ORDER BY PHONE 800-810-6673 ORDER BY PHONE 600-810-6673 FIND A STORE FREE STANDARD GROUND SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $50 across the US*     Sign In / Register
The Brand

SSR SCHOLARSHIP: JACK AND MELANIE

Last year, Dr. Martens set up the Stand For Something Scholarship with SSR, originally a recording studio for bands such as The Stone Roses and The Smiths, now an international college offering a range of music and engineering courses. This scholarship gives individuals the chance to win a full course at either the Manchester or London campus resulting in an industry recognised diploma in Music Production & Sound Engineering. Click here to apply for the Stand For Something scholarship, applications close on 1st August.

We caught up with Jack and Melanie, who previously won the SSR Scholarship to find out more about their experiences. Jack has just begun his course and Melanie is in her second term. Find out more about what they learnt below:

IMG_4952

JACK:

What made you want to apply for the Dr. Martens #StandForSomething Scholarship at SSR London?
The competition prospect just really stood out to me personally, I’d never entered a competition before so I thought I would give it a shot, seeing as this particular one really would benefit me personally and professionally if I won!

What have you learnt so far?
I’ve learnt tonnes of stuff so far, I didn’t expect to be taking in the calibre of information that we have in in these early months.
I work in audio production already at Soundlab Studios, a place that my friend James and I have built up from the ground pretty much – so I know the basics from self-teaching, but I never studied music production so I guess I’m so happy and grateful to be finally learning about all the stuff I have been missing!

Are there any projects you’re most looking forward to in the next few months?
I’m really looking forward to phase 2 of the course, mixing is one of my favourite aspects of music production – I love the fact that a piece of music can be more than one persons ‘vision,’ as in you could have it engineered by one guy and mixed by another, bringing an entirely different set of ears to the table/board – which will obviously bring forth different ideas etc.

Jack at the SSR London studios
Jack at the SSR London studios

Tell us about your favourite pair of Dr. Martens:
I’ve had a dark brown pair of 1461 For Life’s for about a year now and they’re still my dedicated ‘smart shoes’ whilst being great for casual wear, they’re also super comfy but hard wearing, great all round pair of ones and twos!

And finally, what do you stand for?
Helping music thrive.

MELANIE:

What’s been the highlight of your course so far?
I’ve learnt so many cool and useful things here it’s hard to pick just one! I really enjoyed the synthesis classes we had recently – I’d already messed around with synthesisers quite a bit but to have it explained and demonstrated in a structured and formalised way meant everything made much more sense. A big part of production and sound design is about making good decisions and the classes have been really empowering because I now feel I understand how the all the individual components of the synthesiser really work and what effect adjusting this parameter or that parameter will make on the sound.

Melanie at SSR London
Melanie at the SSR London studios

If you’ve learnt one thing at SSR that you would pass on to prospective music students, what would it be?
Winning the #standforsomething scholarship came as a massive vote of confidence at a time when I was feeling doubtful about my creative future. I was scared to share my music with anyone and I hadn’t DJ-ed for almost a year. Since then I’ve performed my new live set of original material as Tpongle several times, including at my favourite club Dance Tunnel, and DJ-ed at some really fun events. The scholarship is a massive blessing and means I’ve been able to study a course I couldn’t have otherwise afforded; but the encouragement that has come with winning the scholarship has been more priceless than anything, really. I’d encourage anyone thinking of studying at SSR, be that via the scholarship or other means, to really believe in your skills and abilities and use your time at SSR to nurture and grow them. Don’t let doubt or fear hold you back from being the musician or engineer you want to be.

What’s been the biggest challenge during your course?
In the last month or so the course has been focused on post production (sound for moving image) and this is challenging for me because I barely watch any TV or films at all, and it’s a completely different skillset to musical engineering, so I’m way out of my comfort zone. With music, you make an edit or you process a section of audio to make it work within the musical whole – you can hear, for example, that a performer played a wrong note, or that two instrumental parts are conflicting – and so you make the appropriate edits or processes to resolve these sorts of problems, in order to make the end result pleasing to the ear. With post you are editing and processing sections of audio to make it sound more like what your eyes are seeing happen on the screen. Working in such a visual way is stretching, to say the least!

IMG_5002

What are your plans for the future after SSR?
Simply speaking, I intend to carry on doing all the musical things I do currently – producing, DJ-ing – plus all the things I’ve started doing recently thanks to the things I’ve learned at SSR, like sound engineering for my friends’ events and recording bands and concerts. In this industry it’s extremely rare to just ‘get a job’ after training; rather it’s a lot more about building a portfolio of skills and a network of contacts, which ultimately comes through experience and is an ongoing process. I’m lucky that I have a day job with a large music publisher which allows me to explore and develop the skills I’ve been learning at SSR; so I suppose my main focus will be to seek out opportunities beyond this to showcase my skills.

And finally, what do you stand for?
Fun and laughter.

Click here to apply for the Stand For Something scholarship. Applications close 1st August 2016.

Find out more about SSR on their website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.