Film-maker, Marley lives on a three acre farm, designs permaculture, and specialises in community supported agriculture (CSA). Marley also co-runs a community cooperative cafe in Colchester. He’s been commissioned by Culture Essex to make a film for Extraordinary Essex with the working title ‘Don’t Fight The Land That Feeds You’ about the people of Essex and the land that nourishes them. Marley is interviewing people ranging from farmers with hectares of land to small growers with allotments. In CSA people can pay a share towards harvest by subscribing to seasonal veg boxes, or volunteer on the farm in exchange for produce. Nick’s had enough of chervil and celeriac in his OddBox! Importance of diversity in crops and seasonality in food. Community Growing Spaces in Essex for people with mental health issues, feeling the therapeutic benefits of working outside and eating the food they produce. When Marley grew up he concentrated on sports and football, not creativity. Creative subjects at school didn’t interest him. But then he started using his friend Drew’s camera and making edits, and making beats with his brother, and fell in love with creativity. Turning making films as a hobby into paid commissions. Getting young people out of towns and cities to expose them to rural Essex and growing food. Creating a community buzz on the farm with volunteers and group events. Shout out to Essex Salad WhatsApp group! Applying for funding. Permaculture is designing agriculture for the future. Colchester creativity is bubbling up right now. Marley’s wife Laura run Wyrd Flora, organising wild craft and nature walks. How long would Sangita survive in a post-apocalyptic scenario? Tips for young people getting into film-making - start with what you’ve got, then level up. Marley’s film will premiere at The Commons Cafe in Colchester in March 2025. Nick reveals that Chelmsford Museum have a stuffed bear to warn real bears away from their honey.

Culture Essex - Extraordinary Essex
Cuckoo Farm Studios
Wyrd Flora

Are You Creative? backup was recorded by Marley (thanks!) at City Sound Chelmsford
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Thanks to NGDA, City Sound and Essex County Council for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Jon manages Hot Box in Chelmsford. An independent community venue for music, poetry, chess, comedy, drag, retro gaming and other things. At a small venue everyone has to muck in and do all the jobs. Venue is 110 capacity, but has seen huge acts like Fat Boy Slim, Frank Turner, High Fade, The Meffs, Beans on Toast, Native James. Norman Cook has come back to DJ many times, and once to help raise funds to save the venue. Venues and events make memories for the staff and crowd. How starting a new venue fired up a creative community in the city. Hot Box started as a ‘head shop’ selling smoking paraphernalia, then diversified into being a skateboard shop, then evolving into a multi-use shop and venue, then into a pure venue. Hot Box became a Community Interest Company (CIC). Providing space for communities, helping communities build, supporting young people. Filling Hot Box with 100,000 balls for a charity gig for Angus. How important it is to have places to support creative projects and let people experiment. Electronic Music Open Mic (EMOM) nights where electronic music artists can play their music through the professional sound system at Hot Box. How dominos has caught on in the venue. How superstars Squarepusher and Adam Buxton collaborated on a fundraising single about Shorts to raise money for the venue after COVID. Creating a community space that is also a sustainable business. Training young people on how to promote a gig, mix sound, set up and control lighting. Being transparent with the costs and numbers for promoters and ensuring people get paid fairly. Being on a mission to make Chelmsford cooler! Petition to make a statue of Dave Hot Box with a cup of tea and shorts. Organising the multi-venue Sounds Good festival event and working with multiple partners and volunteers from different sectors. Filling in funding applications. Booking bands for events. All about High Fade Band and why they always kill it at Hot Box! Jon played bass in a band and played at Brixton Academy when he was 15 - supporting Chelmsford’s finest Rat Boy. Country music is popping off in Essex. Being the president of the Ignite Creative Partnership in Chelmsford - Jon is a BIG DEAL! Fair pay for creatives initiative. The economics of playing live music. Music Venue Trust and Kate Nash and their amazing work.

