Liverpool International Music Festival may not have happened since 2019 BUT their award-winning music talent development initiative, the LIMF Academy, hasn’t skipped a beat. 

The LIMF Academy have been as active as ever, alongside running more activity for their artists, they launched the LOCKDOWN COLLABO SERIES which centred around a set of collaborations between two Academy artists who have never worked together being challenged to make, mix and release a brand new song using the wonderful world of the web over a 48-hour period. This series has has seen the Academy’s current cohort of emerging artists create songs from scratch under circumstances that might be outside of their comfort zone… and they all rose to the challenge!

One participant in the project is Michael Aldag, a 19 year-old singer-songwriter from the Wirral who meshes an unpretentiously wry look at the world around him with a pop sensibility.

“I worked with an amazing artist from Woolton called Amber Jay and we ended up creating something completely left field; it’s refreshing to be taken out of your comfort zone and stretched creatively.”

Due to the pandemic, this is the second consecutive year that the Academy’s plethora of masterclasses, creative sessions and mentoring have had to move online, but thanks to the technology available, the cohort has still been able to receive all the benefits of the Academy, albeit in a new way, whilst taking part in projects such as this Collabo Series.

Culture Liverpool’s Kate Gilston is the LIMF Academy Project Manager and despite being knee deep in the Pandemic response with her colleagues, is clear with the value of the Academy, especially at this time.

“I feel like now more than ever it is important to be able to give artists the space and opportunity in which they can collaborate and make music with other musicians. We have had some truly amazing tracks being created by artists who have never worked together before, some who have probably never met face to face before which is incredible in the current situation.  The Academy doing the Collab series shows how given the current restrictions and within all the uncertainty in the world we can still offer support and give artist the platform to be creative and showcase their talent.”

Beth Harris, also known by her alias “Lazygirl”, was another participant. Beth has established herself as a dreamy indie pop artist whose lyrics focus on topics like mental health, feminism and sexuality.

“Working with Spilt Milk Society on ‘The Garden’ was such a fun and unique experience – it was actually pretty full-circle for me as well, since the first Lazygirl gig I did was on a bill with them! I’ve never written, recorded and produced a song from start to finish in just 48 hours, so the pressure was definitely on, but working with Spilt Milk Society was so smooth – it kind of matched the dreamy vibes of the song.”

For more information on LIMF Academy, the current cohort and how to sign up for next year, visit the website here.

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