700 Feel
Create NSW x Powerhouse x Astral People
The Generations Fellowship connects artists with established industry experts and mentors to pass on intergenerational knowledge and create pathways in the music industry. While in residency at Powerhouse from April to September 2023, 700 Feel produced and released an EP along with three music videos.
‘The biggest challenge was working and directing other people to get the different sounds we wanted. We’re both not classically trained so communicating what we wanted was difficult at times and it made us realise how much room for improvement there is for us in that area of production. ’
Electronic musicians Jonny Hawkins and Juan Villamor bonded at high school through mutual appreciation of genres deeply rooted in the places and communities which birthed them: Kingston's dub, Bristol's trip hop, Chicago's footwork and London's evolutions of New York's Garage.
As 700 Feel they aim to ground their productions very firmly in their Eora/Sydney roots. So while their visceral productions are reminiscent of Mount Kimbie’s moody textures, Oneohtrix Point Never’s glistening movements and the new-age experimentalism of Dean Blunt, they're most inspired by the surroundings, people and stories of the city's west, energised by community and collectivism.
We're having meetings with people, such as David Whitehead from Roland, curator Campbell Bickerstaff and Astral People to organise equipment loans and/or general support. We’re learning how to be more productive with the time we have there. Also we chatted to Astral People about this project we are releasing and getting their advice and help with marketing and planning an event for it.
We finally set up the whole studio properly. We started working on an idea for a physical mixtape release with a friend of ours and got him in to record his vocals.
During the month we met with Powerhouse curator Campbell Bickerstaff to facilitate access to instruments from the Powerhouse Collection. Campbell also organised an introduction with Roland Australia to explore making Roland instruments available during the residency from Roland’s headquarters in Dee Why.
We also were able to record the archival instruments that Powerhouse has in storage. We spent a whole day recording vintage Rhodes and Wurlitzer, as well as, a hurdy-gurdy, a harp, a portative organ and various percussion instruments.
We figured out a trick that essentially involves running a feedback signal from a microphone into a vocoder to create interesting melodic feedback sounds.
July was largely occupied by organising the Powerhouse Late we did called All Around, Underground. We’ve always felt very lucky with the very talented community surrounding us. Our whole goal with the event was to highlight that incredible talent, as well as display our influences because these people embody all our influences.
We have two dear friends and amazing visual artists to each do installations: Tom Vanderzeil/Passive Kneeling (a VJ, videographer and VFX artist) and Lad Street (Sydney-based photographer). We also have four musical performers: Joseph Wells, Laura Hunt as Szem, Erin Nortje as RT-FAX, and Godriguez Trio. We’d never done anything like this really so it was a huge learning experience.
A big goal of ours in the future is to produce records for other people that still have our distinct sound but fit that person’s personality and interests as well. We always looked to producers like Pharrell and Timbaland for inspiration in this regard. It’s going to sound very simple but a big thing these sessions taught us was communication. We had to learn how to communicate exactly what we wanted and also how to put people at ease and in a creative and open frame of mind.
GENERATIONS FELLOWSHIP
The Generations Fellowship connects artists with established industry experts and mentors to pass on intergenerational knowledge and create pathways in the music industry. Established in 2020, this is a partnership between Create NSW, Powerhouse and Australian music management and touring company, Astral People.
Valued at $100,000, the Fellowship supports three early career solo artists or groups to carry out six months of professional development. Each Fellow is provided with $25,000 in financial support, and in-kind support in the form of studio space at Powerhouse Ultimo or Powerhouse Castle Hill, with industry mentoring and networking facilitated by Astral People throughout each residency.
Initiatives
We support and invest in a range of initiatives that sustain industry development and individual creative practice across the applied arts and sciences and creative industries.
Opportunities
Powerhouse opportunities span careers, volunteer projects, residencies, fellowships, design accelerators and research programs. We are always looking for new talent and great collaborations.