• ReBalance is offering early stage career development opportunities for talented women solo artists and core-female bands
• Applicants must identify as women in a way that’s significant to them
• We will also consider applications from ‘core-female’ bands (i.e. female bands or bands of mixed gender where at least 50% of the music creation and performance is undertaken by a woman or someone who identifies as a woman)

You are nominated by one of the industry experts on our quarterly panel, should they choose to nominate you.

We want to ensure that chosen artists/bands have the best chance at successful careers in music beyond the week in the studio. As such, we want to reflect the way the music industry works as much as possible, and the backing of a well-known individual from the music industry is usually a key factor in determining an artist’s ongoing success.

Partners PRS Foundation run several open-application funding schemes such as Women Make Music and The Open Fund for Music Creators – please see https://prsfoundation.com/funding-support/ for more information.

No

• Bands will need to have a proven track-record of playing shows, at least in their local area, and will have written and recorded some songs
• You will still be considered if you have a university degree, previous experience, or a social media following
• We are unlikely to consider artists who have already recorded a full album or those signed to a major label
• We’re aiming this scheme at people who will get the maximum benefit from the studio time and festival slot(s)
• The primary decision will be made on the quality of the music provided and the endorsement of the nominating party

We expect you to have some level of renown already (please see point 3 re reflecting the mechanisms of the music industry) we encourage artists who want to be considered for the project to be playing shows, sending their music to agents, labels, publishers and managers – steps that will increase the likelihood of success for all artists/bands

• Please note, this is not a formal mentoring programme
• Artists/bands will be offered one-off business advice in the form of a meeting or phone call with an individual drawn from a range of industry experts
• We will work with you to try to identify a suitable individual to provide this advice, according to your specific needs

Please contact Lucy Wood info@festivalrepublic.com

• Chosen artists will have access to The Old Chapel studios in Leeds for 5 days
• The space can be used for rehearsal/pre-production, tracking, mixing and mastering

The artist/band will have access to the studio and recording engineer for 40 hours over the course of five days from Monday to Friday.
Exact schedule to be agreed by Festival Republic, but suggested working hours are 10am – 6pm

The successful artists will not be paid for their time in the studio but will be provided with travel to Leeds and accommodation there.

The week in the studio will be in The Old Chapel in Leeds, but we will actively encourage experts to nominate artists/bands from across the UK

In Leeds, likely a hotel or Air Bnb to be decided by Festival Republic.

• Nominated artists will be asked to indicate their preferred outcome from a week in a professional studio environment, and there is a degree of flexibility and selected artists will
• consult with partners ahead of the residency
• Artists will be put in touch with the producer ahead of the residency to discuss further
• Two recommended approaches are:
  i. Use the 5 days to make 2-3 fully-produced tracks. This would involve extensive pre-production, tracking, support from a producer mentor, mixing.
  ii. Use the 5 days to demo a larger number of tracks, with support from The Old Chapel’s engineer and a producer mentor. The producer would advise on likely next steps which may include using demos to attract industry interest, or taking tracks away to complete with third party producers

• Either the in-house engineer, or an external engineer (TBD by Festival Republic) will master the recording, with the assistance of the ReBalance apprentice
• The band will have 40 hours over the week with the engineer

As well as working alongside The Old Chapel’s in-house engineer, chosen artists will be offered 1 Producer each who will be able to work on the project for 5 days

The in-house engineer will help the band with any queries regarding the studio space and equipment. The producer will be the main point of contact regarding process and creative, and a contact at Festival Republic will help with any other queries

• This will be the only part of the scheme that is application only
• Apprenticeship vacancies can be seen via our job opportunities website here

• The apprenticeship is primarily in-studio engineering, but the apprentice will learn the studio equipment and environment
• This knowledge will stand them in good stead for other careers, such as live sound engineering, producing, mastering, mixing, etc.

The work for the apprenticeship will mainly take place in Leeds so we expect applicants to be based in or near to Leeds.

The apprentice will work approximately 40 hours per week, but as is the nature of the job, this will often involve unsocial hours – late nights and weekends

• Yes, the apprenticeship is paid with guidelines found on the Gov.uk website
• For more information on the apprenticeship please see here