After their incredible Goodgod Small Club takeover in March, the HOME BASE ALL STARS are taking to the stage again!

For almost a year now, Heaps Decent has been holding weekly music workshops at Redfern Community Centre.  The drop-in project is called Home Base and every Monday afternoon anywhere between 5 and 30 young musicians write, collaborate and record their songs with the Heaps Decent facilitators.

The results are beyond impressive and if you didn’t catch them last month, come down to Fraser Studios (10-14 Kensington St, Chippendale) on SUNDAY 20th MAY to see it all go down again – don’t miss this incredible warehouse party!

Performers include:

Korks, Tyrone Tiedemann, Infamous, Supreme, Monica Winter, Tasha Lee Marshall , Terrible Twins, Fowl Murk, Big H, Kurva, Icey, Enny, Maori Soldier and Junior 1 (whose ages ranging from 14-21)

+ Heaps Decent DJs

Listen to their work here now: http://soundcloud.com/heaps-decent/sets/home-base-redfern/ (more songs to come!)

ONLY $5! (All money raised goes back into the project)

ALL AGES / NO ALCOHOL (DRY EVENT)

In September last year we were granted funding by Centrelink to go towards a two-year project in the remote town of Wilcannia. Project sustainability is extremely important to us at Heaps Decent so we were very excited to learn of the project when we attended the launch for the Minister for Social Inclusion’s Report in September last year. Since the inception of Heaps Decent, it has always been a goal of the organisation to head out to Wilcannia to facilitate workshops. The project consists of quarterly workshops at various locations with kids from around the town. We recently carried out our first of the 8 lots of workshops with great success.

I made the journey along with Levins, Adam Bozzetto and Kristy Lee and it was a pretty incredible experience that I feel privileged to have been a part of. With a population of around 500 people, Wilcannia isn’t a walk in the park to get to! The journey started with a flight to Broken Hill where we stayed the night in the hotel where Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was filmed (incidentally also one of the cheapest hotels in town!) To our dismay, the waterslide in town was closed and the following morning we made the final leg of the journey – a two-hour drive out to Wilcannia, leaving behind our Broken Hill waterslide disappointment and Kristy’s mobile phone reception. Due to all the flooding in the area it was surprisingly green for the desert and after a hassle free trip, we arrived in Wilcannia and met with our eyes on the ground, Eddy Harris from Wilcannia Arts. Eddy is a local Aboriginal man, who grew up in Wilcannia and we’re fortunate to be working with such a great guy!

The first afternoon saw us stop in at Wings Drop-In Centre where we had a brief introduction to some of the young people and wasted no time in getting a few recordings underway. Tony and Candela who run the Wings Drop-In were excited to see us and were very hospitable over the following days.

Our first full day in Wilcannia commenced with workshops at St Therese’s Mission School, where we spent the morning working with a few classes, the kids we worked with ranged in age from around 5 to 8, they were incredibly cute and took a lot from the sessions! Here we put together the songs “Dinner Time” and “We come from Wilcannia”, which both feature in the video which are some of our best songs to date! In the afternoon we set up our travelling Heaps Decent studio at the Wings Drop-In Centre, which had a fantastic vibe amongst the chaos! So many smiles and enthusiasm awaited us and we set up for an afternoon of recording. We saw many of the same faces that we had seen in school earlier that day and we were able to elaborate on the work we had done that morning to get some more great recordings. The afternoon was filled with songwriting and dance challenges on the Nintendo Wii. At one point in the workshop I had a 5 year-old girl sitting on my shoulders while I was recording another two girls’ raps!

