On Wednesday this week I shared a press release about a charity single You Raise Me Up which has been produced by west end musicals actor and singer Martin Dickinson, for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. I am now delighted to share an exclusive interview with Martin, here at Jem Girl at the Piano. We chatted about his single, why he chose to produce it for charity and so much more!

Please share the inspiration/concept behind your single You Raise Me Up (If You Only Have Today)?

Back in July I was sent a video, which was a Mamma Mia medley by a local community choir, (as I had been a part of the show (Mamma Mia) recently), at the end of the medley was an appeal by Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, who I knew of already. It really struck a chord with me, thinking of how everyone was being encouraged to stay at home and do nothing. I knew that a lot of charities were struggling. So I decided to help regardless of how you measure your life, whether in minutes, or days weeks or years – how do you still make the most of that? So I decided to do something to help out by putting together the project, ‘If You Only Have Today’

If this is your first charity single, how was the process of bringing it all together during these difficult times?

I did release an album back in 2012, but the logistics of this were much more complicated. It came down to scheduling, reducing the choir size to 5, finding a Studio who was confident in being Covid secure. Lots of messaging/zoom calling etc…and bucket fulls of sanitizer…But we got there!

 

Continue reading “Get to Know: Actor and Singer Martin Dickinson” →

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing frontman Collen from the Canadian indie folk band Bent Roads Tavern (BRT). In the interview, we talked about Collen’s background in music, the creation of BRT, his musical influences and so much more!

When did you first have the epiphany that you wanted to have music as a career?

Music has been a part of my life since I was a young child. I grew up in a family with my grandfather a classical pianist, and my uncle a new-wave drummer. I got involved in concert band in elementary school, and guitar and rock/jazz bands in high school. I have always had at least one musical project on the go since I was 10 years old, so it is just part of my life. The career aspect of it is more like a life-long pursuit. Sometimes it makes money, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s a committed undertaking, and sometimes it’s just for kicks. The other musicians in the group all have analogous backstories 🙂

Tell us about the creation of Bent Roads Tavern? How would you describe your music?

Continue reading “Get to Know Collen the frontman from the band Bent Roads Tavern” →