Makes me feel kind of all warm that they’ve actually chosen our brand
White Bear Studios is a professional music production and recording studio based in Ancoats, Manchester in the North West of England. Established in 2011 by Producer David Page, White Bear Studios is in its third premises with upgraded audio equipment, and is building an ever increasing client list. The recording studio is equipped with a mixture of analogue and digital equipment offering a variety of styles and genres suitable for all markets.Find out more and sign up to the Creative Scale up Programme
Dave gave us an understanding of why he became involved in music..
What’s your story?
Where to start, I’ve grown up with music, I think I knew every lyric to every yes track before I was talking and even before I can even remember. But my musical journey started with making mix tapes, from about 4 or 5 years old I used to get buy dad’s CD’s and put them onto tape and sit and listen to them in my room and sit and listen to them in any car journey I could possibly get away with putting some headphones on and listening to music then I would. And then after that I started my own CD collection, and shortly after (I was 5 or 6 probably) I moved onto playing guitar because I was pestering my parents until they eventually had to get me a guitar because it was that obvious that I really needed to be playing it because I needed an outlet. So yeah I was playing guitar for many years and I was playing in bands after that, and then moving into being in a recording studio, for me was a natural progression because I was in a band and wanting to record my own material that this band was playing and I didn’t really trust my music with anybody else so I did that poorly for a few months on cassette players and what not. And then my mum just said to me “Why don’t you go to uni and learn how to do it properly” so that’s the start of me doing it professionally.
What does Manchester bring for you in the music scene?
I think the main reason I moved to Manchester because I found that there was so many little towns around Manchester that had lots of artist or musicians. When you’re in the centre, you’re in the hub of it and you’ve got all these towns around the outside that all want to come in and be in the middle of it which is Manchester for me. But it was the best idea, I don’t think I realised it at time, I think I thought I’ll come to Manchester and there’ll just be artists in Manchester and there’ll be more of them but what I found was like I said there’ll be so many towns and artists on them sort of suburb towns wanting to come into the middle and that just brought a load more custom.
What would you say about Manchesters music scene in general?
I think its got a lot of history with music hasn’t it and thats what’s spurring it on, people want to make sure it’s continuously moving if its one genre or not, its got a big heritage in house music and what not hasn’t it.
What do you get out of being creative?
It keeps me entertained in life, it keeps me going. I think being creative has become a job now, but I can also switch it around and it doesn’t have to be a job because I’m in a band as well
so being creative from a band is like an outlet of just doing something that comes naturally and I’m not having to think that I’m working for somebody, and the good thing about that is that I’m doing it with other people as well. Its good to work with other and create something and bring everybody’s ideas together into one project
Contrast working in a regular job to working in a creative job?
I’ve only ever worked in burger king and things like that, that was fun because you’re a teenager and you’re messing about. I made it so when I finish uni I wouldn’t do anything else because this is all I wanted to do, I didn’t want to end up finishing uni and being like ‘well I’ll just get a job for a bit so I can get some money while I figure this out” it was like this is gonna work from now on because I made sure that I didn’t have many responsibilities, so I didn’t have any financial responsibilities because I’m in the beginning of a career in the music industry or any creative industry, I think you have to expect that you really have to work your way up slowly until you get to the point where you’re earning money from it.
What’s the best situation you can be in, in the studio?
Well, I’ll tell you what; the thing that gets me fired up is coming away from it and going to a music festival where the music that you’ve been producing or anybody’s been producing is being listened to and enjoyed in the perfect environment which is a festival with loads of people where everyones and everyones there to have a good time and have a dance whatever and listen to some good music, and then I come back from that thinking “right lets make some music lets make some dope music thats gonna be played at the festivals next year so everyone can enjoy it.” You can easily get wrapped up in thinking “I’m just doing this it’s a job” and you forget that once it’s done, it goes in to the universe. But when you’re actually hearing in it’s environment that it’s supposed to be played, and thats when it brings everything together and makes you realise why you’re doing it in the first place. Or when a bands playing live (and you go to watch them) that have been to the studio or have recorded in the studio and then you listen to them play it live, and they’re playing it in front of people who are enjoying it, which is the reason why I’m doing it
What’s a day in the life a Dave?
Get up, change a nappy (laughing), make a cup of tea, walk the dog, come to the studio and work with someone or even work on my own depending on what’s going on. Mix something, record something, produce something, go home. MaKe SomE TeA!
Lil’s story
What’s your story?
I’m from Liverpool, I’m a singer-songwriter, I went to university to study acting so I’ve already been into performing arts, music, everything creative really. I went to do acting at university but after graduating I realised that something always brought me back to music, all the time, all throughout my life, no matter what I’ve done I’ve always gone back to music so now I’m really trying to make a good go at it, and give it everything I’ve got to see if I can get somewhere with it.
What do you get out of being creative, what do you get out of music?
It’s a way to release, a release of emotions for me, its a way for me to get all those trapped emotions out and then once I’ve written a song and I’ve sung it I feel like I can put that to bed, I can put that problem or that hard time to bed and thats my way of progressing through life I guess, it helps me to progress as a person
What’s it like to come to a studio and record?
That’s when it feels more like a career to me, it’s using that side of singing and songwriting as a way to create a career in it in the long run. It feels good,
it can be quite challenging sometimes, listening to the same thing over and over again, but thats when I start to feel really professional and it gives me an insight into what I wanna be doing. I just wanna carry on making music and getting in the studio whenever I can
What get’s you fired up?
People’s reactions to my music and my songwriting, whether I’m gigging or whether I’m in the studio hearing what other people have to say about it and how they sort of vibe with my music, that’s the best feeling and that really get’s me fired up and that really makes me wanna continue doing it.
What is a day in the life of LiL?
Sing constantly, from morning ’til night I just sing and I’m constantly writing songs. I gig at bars around Liverpool and Manchester, a bit of busking. I mean this isn’t a typical day, this is obviously a lot to do in one day, but this is sort of what I do most of the time.
