Time for a New Era!

Cardiff has always been a city choc full of creativity, music and arts. Sadly over the past few years or so we have seen the closure of numerous community youth centres which supported children, teenagers and young adults in exploring their creative talent, as well as keeping them off the streets and out of trouble. In response to these closures, New Era Talent was formed. Set up by Diff born and raised music artist Gemma Smith, aka Missy G, New Era has been providing local artists with the support they need to flourish since 2019/2020.

So what exactly is New Era? A community project and registered Community Interest Company, offering one-to-one mentoring, workshops, studio sessions, radio shows and live events, plus safe spaces to hang out and absorb all the creative energies whizzing round. All designed to enable artist development, build confidence, gain new skills and industry knowledge, and elevate artists through providing platforms for live performance and promotion. As well as all the above it is a priority of New Era to provide financial support to the young artists they work with. This includes funding for home studio equipment, financing studio time, music videos and more.

New Era was officially established as a C.I.C at the beginning of 2021, a process which experienced many delays due to the pandemic. Naturally one of the biggest challenges has been the impact of Covid-19. Gemma explained to us that not being able to offer studio time/space was a hinderance, however she learnt to adapt some of the services to work in an online format – such as mentoring. In response to the shift to working from home, ongoing applications for funding are being made in order to provide artists with the right equipment to continue working on their music from home.

A growing committee with impressive collective experience in the industry will be on hand to offer a diverse range of skills for those seeking the support of New Era. All members of the committee have extensive experience in music and social roles, whether it be as a singer, rapper, MC, DJ, producer, videographer, graphic designer or behind the scenes in management, administration and governance, mental health and wellbeing work plus more.

The full list of committee members at the time of publishing this blog includes: Gemma Smith, Amelia Thomas, Victoria Clarke, Alisdaire Clarke, Lydia Tobenas, David Hoffman, Ryan Lewis, Holly Jenkins, Beth Clark, Ess Louise, Ruth Vybes, Pabz Burnell, Angharad Buckler, Laurel Jones & Craig Lewis

All committee members are friendly, welcoming individuals who are available for a chat and to signpost in the right direction for anyone wishing to make contact with New Era.

Providing a safe space for youngsters, whether they are making music or not, is a priority for founding member Gemma Smith. New Era is striving to achieve equality in both the local music community and the wider music scene, through raising awareness of discrimination against females, ethnic minorities and those of different sexual orientation within the music industry. Teaching lifelong social skills alongside music focused skills is another service that New Era will be able to offer to its community of budding musicians and artists.

Olivia Raps, DJ Sheldon and Benny Flows are just a couple of the young artists that New Era is currently working with. Gemma has been mentoring Olivia Raps to assist her with song writing, stage presence and performance for over a year and Olivia has come along way since. DJ Sheldon is seeking New Eras support in learning the technical skills of beat production, whilst being on hand to answer Benny Flows questions and help him promote himself has been New Eras role in supporting his journey. This demonstrates just a small amount of the diverse mentoring and skill training opportunities that New Era has to offer.

As public spaces open back up, New Era will soon have full time access to a music studio, centrally located in Cardiff city for easy access. With full time staff in the studio, it will not only be a place to record music and host jams but a safe space and hang out for New Era mentees. New Eras vision for the future is to support and platform future artists. Continuing to support female, ethnic minority and LGBT artists in a male dominated industry by fighting for 50/50 equal line ups is also on the agenda.

New Era Talent CIC will be hosting an online launch party on 21st April 2021. Head over to the Instagram and Facebook pages to find more information regarding the launch and to find out more about what New Era is up to over the coming months.