Hot Box Live
Sounds Good Festival
Music Venue Trust

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam from Lawker Media at Lawker Media Studio
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Figurative drawing. With special guest co-host Adam Whitaker. Nat’s collection of art ‘An Untamed Line’ is currently exhibited on Chelmsford Museum’s Gallery Wall. She makes a rough shape on paper with water and then inks in the figure. How does life drawing online differ from drawing from a photo? And how short time limits lead to the best art? Sixty second drawings have a lot of energy. Ink never behaves the same way, so the art can be unpredictable. Imposter syndrome in art and judging your own output. Life drawing tips. Moving your eye as little as possible between the model and the paper. Learning anatomy at Oxford Ruskin. Drawing skeletons. Are plastic skeletons cheaper than real skeletons? Drawing dead human bodies in the medical school. GRUNDON BINS! You might hear more about these… Lucky dip in the Grundon looking for body parts. Exams wearing robes at Oxford drawing skeletons and muscle groups. Deciding to study art, and realising that it is what you want to do as a career. Constant development and improvement in style and ability. What do life models think about while they are posing? Talking about Body Worlds and donating your body to art or science. Can you create your own education and pick your own tutors? Natalie teaches figurative drawing and has a studio in Hyland’s House in Chelmsford. Tips for drawing faces. Winning a skeleton. We need a name for Nat’s skeleton! Making a living as an artist is tough, Natalie also has to do graphic design and illustration to earn money.

Nat's website
Artists at the Meadows
Nat on Instagram
An Untamed Line at Chelmsford Museum

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam from Lawker Media at City Sound
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Thanks to NGDA, City Sound and Essex County Council for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Owner of Lionbeat, a company that advocates for bass culture and black music. Jean-Claude was born and raised in Brentwood. Bass culture happened when the sound systems from the Caribbean travelled to Europe and eventually African diasporic culture. Bringing people together with a uniform love for bass. People immigrated to Britain and brought over sound system culture - Bass and dance was a ritualistic behaviour for these people. Peace, love and unity in the dance.

Lionbeat is the ‘barristers for bass’.

Jean-Claude initially went to university to study law, and wanted to move as far as possible from the culture at home to grow and study. In Hull there was a black box nightclub called The Room, he got exposed drum and bass legends and met other DJs around the university. They started to put events on together. Learning law helped advocating for bass culture. Using his position to be able to build trust between the community and the establishment for creativity. The importance of seeing people like you in culture making culture. Knowledge is power, and knowing how the power system works. How it is hard to get into the mainstream power structure when you are different. How do you own yourself and present yourself in situations. Working in the city, spending earnings wisely - ‘Some people like to play golf, i like to put on parties!’ How to program a line up at a night to get people in, and to give up and coming artists a platform. Economic capital, social capital, cultural capital and symbolic capital. Being militant with your diligence. Be fully committed to anything you care about. How community music events teach young people how to be creative in events, music, production.

Lionbeat sound system event at Somerset House in London featuring Lionpulse sound system, the most beautiful sound system in the world. Combined with the Black Unity Bike Ride, black community cycle event with 2000 cyclists, including Jean-Claude’s mobile soundsystem bike. Lionbeat’s bass culture production arm is called BASSIS (Bass And Sound System Institute Streaming). Aiming towards an institute grade building for bass culture in the UK.

Jaiden tags in as guest co-host to ask some questions. We find out about the Unity Bike Ride - BCCS - Black Cyclists Changemaker Solidarity. A ride to take alms to the homeless, new sleeping mats, warm jackets, water etc.

Jean-Claude created a mobile sound system on his cargo bike. Taking the music to the people. He even cycled the sound system to Haarlem in The Netherlands.

Jean-Claude has been working with Hard Art - a study in community led activism and putting collaboration before competition. Producing a night for sound system culture in Manchester.

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/residents/lionbeat
https://www.instagram.com/lionbeat/

