Lé Martells; from Solent to the stars?

Do ‘music career’ courses really work? Is the craft of making money from music something that can be taught, and are there pitfalls? Ian Easton talks to Solent University-bred band Lé Martells to find out.

If you take the long walk through the history of popular music, you will find it easy to cherry-pick one or two shining stars. However, what tends to be overlooked on the cultural music and media landscape is the struggle bands/artists have had to go through in order for their music to become recognised to the world. The discipline they set as a prerequisite and the sacrifices they make are things that most people are unaware of.
Now, some bands and artists are blessed with a little help from people in the industry. The number of music and music industry-based degrees on offer to the public is becoming astronomical, and to be quite frank, it has to be. In an age where anyone and everyone can play the guitar and get their music onto the worldwide web, it is ever more crucial for artists and bands alike to be able to stand tall in a room full of sheep.
Enter Lé Martells, a four-piece guitar-based pop-rock band formed in 2006 at Southampton’s Solent University. Drummer Jon Cox is full of praise for what Solent University has done for the band, from free rehearsal space to forwarding the band for Island Record’s 50th Anniversary Unsigned Act competition, in which they reached the final. ‘Island requested demos and we got into the top 10 from around 450. We were then asked to go and showcase our music in London. We absolutely nailed it and we got a fair few compliments by their A&R staff. In the end we didn't win but was still great to go to London representing the university and playing one of the best performances to date.’
All four members of LM are currently completing their final year at Solent, studying the Popular Music Performance course there. The PMP course aims to give bands the tools they need to make the grade on a professional level. Taught by established lecturers armed to the teeth with vast amounts of industry experience such as Patrick Ainsworth - Ainsworth is a senior lecturer on Solent’s PMP course - LM intend to make that grade. ‘It’s not just about giving them help on the industry, it’s about taking apart classic songs, and thinking about why and how they were performed and recorded like that. We’ll ask why certain guitar sounds are good to use, or why is a song written in a particular way. There is a lot of theory as well as the advice on the industry,’ reveals Ainsworth.
The evidence is there that Solent University and others like it can offer important opportunities to bands and artists studying their courses. The knowledge and knowhow provided by lecturers is invaluable, yet it is still down to bands like Lé Martells to make the grade on their own talent and determination, as is true for every other band or artist in history. Whether LM can progress from here and become pop-rock avatars is now down to them. Solent University can lead them to water...and well, you know the rest.
Ian Easton
December 2009