How young musicians can receive free studio, rehearsal time and support with Sunderland Summer Sessions
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Back for a second year running, The Bunker and Independent have launched their Sunderland Summer Sessions project, aimed at providing support and guidance to new musicians in the city.


A new cohort of local emerging artists will receive more than 30 hours of free rehearsal and recording time, alongside support from industry professionals and experienced musicians to develop their songwriting, live performance skills, artist management assets and more.
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Hide AdIn addition to the valuable support, artists will be encouraged to use the rehearsal time to write new music and spend time working on their songs, exploring new ideas they may not usually have time for.
All artists will perform in a celebration gig at Independent on Saturday, September 28, as well as having their music featured on a new compilation album, to be released on all streaming platforms.
Alongside the rehearsal hours and advice, artists will leave the process with two track live sessions video, multi track recorded and mixed with multi-camera angle HD visuals.
Independent and The Bunker, two institutions of music in Sunderland with collectively over 50 years of experience, collaborate on the project to bring tailored industry support to grassroots musicians with help and advice coming from those working within the music scene in the city and the surrounding areas.
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Hide AdThe support provided on the whole project is worth over £10,000 and has been put together without additional funding, but relying on volunteers and a number of fundraising events.
Independent’s Ben Richardson explained: “We’re really looking forward to working on this project once again with The Bunker.
“Last year was a success but we’ve tweaked a few things to make the project more effective in our mission to support local artists, as always we can’t wait to welcome the next group of emerging acts to play in Independent.”
This music development project will run alongside the ‘Next Steps’ Programme, launched by We Make Culture CIC, which will support eight more experienced but aspiring musicians to apply for a £1000 support package, which will include mentoring, workshops and a grant that can be spent on anything from recording to PR support.
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Hide AdKenny Sanger, from The Bunker, added: “Last year saw nine local bands emerge from the project, who benefitted from the support and moved on up the music ladder.
“It was great to see them develop in our studios throughout the summer, going on to play bigger gigs and release more music. These are both an indication of the support available to musicians in the city’s successful music scene, and another reason why we should all back the Music City campaign spearheaded by the Macq Trust.”

Scarlett Peverley, lead singer of local band Calvoas, who took part in last summer’s successful project, explained how they had benefited from the support.
She said: “This time last year we were a relatively new band and needed time to write new songs and get ready for gigs.
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Hide Ad“Being able to rehearse every week for free and then write, record and release two new songs was great for us. We then went on to play some mint local gigs but wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of Summer Sessions.”
Calvoas’ new single, Girl in Costume, was released last week and the band play their first headline show at Independent on August 30, with fellow local bands Rokkari and Monday Club.
How to apply for Sunderland Summer Sessions


The Sunderland Summer Sessions are open to North East based musicians (a preference will be shown to those based
in Sunderland).
Artists will need to be available on either every Tuesday OR every Wednesday for the whole of August (5 weeks in total) from 10am-4pm and available for a gig on Saturday 28th September.
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Hide AdThe deadline for applications is Friday 19th July at 5pm and successful applicants will be notified by Tuesday 23rd July at 5pm.
Apply by filling out a short form at: https://forms.gle/kvVvxPZNyiNxSU598
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