"My name is Michiel, I am a musician, producer and sound artist from Moray in the north of Scotland. My creative journey has felt wide-ranging and my practice transitory. As a teenager, I acted in numerous theatre companies and later became passionate about pursuing a career as a songwriter. At 18, I joined a range of initiatives facilitated by the Scottish Music Centre, which allowed me to perform regularly across Scotland. Notable performances include playing at festivals Belladrum, Kelburn Garden Party, Findhorn Bay Arts Festival and XpoNorth and at venues including King Tuts and The Ironworks. In addition, I have supported renowned Scottish artists Blue Rose Code and Adam Holmes and played live on STV’s show ‘Live at Five’. Upon moving to Glasgow at the age of 20, I signed to an independent record label run by Sace Lockhart and David Donaldson, who I worked with for just under two years. Later, I felt my life experience and interests had distanced me from my folk roots as I became more interested in jazz and electronic sound production. Last year, I released three singles, which have allowed me to construct a new artistic identity exploring these influences. In July 2020, I founded anam creative and have centred my practice around collaboration ever since."
"Being funded to run this project has been somewhat life-changing for me. It has given me the opportunity to gain unique experience in my career, learn from an incredibly talented collective of musicians and artists, and be playful in my practice. Despite the time and dedication required, running this project has felt effortless due to the joy it has brought me. I have not only developed my abilities as a musician and collaborator but gained new skills coordinating a large scale project."
"Collaborating with each member of the collective has provided me with significant new experience, which I will transfer into my future work. By listening to the processes of the other artists, I have opened my mind to a range of new workflows and concepts."
"anam creative will continue to function as a platform and collective with the hope of facilitating a more diverse range of opportunities for young musicians and artists based in Scotland. We would love to run a project similar to this (arts collaboration project) for a new cohort of artists and hope to source some funding to do so in the next few years. Until then, we'll aim to run some smaller-scale projects where we can hopefully pay artists by means of crowdfunding, music/art sales and any other small funds available."
"Other potential plans include: building a collaboration page for young musicians and artists in Scotland to use to network with others, running free collaborative/development workshops and continuing to build our resources page."