Kirklees Most Wanted and The Hothouse Collaboration
This partnership between Kirklees Most Wanted and The Hothouse (PJT) creates an invaluable testing ground for artists. It’s designed for musicians who want to try out new material. Whether a song is being considered for the K.M.W. playlist or an artist is gearing up for a filmed session at Vibration Studios, this collaboration provides the perfect opportunity for artists to refine their tracks. It’s about giving artists the space to cross the T’s, dot the I’s, and truly polish their music before they submit their music, film a studio session or perform at the KMW showcase. We speak Dr Chloë Whitehead the Director of the Proper Job Theatre Company and creator of The Hothouse project.
Okay, so the Hot House project, it helps artists try out new music, How did you come up with the idea for it? And how has it grown over the time of you running?
Right, okay. Well, it came about because we have a rehearsal room upstairs, which we use regularly for our own rehearsals. And then we had fellow artists who said, “can I borrow, can I use the space?” We were saying, yeah, go for it!
And then I thought we could make this a bit more official. We also wanted to get going with our own theatre project, and we were procrastinating. So, it was a bit of a kick up the arse for ourselves. Then we said, okay, let’s do it once a month, whoever’s used the space can come and show what they’ve done.
The idea was that you get to try out your work in it, it’s not the full thing. You’ve not got to go in front of an audience, but the other people there will be industry professionals. Not only music, we’re a theatre company, but music is something we use a lot. We work with a lot of musicians, so music and theatre are probably the primary art forms, but it’s open to any artistic project. People in the room will be professionals, and they will then give feedback on whatever it is that you’ve presented, it will be structured from a professional perspective.
It’s that stepping stone between what you’ve been rehearsing, you might be feeling unsure about the work, as you always do in rehearsals. You show it to a few people and you get some feedback.…..
Then people might want to come back and they say, “okay, we’ve taken on your feedback, we’ve developed the work, now this is where we are”. So, it’s just that support from artists who know what it’s like to be an artist and giving them that half-way house between performance and, you know, sitting in your room and just making some tunes.
Your feedback panel are artists as well?
Well, they are the people who are coming to show their work. We’re all in the same boat, We all are there because we want to create work. For example, there’s a student who attends, who finished her theatre degree last year and just wants to keep her hand in, just wants to meet people. It’s good for making contacts, actually, for meeting people working on other projects. Collaboration has been an unexpected outcome.
So everybody in there, they are there because they want to perform, not because they want to judge. So that’s why I’m saying they know what they’re talking about because they’ve done it themselves. They will have presented themselves; they will be professional musicians or theatre makers or they’re all professional in their own right and in their own field.
What do you hope for artists to get out of this?
Well, I think that feedback is really important. It is the main thing that I found valuable. Often your first sharing might be a scratch night or something similar, and sometimes this can be all your mates. And they’re all saying, ‘oh, yeah, it’s great. It’s really good.’ But that’s not useful feedback. This feedback is constructive.
Constructive!
Yeah, yeah. It’s structured in a way that we have steps to feedback. We don’t just go, ‘what do you think?’ There’re some specific questions that lead you to a constructive conclusion. The other thing I think is helpful is having a deadline for artists to create something, if you put your name down and say, ‘I’m going to do it next month’, then a week before you go, ‘oh my god, oh my god, I’ve got to do something!’ I think that’s helpful to get work produced.
Because a lot of us are doing our art as almost a hobby, you know, we’ve got to earn our money and then we’re trying to create something and that’s why art always gets pushed to the side. But if you know that next week, you’ve got to show a group of 12 people that you don’t really know what you’re working on. It’s a good motivator.
Absolutely! Like you said, it’s a safe space for artists to experiment, and a supportive environment. Your process would help them build an idea of how they move forward, I guess.
Yeah, yeah. so, they could be using our rehearsal space, or they could just be doing it themselves. But then the actual HotHouse is just once a month, 7 until 9pm. We usually take three people who want to share their work. Each person gets about half an hour, five minutes of performance. And then 25 minutes of structured feedback, and then we move on to the next artist.
Besides the feedback in the sessions, are there any other forms of support you offer to the artist or is that something you might be working on in the future?
Part of this development is we want to renovate the rehearsal space. It’s a beautiful big old space so we thought the renovation could be part of a bigger project around developing artists. As part of that development process, we’d like to have scratch nights as well. So, we’re hoping to launch that in the autumn, which might be a bit more of a performance concept, four or five people trying out a little bit more of their work..
Anything else you would like to say about the project?
Just that there’s no money involved. Because sometimes people come, because I think it’s a funding opportunity. It’s come, if you feel it’s useful to you, you know, people have got to be there, because they want to be there, not because they feel they should or they’re trying to impress anyone. Just, if it’s useful, come.
Okay thank you for you time, great chatting with you
You’re welcome..
If you’d like the opportunity to perform at the Hothouse submit your music to the Kirklees Most Wanted artist application form and we’ll be in touch regarding performance slot opportunities.
