James Kelly
Vice-Chair of Advisory Committee, Musician, Performer, Teacher, Promoter.
Tutor of; Turntablism, Music production and Video Production.
As a Regional Co-ordinator for Pedestrian, I Co-ordinate Workshops, Jam Sessions, Training, Gigs and Networking opportunities for the community of Leicester .
I'm a Turntablist and I improvise with musicians from varying genres as often as I can. Including collabotarions with Laptop Performers, Acoustic acts, Hip Hop MC's, Trip Hop and Electro groups, Jazz Improvisation and a 40 piece big band! I'm inspired by Minimalism and free improvisation and I regularly play in a free improvisation groups around the midlands.
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My first experience of Turntablism was at a Pedestrian workshop in 2000, I left inspired and got some decks a few months later.
I wouldn’t be the musician or person I am today if it wasn’t for many kind individuals giving me their time and support, giving me feedback on the latest mix of a track, showing me a new beat juggle or listening to my latest crazy idea for a project.
That’s why as soon as I could, I got involved in teaching community music because I wanted to support and inspire others. I don’t leave every session feeling like I’ve inspired, but when a student tells me they’ve just got their first set of decks or their going to study Music Technology at University, it’s a humbling experience and it makes it all worth while.
The Pedestrian community have given me support and guidance to develop the skills necessary to work with young people and manage projects. I’ve met loads of talented artists who I call my friends and we’ve had some great parties too!
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My creative process relies heavily on a cycle of analysis and editing, which is a skill I acquired from DJ’ing. The DJ listens to a record (analysis) and then decides how much of the record to play, when to play it and how to mix it with other records (editing). This process of analysis and editing is then repeated for each DJ mix. These are skills that I can adapt for the manipulation of different mediums, capturing sounds or images from the environment like a sampler, to analyse and edit for the creation of new work. A sampling mentality allows me to cut and splice my way through mixed media, transferring my skills to music composition, video editing or radio production.
Software: Cubase, Pro Tools, IMovie, Final Cut Pro
Hardware: Technics 1210 turntable, Vestax PDX turntable, Vestax 05 Pro DJ mixer, Vestax CDX
James is based in Leicester