‘Women in Music Production’ documentary to debut this week

 

A new documentary highlighting the work of women in the pro audio world will be shown for the first time this Friday (28 May). 

The Women in Music Production documentary will make its debut on YouTube from 6am on Friday.

The documentary is part of a wider project focusing on encouraging more women to go into music production work, an area of the music industry in which they are significantly under-represented. 

The project is the brainchild of Lisa Murphy, a music producer and teacher based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the northeast of England. Murphy developed the project using public funding from Arts Council England, through the National Lottery Grants scheme.

As a woman working in music production, I felt that there was an opportunity to share my knowledge, experience and contacts with women in the northeast who wanted to learn more and access work in this area,” said Murphy. 

“So, I applied for arts council funding to run this project. The intention was to identify, and hopefully break down barriers, to ‘opening the door’ to more women working as music producers in the local industry”.

The project saw four aspiring female music producers selected to access weekly development sessions, recording and production projects at professional studios, and guest workshops from prominent local music producers. 

The four women who took part in the project were Cortney Dixon, Abby Hillyer, Holly Rees and Grace Alexander. Each has a background in music either as a performer, songwriter or in live sound. 

All of the participants had full access to Murphy’s studio – Production Room – while other studios used during the project included Blast Recording, The Old Church Studios and Blank Studios. 

“The more that we normalise the image of a woman working as an engineer, musician or producer, the more it will be accepted and the gender gap will narrow” said Murphy.

The documentary, made with the help of local video production company Bridgelight Media, tells the story of the project from the perspective of those involved. 

To find out more, head over to WomeninMusicProduction.co.uk.

Photo credit: Victoria Wai