SubSounds
SubSounds is a music collective, open to young people aged 14 - 18yrs with a passion for song writing, music composition and/or music performance.
It is developed and managed by Alternative Entertainments in partnership with CONTACT Studio and Music Generation South Dublin. Its SubSounds:Tallaght strand runs annually from October to April and is based in RUA RED Arts Cenre, Tallaght. The participants work with professional musicians, host their own gigs, record a CD at the close of the programme, and take part in a variety of performances in the County throughout the course. Course sessions take place every Wednesday evening & participants are chosen on the basis of application.
Its SubSounds:Schools strand works in 7 secondary schools in South County Dublin. Participants compose, record and release 2 singles per school between September and May, with performances in December and May each year.
Participants work on individual and group projects over the six-month period and, along with recording their work in the studio, they take part in an end of year performance in The Grand Social, and produce an album that is recorded in Studio 1 in Windmill Lane Recording Studios. A team of mentors, made up of experienced musicians and music industry professionals, will deliver the main body of the course. Various supplementary talks and workshops will be given by industry-professionals in some of the areas listed above. Each participant will finish the series having created, recorded and performed new work. Their album is released on Alternative Entertainments Records and available on Spotify, iTunes, Baby and other online music sites.
The course explores the following areas:
• Songwriting
â—¦ Crafting an idea into a song lyric.
â—¦ Song structure and form
â—¦ Song arrangements
• Music Tuition
â—¦ Instrumental and Vocal Workshops
â—¦ Basic notation and score
â—¦ Singing Techniques
â—¦ Study and Career Paths in Music and Related Fields
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• Music Production/Post Production
â—¦ Sequencing a song arrangement
â—¦ Studio Recording Techniques
â—¦ Studio Performance Techniques
â—¦ Post Production Processes i.e. Mixing, E.Q., Compression, FX.
â—¦ Composing Music for Film and Other Media
â—¦ Live Sound Performance techniques
Application
Our main SubSounds collective runs from October to April with sessions in RUA RED Arts Centre on Wednesday evenings, and during the midterms in October and February. The group is selected through an application and interview process. Application forms are accepted from late August, with interviews taking place in RUA RED in mid-October. Application Form is now available at http://suburbansounds.squarespace.com/application-form-20192020.
Contact us at southdublinsubsounds@gmail.com for more details.
SubSounds Album Launch 2021
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, SubSounds have had to adapt our programme and conduct our 2020/21 term almost entirely online.
Although this year has been tough on us all, and we are keen to get back to live sessions in Rua Red, we are so proud of how our participants have adapted to SubSounds online, and we cannot believe the standard of the music that they have produced under such challenging circumstances.
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Unfortunately, this also means that this year, like in 2020, we cannot have our album launch gig at the Grand Social, and our album release will have to be online once again!
The SubSounds 2021 album will showcase some of the incredible original songs written by our extremely talented participants over the past 6 months. We can't wait for you to hear them!
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Keep your eyes peeled for more information on our album release that will be coming very very soon!!
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The SubSounds class of 2021 was produced using equipment purchased with funding from the Music Network’s Music Capital Scheme 2020.
DECLARE AND PROTEST album 2020
In 1948 the UN Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. In the intervening 72 years artists and musicians internationally have taken inspiration from the declaration whenever events in the wider world have threatened or exposed human rights abuses.
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The Declare & Protest album is part of a larger project involving the SubSounds Collective and Tallaght Community Arts celebrating the UN Declaration of Human Rights and exploring the history and role that popular music has played in the pursuit of human rights through the 20th and 21st centuries.
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The participants of SubSounds got together for 2 weeks in August 2020 and work-shopped a long list of 25 songs (culled from a playlist of 84). During these sessions they discussed the various songs and artists, and eventually chose the final 10 that appear on this album. The recordings were done over five days and were live and intense. Some of that passion and intensity comes through on this album.
The album will be released on September 18th 2020 as part of the overall DECLARE & PROTEST Culture Night launch.
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All proceeds from the sale of this album on Bandcamp will be donated to The Immigrant Council of Ireland.
JEMZ album 2020
JEMZ is a self titled, 8-track album by 4 young female songwriters from South County Dublin, which was released as part of Cruinniú na nÓg 2020. The group is made up of Subsounds participants, Jo-Ellen Donohoe, Eimear O’Neill, Megan McGarry and Zoe Lord Bisset.
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Recorded entirely during isolation, JEMZ showcases the degree of young female talent currently bubbling under the surface of Irish music. With each participant presenting 2 new songs to the project, there are a wide variety of styles on show, from Harp Ballads to R’n’B jams.
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Piecing the project together was another Subsounds past participant, now mentor, Domhnaill Corrigan. Domhnaill was responsible for the mixing and with the help of other mentors, the recording of additional instrumentation on the JEMZ album.
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JEMZ was released on the 13th of June as part of Cruinniú na nÓg, Ireland’s national day of free creativity for children and young people. In 2020 the event took place online due to COVID-19. Live takes of four songs from the JEMZ album were recorded and broadcast for Cruinniú TV South Dublin: Create, Make, Participate.
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Cruinniú na nÓg is an initiative of Creative Ireland in partnership with the 31 local authorities and supported by RTÉ.
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SubSounds is a youth music collective that is managed and delivered by a partnership between Alternative Entertainments, CONTACT Studio and Music Generation South Dublin. CONTACT Studio is a South Dublin County Arts Office Initiative.
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JEMZ is supported by Creative Ireland as part of Cruinniú na nÓg 2020
Subsounds Album Launch 2020
As part of the SubSounds course, our participants have the opportunity to record their original music in the legendary Windmill Lane Studio one, that has hosted such artists as U2, Kate Bush, the Cranberries and many more.
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The 2020 album that is available to purchase on our Bandcamp page - subsoundsdc.bandcamp.com - and streaming on Spotify and all the usual online music outlets. The album features recordings from the SubSounds session at Windmill Lane, and recordings in Contact Studios in Rua Red.
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In 2020 all of the proceeds from our Bandcamp page were donated to Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland in memory of local musician and friend of the organisation Kieran McCoy, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Kieran's wife Marion kindly donated Kieron's drums and percussion instruments to SubSounds, and these instruments were used for the recording of the album in both Windmill Lane and Contact studio.
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