Upon our arrival to the Wilcannia Central School the following morning, we were greeted with some strange looks and disbelief of how little equipment we required. We carried on and set up for the day long posting in the school gymnasium and it wasn’t until half way through the morning session that one of the teachers informed us that they had in fact thought that Heaps Decent was a circus act that was coming to perform for the students! It was an intense day but another successful one, with around 65 kids participating in our workshops over the 6 hours that we were there! There were some trying times managing such large groups of kids but we discovered another side to “Miss Kristy” as all the years of her teaching experience shone through and she managed to keep the restless workshop participants cool and calm…

A little worn out to say the least, we headed back for our final Wings workshop for the week where we nailed a couple more songs; one particularly worthy of note was a song by Owen, which we’ll post in the next few days. After wrapping up at Wings, we headed back to Tony and Candela’s place where we exchanged stories over an extremely satisfying bolognese!

The following morning we stopped in at the schools to drop off the finished songs, which Boz had tirelessly collated that morning before setting off on the journey back home!

It was a trip I won’t forget in a hurry and we hope you enjoy the wonderful music that resulted from our workshops.

Words: Charlie

Video: Kristy

And now for something personal!

For more than 6 months, the incredible Alison Wilkes interned with Charlie and Erin at Heaps Decent HQ. Part of the yearly intern program at our benefactor, Fuzzy, Alison assisted us through our Parklife volunteer drive and workshops, was an integral part of our website renewal and generally an amazing energy to have in the office.

Always keen for another adventure, the fluent French speaker is now soaking up the glorious weather in Tasmania (we know, right?) With that in mind, If you do come across a smiling blonde rocking a Heaps Decent tee in Tasmania, send her back our way… Ok?

From the bittersweet, to something just straight up sweet!

It’s with great pleasure that we can announce the first Heaps Decent baby! Just over a month ago, our amazing manager Erin and her partner Lucas welcomed their first born into the world. We consider their boy Miles as one of ours, considering Lucas and Erin met a Heaps Decent workshop!

A little over two weeks ago, the back room of Sydney’s Goodgod Small Club was heaving with onstage energy via our Home Base All Stars.

The first collective performance from the weekly music workshops at the Redfern Community Centre was a raging success.

With performances from Korks, Tyrone Tiedemann, Infamous, Supreme, Monica Winter, Tasha Lee Marshall , Terrible Twins, Fowl Murk, Big H, Kurva and Icey (whose ages ranging from 14-21) the crowd lapped up the showcased Rap, RnB and acoustic performances. Playing to a full room for the entire two hours, this event was truly something special. no doubt the first of many.

The are more photos online here, however if you need more music from the All Stars – check out the projects Soundcloud and keep and ear out for more shows and songs!

Are you interested in photography and digital storytelling?

Want to hangout with professional photographers and get access to hi-tec digital labs?

Flashpoint Labs in partnership with the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence(NCIE),  Powerhouse Museum, Vibewire, and Future Journeys is running a changemaking photography and digital storytelling program for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (16-24) in inner-city Sydney over the Easter holiday period (April 13^th-29^th).

The BIG PICTURE program focuses on creating an opportunity for local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to learn and practice photography, storytelling and multimedia production. It’s also about having a chance to hangout with professional photographers, having a bit of hands on creative fun, and getting to access to the Powerhouse Museum’s Hi-Tec Labs. If the participants want, we’ll also have exhibitions in galleries and spaces around Sydney.

There will be an introductory afternoon session on Friday 13^th April, then six full-day workshops, four at the NCIE on 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, 20^th  April and two on the weekend of the 28^th-29^th April, at the Powerhouse’s Thinkspace labs. More details here.

APPLY NOW for these FREE workshops! Click here for more information and to fill out the online form, or print out and return the attached flyer to the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence. Applications close on Friday April 6^th 2012. Priority will be given to students whose applications are received by the deadline.

Flashpoint Labs is committed to providing on-going spaces for learning and support for participants of the program.

For more information contact Mickey Kovari (Co-founder or Flashpoint Labs and Online Engagement Coordinator at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence) at hello@flahspointlabs.org or on 8094 2507 during business hours.

“My first fortnight for 2012 – Key College, Petersham and Campbeltown.

So far this year I am involved in 4 different workshops each week for Heaps Decent – that’s quite a lot of young people and more importantly – quite a lot of music!!