Are You Creative? recorded by Nick at City Sound
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Thanks to NGDA, City Sound and Essex County Council for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Creative director for advertising and entertainment. Elliot is 1000% creative! Why do younger people not like advertising as a creative career? People are paying to avoid adverts, and using ad blockers. People are watching telly in a different way now - no longer are people sitting at the same time to watch the same scheduled show. Elliot loved the Benetton adverts when he was younger, and how it played with culture and broke the mould. Oliver Toscani was the creative director and photographer behind these adverts. Elliot was inspired by music and art, raving, parties, putting on events, making flyers, learning graphic design by mistake. Creativity in advertising is solving problems for brands. Experimenting with photocopiers. Elliot’s friend wanted to be a photographer and his focus on career inspired him - he tagged along. How rave taught Elliot sequencing, design, sampling, video etc. with a new wave of software and culture. Elliot is helping the next generation of creatives with the Platform program he established, and through the SCA Creative Mastery course he has co-authored. Making creative jobs available to more people than it traditionally had been. The importance of paid placements and reaching the right people for placements. The SCA Creative Mastery is a creative course run mostly on virtual reality headsets to make it available to all people, geography and travel are no longer a barrier to people to learn. Big up Marc Lewis from SCA who runs the course and Meta who provide the headsets. Using the Apprenticeship Levy to fund it. People learn in a different way in virtual environments than real life, it has been proven to be better for being locked in and not distracted. Do you have to move or work in a city to accelerate your creative career? Winning advertising awards. Cannes Lion chat. Ads that get made and get made well are like sperm fertilising an egg - they are the lucky ones out of thousands of ideas. Building a house is like building an idea. Making adverts is a lifetime of hope - always believing you’ll make something remarkable - and always putting the love into every project. Chatting about Jaguar’s new advert and the impact and reactions. Vying for people’s attention is harder than ever. Ads getting shouty! Brands need to have a sure sense of what their personality is - then execute against that - loads of small ideas with the same body language. In advertising you have to become an expert in random things to understand your clients’ products. Be around interesting people and interesting things will happen! Elliot’s first ad job was at D&Ad logging award entries, and by osmosis he saw the world’s best creative work. Being at D&Ad exposed Elliot to the award juries, and showed them his portfolio, which they gave brutal opinions about. The considerations in managing a creative department. Pull people up and bring people with you. Modern creatives need to be commercial savvy now. Obsess about your client’s problem as much as your solution. Also, Nick LOVES Liquid Death - send us water!

SCA Creative Mastery
Havas Platform

Are You Creative? recorded by Nick at City Sound
Edited by

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Professional opera singer. Donna’s origins story, she was spotted as a talented singer by a teacher who took her to a French chateau to perform Mozart arias - this was of course acceptable in the late 1980s. Opera has music, drama, costume, and the power of an orchestra - opera is massive! In opera the singers also act, there’s a lot to be good at. Donna’s first professional opera gig was at the Royal Opera House. Donna has been performing modern opera works, like The Little Prince performing as a mad robot calculator character. Donna has performed opera in China in Chinese. Nick did a best man speech in Japan - find out how! Donna’s very fancy gig at Glyndebourne - she has to get a fancy dress. Playing another robot! Are there any youth operas? Can any music instrument match the range and texture of a human voice - of course not! Fach is a funny opera word to describe the type of voice you have. Where do opera singers rehearse? At home, not giving it the full beans. Donna has done a lot of crazy performances - as a catfish, robots, and bile. How do you become bile? Where do opera singers find their jobs? Is there a LinkedIn for opera? Most opera singers are soprano, bass and tenors are more rare. How do you look after your voice? No caffeine, shouting or screaming and plenty of steaming. Donna and her children communicate through the house in opera when they want to get each other’s attention. Do you need to go on vocal rest before a performance? Donna Lennard is the Beyonce of Chelmsford. Opera has a lot of stereotypes about being old fashioned and diva behaviour. Donna sung opera for Chelmsford Museum to celebrate the birth of radio. Protein’s Little Prince featuring Donna is running for the third year in London and Ipswich - Nick highly recommends. How would you start your opera journey? Get singer lessons. Explore your repertoire. Take it easy. Your voice will reach its peak at 30 years old. Talking about Pavarotti being a legend! Traditional opera is in Italian, German, Czech, French - so learning the words can be hard. Opera should be about telling stories. Is there an Essex opera? All about diphthongs and the Essex accent and glottal stops. We need more venues for opera in Essex. Donna sings us out - and it’s MEGA! ALSO Nick reveals that the toaster was invented in Toaster City - Chelmsford. Big up Colonel Crompton!

