Placement Provider’s name and location:
Cactus City Studio (London) is the UK’s first ‘safe space’ recording studio that aims to create safe spaces and equality for women and gender minorities in the music industry.
How did you secure this opportunity?
I worked at this studio as part of the ‘Work Experience’ module on the Undergraduate Music Degree at Oxford Brookes University. I heard about this opportunity from a close network contact. My main contact at Cactus City was one of my sister’s friends from school and my sister gave me their contact information. After sending an initial email, I sent them a CV and cover letter that included my experiences in music technology work I had done so far and what music related skills I have. This led to them offering me a placement at their studio.
Overview of the role:
I undertook multiple roles and tasks at my placement, which included being an assistant audio editor, foley work and content creating/designing. Throughout the work experience I saw roles on both sides of how a recording studio operates with more of a focus on audio editing. I helped design questions for their new podcast and was part of the after-pod discussion for an episode. Once it was recorded, I helped edit the audio by removing moments of silence or unneeded info and various “um”s and “er”s while people were speaking.
Additionally, I helped create content for the studio’s social media platforms like TikTok, including promotional material for the aforementioned podcast. I also spent a few days working as a foley artist; this included making metallic sounds, playing around in a junkyard and finding items that made interesting sounds or sounds I could manipulate into what was needed.
What was the most surprising thing about your experience?
I was very nervous about the workload going into the placement, as I was also responsible for administrative work and planning alongside the audio recording aspects. However, once I started the work it was like a good book in the way that I didn’t want to put it down! I found it very exciting working and producing things being applied in real world situations, as opposed to just within a University environment.
Were there any challenges that you had to overcome?
There was one day where I worked with the head of social media at Cactus City. I found the day a little tedious and it was only afterwards that I realised why: it wasn’t the kind of creative work that really interests me. I managed to communicate this to the company and was lucky enough that they were understanding and allowed me to do work in other sectors of the company instead.
How beneficial was your experience and how might it help you in the future?
Prior to this experience, I was thinking about becoming a music teacher. However, over time and in combination with all the different music-related areas we were learning about on the Music degree, this career path became less appealing to me personally. I started losing focus of what I wanted after University. Having said this, I think my placement at Cactus City has inspired me to pursue work in the music technology sector as I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to do creative hands-on work every day at the internship. I also enjoyed the administrative work that came along with it too, as it mostly consisted of research and reporting what I had done with sound recordings.
What advice would you give to a student in this position?
Go big! Go for your ideal work opportunity – the worst that can happen is that they say no at that time or they don’t have capacity for an extra person on deck. But you are on their radar now. I am still receiving work experience updates from the Royal Opera House in London because I reached out to them. Even though nothing immediate came from that, that connection is there. I would also suggest applying to a range of things even if you don’t think it would be something you want to do long-term because it is still experience and who knows, it might change your mind!
You can follow @pia_jones_music on Instagram and find some of the work that Pia was involved in at Cactus City via the links below:
Cactus City Podcast – ‘Not a Groupie: Women in Music Podcast’: www.cactuscity.org/notagroupiepod
‘Workplace Equality Parody’ (Instagram Reel): www.instagram.com/reel/ChXVKKfDl91/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Pia also created this Instagram video explaining what foley artists do: www.instagram.com/reel/Cj0bm56Dg-a/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D