Get to learn the music program with one of music’s most talented producers.
Leaps and Bounds Music Festival is about to get underway with an expansive program spanning everything from performances and live album recordings to music lessons, tarot card readings and cooking classes.
A festival enveloping the suburbs of Collingwood, Fitzroy, Clifton Hill, Abbotsford and Richmond that make up the City of Yarra, will be championing all corners of the music industry in a creative adventure that sees live music and local venues return to the spotlight.
There will also be a series of workshops taking place, one of which will be hosted by Beatrice Lewis, the Melbourne-raised artist and producer who you might know as a member of Haiku Hands and Kardajala Kirridarra or under her own solo pseudonym, Beatrice.
She’ll be hosting an Ableton Live workshop live from The Gaso on Saturday June 13, providing tips and tricks for aspiring beatmakers. Intended for users at an intermediate level or greener, Lewis will take punters through her process – one that has seen her become one of the most respected producers and engineers on the circuit.
For Lewis, the workshop will open people’s eyes to the expansiveness of Ableton, a program at the very top of the music production tree.
“For me, it’s a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ of how I use Ableton and how you start creating tracks and just little different things that I like to do within it,” Lewis says. “I feel like Ableton is such a diverse program that everybody I know who uses it, uses it in a different way. So it’s kind of cool because I can sit down and do a session with someone who uses Ableton and they could use it in a completely different way than I do.”
As part of this, punters will gain a sneak-peek into Lewis’ extensive resume that spans three electronically divergent projects. Kardajala Kirridarra brings the voices of Kayla Jackson, Eleanor and Janey Dixon to the fore, three artists from the Kulumindini and Marlinja communities of Northern Territory. The outfit won Best Folk Song at the 2016 NT Song of the Year awards for their track, ‘Abala Barlawa (Everything Was At Peace)’, and followed that accolade with their groundbreaking self-titled debut album in 2017.
This project fuses rousing electronic beats with hip hop and spoken word forging a compelling mix of cultures and creations.
Then there’s Haiku Hands, the effervescent three-piece who have paved their own path in the dance arena, combining visual art with a party attitude that’s unmatched. This three-piece tear the live stage to pieces with their rave-inspired electro-pop and were recently recognised by Levi’s for their work earning themselves $4,500 in the process.
Lewis solo project is a continuation of these two ventures. She released her debut single, ‘Grid’, under the moniker in 2018 – a song that brings to mind the robust electronica of Willaris. K, one that pounds along the pavement like a running race that’s entering its final stages.
Lewis has never been able to sit still and it’s because of this that she’s constantly tested in the studio. She wears different musical capes, all of which have invited her to different corners of the Ableton abyss.
“I have different roles in each of them [her projects], with Haiku Hands I don’t do so much of the production but I do a lot of live stuff and a lot of vocal recording and editing and with my solo project I do a lot more production stuff,” Lewis says.
“With Kardajala [Kirridarra] I do a lot more production and I actually just started a pop-punk band with my housemate and best friend during isolation and with that I’m doing a lot of live instrument editing and a lot of vocal editing.”
Lewis’ workshop will be one of seven workshops taking place at The Gaso across the two weekends of the festival. Also appearing will be Jess Ribeiro, Hachiku, Mick Meagher of The Putbacks and Francesca Gonzales, among others. As part of the events, punters will get a sneak-peek into a different side to these artists.
Learn tarot card reading with Ribeiro, or knitting with Gonzales. Or maybe you’d like to learn how to cook Chinese with Rainbow Chan. Meagher will teach you how to play bass while rising bedroom pop artist Hachiku will take you through a home studio lesson.
And that’s just the start. With events broadcast live online every night from June 11 to June 20, there’s heaps to sink your teeth into.
Beatrice Lewis will host her Ableton Live workshop at The Gaso on Saturday June 13 from 2pm. The event is totally free and can be watched live via Zoom. Grab a ticket for the event here.
Leaps and Bounds Music Festival goes down from Thursday June 11 to Saturday June 20. Check out all the events and grab tickets via the festival website.
