AMP SPOTLIGHTS: Morgan Thomas
Morgan Thomas has participated in quite a few of our programs in the last few years, from AMP: Producers to our practitioner bursaries and mentoring schemes, whilst finishing their degree in music performance and alongside working as a freelance musician. We’re kicking off a new series of interviews spotlighting some of the amazing creatives and young professionals we work with, and can’t wait to hear more about what they’ve been working on!
I caught up with Morgan to chat about their recent work with AMP, career aspirations, portfolio careers, and all things community music.
Callie: Hi Morgan! Tell me a bit about yourself! How are you involved with music and the arts?
Morgan: So I went to Leeds Conservatoire, where I did both my Undergrad and Masters degrees in music performance, after which I’ve been working in Community Music alongside playing gigs as a part of loads of different bands. Since getting started in the industry, I’ve had the opportunity to work with loads of charities and young people.
My mum’s a teacher who spent a lot of time teaching in traveller communities when I was a kid, which really made me want to get involved with community outreach from a young age. This then combined with my love for music, wanting to make music work as a career, when I took a community music module at uni – which really made me consider this work as a future career path.
Callie: So where in that story did you first hear about AMP, and what made you want to get involved?
Morgan: I think it was an instagram post I saw, or a recommendation from someone at uni, that I first came across the AMP: Producers program. I applied for this on a whim in the 3rd year of my degree as it seemed like something really fun to get involved with as I was just graduating. Through this, we ended up putting on an alternative music festival at The Barn in Tadcaster which was awesome.
Off the back of that, AMP offered me quite a few more opportunities to work in and around Community Music, helped out at a lot of summer youth projects, and then signed up for AMP’s SEND Practitioners scheme, and later the Early Years Practitioner Bursary, which were both really great for broadening my skillset and experience.
Callie: Tell us a bit more about what you got up to on those last couple projects! What was it like, what were your favourite bits and what things challenged you the most?
Morgan: For the SEND Practitioners scheme, I’d already had a bit of experience having worked with SEND kids all through uni as a teacher, but this was quite challenging going into the setting of shadowing and assisting just one or two music leaders teaching a whole group of young people. It was really rewarding seeing how these sessions are run, as well as great for learning what kinds of songs fit for this kind of setting – and gave me loads to take away into future sessions with my own community groups.
Working with the Early Years groups was also really great, learning and delivering more songs and getting to understand the dynamic of leading a mixed group of children and their carers through music exercises. It was really well structured, giving me a few sessions of shadowing to find my footing and then throwing me into running my own sessions whilst still getting support from the team, which really built my confidence.
Callie: How has this work impacted your future pathways? Do you feel it has changed your outlook on careers in the music industry? Why?
Morgan: It’s definitely changed my outlook, yeah. I mean, I definitely know I wanted to work in community music from the outset, but when I was first starting out I was just throwing myself into lots of random opportunities that didn’t really lead to something bigger. AMP gave a bit of direction here, both offering training and helping to organise future opportunities off the back of their programs, which really helped build out my skills and network in community music.
It’s a pretty hard sector to get into, there’s no obvious ‘right’ path of steps to take to build that experience, let alone whilst getting paid to do so, and AMP really made it so much easier to find my footing and give me the next steps to keep growing my career even after I finished a project with them.
Callie: Do you have any similar experiences through other schemes or funding opportunities?
Morgan: I’ve done a fair few short training programs here and there, but they’ve never felt quite as rewarding as AMP – just a few training sessions and something to put on the CV, without really leaving me with a sense of direction. Comparatively, AMP’s schemes have always felt really well structured: here’s something you haven’t done before, here’s how you do it, here’s how you get better at it, here’s how you get more work and opportunities like it.
Finding wise, I’ve actually just gotten a bit of funding through the King’s Trust to put on a gig and then to use the proceeds of that gig to fund music workshops in community spaces, to make something self-sustainable that I’d then be able to keep running on my own. I had loads of mentoring around that one, it took a lot of thinking to work out how to knit together these two separate spheres of my life – and to make that actually work as a business.
Callie: That sounds like an awesome project! Could you talk a bit more about your experience with mentoring, for that project and in general?
Morgan: Absolutely. The King’s Trust mentoring was very much around how I could make my idea financially viable, and how to think about it in a more business-oriented direction, which as creatives I think we struggle to do sometimes. I’ve also had about four or five different mentorships now through the various different projects I’ve worked on with AMP, and I found them all really helpful in supporting and building on what I’ve been doing.
There’s a mentor I still have, Adrian Sinclair from Chapel FM and UNION arts, from around three years ago now – which I think was really the start of me getting involved with activism and community work. And I also still have regular meetings with Rebecca Danniff who I worked with on the Early Years Practitioners scheme, both of which have been really great having someone I can check in with, bounce ideas off of, and ask for advice.
Callie: Who would you recommend schemes like AMP: Producers or the Practitioner Bursaries to? How do you think they can benefit folks just breaking into the sector?
Morgan: Well, I guess the easy answer is people who were in my position three years ago – part way through or finishing uni, not really sure where to go or what to do, and looking to get into community music. Teaching music was my backup plan at that point, and I didn’t feel great about going straight into teacher training, so this opportunity was brilliant for giving me an alternative pathway into music whilst allowing me to continue freelancing and playing gigs. Even if you just have an interest in working with communities, or charities, this is a really good starting point for people coming out of uni regardless of your prior experience in community music.
The longer answer is that I feel like working with AMP is good for most people just wanting to work in music in general, whether they are out of uni, or not. As we both know, it’s not easy to start and especially make a living in music, so anyone struggling with getting a foot in the door would be a great fit for AMP. The programs are really vast, you can really go any direction off the back of one: I’ve gotten into community music education, whilst other people on my year’s AMP: Producers have gotten into sound tech, or band merchandise, or marketing and music journalism. They’re just great for giving you options on ways to go with your career.
Callie: Any advice for writing an application for funding opportunities like this? What do you think made you stand out?
Morgan: I guess what made me stand out is just that I’ve done loads of random things. I’m always jumping on opportunities to gain new skills or meet new people to work with, even if they have nothing to do with what I’m already doing.
Funding applications really don’t make it easy, especially the bigger ones like Arts Council, and there’s very little guidance for how to frame the collage of lots of little experiences that we often have as creatives. When applying to any application, I tend to focus on the areas where I can talk confidently about what I’ve done before – even if it’s a really loose connection. Bringing to the forefront the things that I’ve done that I’m passionate about, and the skills that I’ve gained because of that.
Callie: What’s next for you? Any new projects you’ll be working on that you want to promote? Where is your career going next?
Morgan: So I’ve got the funding from the King’s Trust I mentioned before, and I’m hoping to pick up some more funding opportunities like that. I’m continuing my charity work, and have recently started teaching drums and piano lessons in schools. Generally, I just want to keep pushing for bigger opportunities, keep playing gigs, and keep working in community music!
This interview was conducted by me, Callie, a Young Trustee and AMP’s Marketing Intern! I’ve been a participant in various AMP projects for the last five years, and now getting to work with AMP directly to promote some of the amazing work that’s being done. Keep an eye out for more Spotlight Interviews in the coming weeks!
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