The first is on a Monday at Key College in Redfern, which an accredited independent high school that operates under the auspice of Youth Off The Streets (YOTS). It caters for approximately 9-12 students at any one time, and this year we have so far 4-6 of those students who are keen to work with us each week. Nina, Rowan and I spent the first week meeting all the students and having a chat with them to get an idea of what type of music or creative arts they were into, and together we set some term, 6 month and yearly goals that they can work towards.

On Thursdays again I see Mr Rowan Dix (that’s us in the picture before we go in to start), but this time we head to the Department of Juvenile Justice Community Office in Petersham. In week 1, two girls I worked with finished a whole song (and it’s rad!) and Shantan (filling in for Rowan) started working with a young boy who was keen to freestyle, but was aiming to start writing his lyrics out so they could be practised, perfected and then recorded. Week 2, we had some fresh faces, one who sat with myself while we made a ‘hard style’ piece of music. I had no idea what this genre sounded like till he explained it to me – and I think it actually sounds quite good to be honest! While I as being educated in ‘hard style’ Rowan started to work with the rappers and reign in a little of their freestyle so it could start to be recorded. Last day of the week for me is a big one!

On Fridays I head out to Campbelltown with Shantan and Pablo Calamari (Adam Stivala) to do two workshops. The first being at a facility in Campbelltown with some young woman who are so full of life and so as a result, we already have 2 completed songs and 2 in the works – in only 2 WEEKS!

On Friday afternoon, after a quick drive through to some kind of horrid fast food outlet (yep, the boys do this every week!) we head to Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre – which is the maximum security centre for young people primarily under the age of 16. Week 1, we had about 6 boys and with with their combined energy, completed a whole song in 1 day. It is sooo catchy I had it in my head for weeks – can still recite all the lyrics now. By week 2, some of the young people had actually been released so we only had 3 in a workshop. You would think that made it easier but in fact I think that without the group enthusiasm, it was a lot harder to keep focus and get everyone involved and staying on task. We did however start some fresh songs which we can hopefully continue to develop. Bring on week 3!”

For almost a year now, Heaps Decent has been facilitating weekly music workshops for young people at Redfern Community Centre.

The drop-in project is called Home Base and every Monday afternoon, anywhere between 5 and 30 young musicians write, collaborate and record their songs with a rotating roster of amazing Heaps Decent facilitators including Levins, Adam Bozzetto, Nina Las Vegas, Charlie Chux, Joyride, Toni Toni Lee, Kristy Lee, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Melanie Otuhouma, Jeremy Pipemix, Hugh O’Brien, Pablo Calamari and Xavier Fijac.

Throughout the year, the kids coming to Home Base have also had sessions with international artists touring Sydney including A-Trak, Jack Beats, Chris Devlin, Ghostdad, 12th Planet, Sinden, AC Slater and Maelstrom. We’ve been so lucky and grateful for all the generosity we’ve received.

If you’re in Sydney this Friday 30th March, we’re holding a Showcase to give the guys that we work with each week an opportunity to perform their songs. It would mean a lot to everyone involved with Home Base and Heaps Decent if you could make it down to check out the fantastic work we’ve been doing. The Showcase goes down from 7pm to 9pm this Friday night at Goodgod Small Club, 55 Liverpool St Sydney and some of the kids will be performing their songs live!

This will be the first performance for some of these guys and we’re hoping to have a room filled with friendly and supportive people. You can drop down after work and it finishes early!

*The event is strictly OVER 18s, we’ll be doing another all-ages gig in the not-too-distant future.

Shore Thing at Bondi Beach on New Years Eve and Field Day in the Domain on New Years Day definitely proved to be fantastic days not only for festival punters but also for Heaps Decent. The Heaps Decent banners flew high at the entry gates, the guest ticket lanes were packed and eager complimentary ticket holders had their $20 donations ready to go. Complimentary ticket holders were not only keen to donate, with some super generous punters donating far above the requested $20, many were also keen to have a chat with our awesome volunteers and find out more about the work Heaps Decent does.

