. getting a foot in the door!). Zara confirmed the fantastic line-up of guests, joining Matt, so far are:

Ruth Barnes is a music expert, blogger, podcaster and broadcaster, currently presenting The Other Woman on Amazing Radio – the new music network dedicated to emerging and independent artists. Ruth also presents music programmes for BBC Radio 4 and is a regular on Sky News as a music pundit.

Tim Johns is a Producer and Reporter for The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2: the largest current affairs programmes – TV or radio – in Europe.
Tim previously worked as a producer and journalist at BBC Radio Lincolnshire, where he also presented the local BBC Introducing new music programme.
For Radio Humberside he produced the breakfast show, and he learnt his trade in student radio.

Chris North, former head of Talent at Wise Buddah, representing some of the UK’s best known broadcasting talent, from Radio 1′s Scott Mills, Greg James and Huw Stephens to Vicki Blight on Absolute to Richard Clarke on Capital FM and Huey Morgan on 6 Music. Chris helped establish Demon FM at De Montfort University in 1995 and has now set up his own Talent Agency,

Phil Hawkins works as a production co ordinator for BBC Radio Drama in London. It’s his job to ensure productions run smoothly, to schedule and to budget. He works closely with the producer in the casting process. Phil graduated from LSM in 2007.

Amie Slavin is a Lincolnshire based sound artist.  “My practice centres on the creation of innovative installations and the production of music and sound-centred events. My largest project so far,SoundSpiral received the London 2012 Inspire Mark. Another major focus, is the development of a brand new festival of sound and music, Sonophilia in Lincoln, in 0ct 2014.” Aimee said students are invited to get involved with the festival.

Joe Pitts, 2008 LSM graduate, works for the BBC World Service in London. He is the point of contact for technical issues and projects within World Service language for studios and broadcast areas. He plans and roll outs upgrades to equipment, sorts out continuing technical faults and aids the introduction of new technologies. Joe has also worked as a Senior Studio Manager for the BBC.

Rose Braisby is also an LSM graduate and has produced radio dramas and documentaries. She is currently working as a Project Leader for Takeover Radio in Nottinghamshire where she runs radio workshops for children and young adults as well as continuing to write and direct radio dramas.

Lee Gretton runs a Lincoln based company, In Production Music which specialises in creating high quality music and sound for the international media industry. He works as a multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer. His clients include the BBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Kerrang FM, Galaxy 105 FM, Barclays, British Retail Consortium and Warburtons. As a session musician and performer Lee has toured extensively, working alongside artists such as The Feeling (Island).