Music not just for the stars
Trenton Birch helps township youth perform but gives many more the skills to make a living
MAINSTREAM electronic music in Cape Town is reverberating outwards and taking root in the Cape Flats.
Over the past three years, eight artists from Cape Town townships have performed at international music festivals thanks to the help of a local entrepreneur.
Music industry chameleon Trenton Birch, 37, has been at the forefront of bridging the gap between townships and electronic music.
He is helping a new wave of disadvantaged artists to make it big on the electronic and techno scenes, while also bringing music education to poor areas.
With his business partner, Ibiza DJ Valentino Barrioseta, Birch founded Bridges for Music, a nonprofit organisation that uses music to drive development in disadvantaged communities.
“Bridges for Music has been set up predominantly in the townships to help disadvantaged creatives who often just get sidelined and would never look to go and study anything traditional,” said Birch. “We’ve created a model which I think is quite unique globally. It’s called a magnet model, which uses music to draw in young creatives from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Our success is not based on how many of those students end up in the industry but rather on how many of those students make a living. Whether that’s directly in the music space or not doesn’t really matter to us.”
In its five years, Bridges for Music has offered workshops to more than 2 000 people in townships, often hosted by producers such as popular American Skrillex and England’s Richie Hawtin. The first Bridges for Music school is expected to open in Langa, Cape Town, next year.
But education isn’t the only musical hat worn by Birch, who has spent more than 18 years in the music industry. He is also the vocalist in his own band, label manager of Black Mango Music and director at higher education organisation the SAE Institute in Woodstock.
“I move between the business side of music, the education side of music and the creative side of music,” Birch said.
“I’ve managed to find myself in a nice place where I can hybridise between the three.”
He has used his experience to create opportunities for artists from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Three years ago, Makonwabe Bekwa, aka AudioJerk, was playing deep house sets at township parties. But last month he played at the biggest dance party in the world, the Amsterdam Dance Event, which drew 375 000 people.
Bekwa, from Langa, is one of eight artists from Cape Town townships who Birch has helped send to play at some of the top music festivals, such as Glastonbury in England and Belgium’s Tomorrowland.
“Trenton saw me play at the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival and then helped me get a gig at the Kinky Disco music KEYS TO SUCCESS: Trenton Birch is the co-founder of Bridges for Music, which promotes music as a career but also passes on business skills fest, which was a big break for me,” Bekwa said.
“They then gave me a scholarship at SAE, where I was able to improve as a musician, especially in producing electronic music.”
With the help of patrons such as DJ Black Coffee, rapper AKA and DJ Ready D, Birch has awarded 15 scholarships at the SAE Institute — one of the foremost institutions in filmmaking, animation and sound production.
Birch is realistic about the chances of artists being successful, and promises a holistic approach to skills development and training at Bridges for Music. “The reality is it’s only one in 100 000 who becomes a Black Coffee, so the odds of making it as an artist are low,” he said.
“We don’t want to kill that dream so we bring people in and 50% of the curriculum is pragmatic audio training — learning about beats and how to write music and do live sound.
“The other 50% is entrepreneurial skills, which include basic transferable skills like marketing, finance and other things you can utilise no matter what you do.”
Bridges for Music will share the school’s new building in Langa with the Rescue Youth Community Organisation, which offers skills development and physical training to youth who have completed matric.
Rescue CEO Balise Jikolo said: “There is a lot in common between us and Bridges because they are also for the upliftment of young people in the townships. It will be beneficial that the database of young people that we have will get to share in the space. By them being in our programme it will mean they will stand a good chance to apply and be part of this music school.”
The reality is it’s only one in 100 000 who becomes a Black Coffee