The funds raised will go directly towards the operational costs of Heaps Decent that we simply could not function without, supporting our work with at-risk young people and emerging artists from Sydney and regional and remote NSW. The donations fund our weekly drop-in music production workshop at Redfern, monthly workshop series targeting at-risk young people in Wagga Wagga, regular workshops at Juvenile Justice Centres in NSW and a new quarterly project in the remote community of Wilcannia in far northwest NSW.

Every year our benefactor Fuzzy allows us to collect a $20 donation from each of the complimentary ticket holders that attend their events through an initiative known as the Cash For Comp scheme. Over the past three years the scheme has enabled Heaps Decent to raise over $200,000! Heaps Decent is very grateful to all those that donated over the New Year period, the amazing Heaps Decent volunteers who collected the donations and of course to Fuzzy for allowing this initiative to happen.

Monday the 9th of January saw the first day back for the weekly Heaps Decent Homebase at Redfern Community Centre in 2012. Starting off the year with more than a bang, we had not 1, not 2, but 5 international artists join us as guest facilitators. All the way from the USA were 12th Planet, Devlin & Ghostdad, and then hailing from the UK were 2 piece Jack Beats, all of whom happened to be in town for Fuzzy’s Field Day festival in The Domain on New Years Day. We were very appreciative that they took time out from their busy touring schedules to come down and spend a day in the studio and it was fantastic having them there!

Ghostdad immediately felt at home setting up camp as engineer in the main studio with Devlin. The two worked on a beat for Kut who then laid down a nice little rap over a trademark Devlin/Ghostdad beat.

Outside the studio, 12th Planet and Jack Beats pretty much became a beat making sweatshop, first busting out a killer beat for Tyrone, and then next Fowl Murk and Tama and then lastly one that featured Monica on the guitar!

With a pretty amazing beat in hand, Tyrone enlisted Levins the lyricist to help him start with a catchy hook talking about the summertime. Tyrone then sat down with me to record the hook, where we continued to build up the rest of the structure and even played around with singing some harmonies and adding other vocal layers. We played Jack Beats and 12th planet what we had come up with and they loved it, with 12th planet suggesting we record some add lib’s towards the end of the track – which we promptly proceeded to do!

Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Hugh worked on sampling some old school songs and recording guitar and vocals with Tashx, while Fowl Murk and Tama wowed our guests with their ability to write so quickly as the Terrible Twinz, and Henry showed everyone exactly how to record a verse in one take back inside the studio.

On top of all that Homebase headmaster Bozzetto found some brand new recruits from the Redfern Community Centre and gave them the opportunity to record and make music for their first time.

By the end of the session the music that was created was super impressive and everyone there is showing such amazing skill. Something else I really noticed that was great to see, was the general team player vibe and everyone’s ability to take direction and listen to the facilitators/guests. It makes such a difference when an artist can take on advice and try out different things in order to come up with the best results. Such a good atmosphere all in all.

Words/Photos: Kristy Lee

Late in 2011, French producer Maelstrom graced us with his presence at our  Home Base workshop in Redfern. After hearing about Heaps Decent from friend and fellow Frenchie Teki Latex, Mael contacted us about coming to a workshop during the Sydney leg of his recent Australian tour so we took him up on his generous offer and he came down to make some beats. It was super pleasant to meet Mael and he was really grateful to be able to join us.

During the workshop Maelstrom, who’s had releases on Dirtybird and Boys Noise Records to name a couple, was eager to get cracking on a beat with a willing young person. For a more hands-on approach, Mael set up his launch pad, a device with pads that triggers sounds in Ableton, and Fowl Murk was quick to dive in and have a go. In next to no time they had a solid 808 beat happening and Fowl Murk jumped in front of the mic to throw down some of his best, without a hint of anything written down might I add.

Mael was blown away by Fowl Murk’s talent and he nailed some great recordings to take away from the session. I’m very much looking forward to hearing the finished result!