Donna Lennard website
The Little Prince - Protein Dance Company

Are You Creative? recorded by Nick at City Sound
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Thanks to NGDA, City Sound and Essex County Council for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Creator of the independent comic series System Error. How to start creating a comic. Why does the System Error robot have such a big head? Creating a recognisable silhouette is essential for character design. Phil started drawing with biro, then pen, dip brush pens, and then creating digitally. Note: Phil has very clean hands, no ink! Digital is faster, cleaner and easier to adjust. Phil uses Procreate for black line work and Photoshop for colour. Phil LOVES Procreate and recommends investing the £13 to get it. System Error is about a robot called ITTO and why things went wrong in the world. He is a tour guide robot. He has to find people in need to fulfil his primary function. Like showing them pizza restaurants. But where are the people? How do you know when your comic is good enough to publish? Being published is a validation of quality. Why did Phil have to colour in his first comic to get it published? Why do British audiences like black and white comics? Phil’s German teachers husband was Barry Kitson, legendary artists for Judge Dredd, DC Comics and more - then he met him 30 years later at Comic Con. The comic community is very supportive towards each other. Phil went from starting comics, to published, to Comic Con in six years! The need for constant professional development, and side hustles and exploration for growth. Phil is an art teacher and needs to know about digital art to teach them best. In 2024 Phil has been concentrating on techniques for working faster and meeting his standard. How do you know when something is ‘done’? Putting cultural references in comics, like Talking Heads lyrics and scenes from Chelmsford. How does Phil find his audience for indie comics? Via social media. Growing an audience through regular posting and mostly meeting real people in real life. Real world interactions are extremely valuable for audience growth. Keeping a secret identity when you’re a teacher. Cosplay at Comic Con and hunting Tofu from Resident Evil 2. Making ITTO action figures with a genius 3D printer guy. Phil’s ex-students have gone on to photography careers and had art shown in the National Gallery - he’s a good teacher! “The creative industries are the fabric of everything that is around you” - Phil Campbell, very good teacher! Putting the spark of creativity into students’ minds. Judge Dredd WAS partially created in Colchester by Pat Mills - big up Essex. And big up Dave Trenow who taught Nick art. Tips for starting comics.

System Error Comic
Blue Fox Comics
System Error on Instagram

Are You Creative? recorded by Jaiden 'the ragga enforcer' at City Sound
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca An

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Thanks to NGDA, City Sound and Essex County Council for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

AJ is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dlala Studios making video games in Witham in Essex. Dlala Studios made the Battletoads sequel in 2020 and more recently Disney Illusion Island starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Illusion Island is available on the Nintendo Switch. How did AJ start a computer games studio from his Mum’s garage in 2012? Starting as a programmer as a Game Content Developer at Jagex, then at Bossa, then winning a BAFTA, then starting Dlala Studios with Craig. Dlala have now been nominated for two BAFTAs for Illusion Island - Best British Game and Best Family Game. What are the rules for working with Mickey Mouse? There is no Mickeypedia! The ears on Epic Mickey on 3D vs 2D Mickey now. (Nick was wrong about Megadrive, that was Mickey Mouse and Castle of Illusion). New Mickey games are hand drawn animation! 2012 and the Indie Game Boom where the small game studios could release their own games. Indie games were a bit like the punk music of video games when distribution and publishing models changed. How Valve changed the industry. It can take over 3 years to make a video game, even with a studio of 43 people like Dlala, and 5 to 10 years for bigger titles like Grand Theft Auto. Working with Microsoft in their incubator. A chance encounter at a developer conference lead to creating a Windows 8 launch title, which lead to a cover article in Develop Magazine, which landed on a desk at Microsoft incubator, which lead to a paying gig just as AJ and Craig were about to run out of money. Getting out there, making an impression on people, and making connections. Pulling the best talent from all over the world to work in Witham, Essex. What does someone from California think when they move to Essex? AJ works with local education as a stakeholder at Chelmsford College, Colchester Institute, and as Cultural Ambassador for Essex. AJ didn’t excel at school or uni, but still found creative success. Nick’s game he made with his kids on Scratch ‘Mega Bum Poo’. AJ taught himself visual basic from ‘for Dummies’ books that he got from the library - pre-internet - inspired by his uncle. He made a South Park wrestling game at home - oh my god they suplexed Kenny! Getting work out quickly and get fast feedback and experience. AJ’s wrestling manager game. Finding projects to do based on your passion points. If you’ve got enough time to play games, you’ve got enough time to make them! Play testing games with user testing. Using testing feedback to refine games. AJ’s job as director making the games perfect and improving the play experience. Making marginal gains and nudges to perfect something, and caring about getting the product perfect for players. Getting reviews in the media, and the impact they can have. AJ’s philosophy is ‘negatives i can action, positives don’t help me.’ Dlala Studios have received over 40 awards and nominations for Illusion Island, including BAFTAs, Game Awards, Dice, Webbys. All awards for Essex! Working with Emmy award winning writers from Rick & Morty and Clarence for dialogue. Getting to work with incredible Disney voice talent recording dialogue that AJ has co-written for games. The importance of finding varied opinions and life experiences in employees and keeping it fresh with new voices. What does AJ do as an Essex Cultural Ambassador? And does he get Ferrero Rocher?

Don't forget to like, subscribe, share and all the good stuff.

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Send comments, questions, or suggestions for fascinating creative people in Essex give us a shout on our Instagram

Thanks to NGDA, City Sound and Essex County Council for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK