The World We’re Dreaming Of

Pie is 20 this year. It has always been one of our top priorities as a youth charity to raise the voices of the young people around us.

Listening to young peoples hopes and dreams for their futures is extremely important and our belief is that every young person deserves the right to equal opportunity and that young people shape our future.

In August, a group of young people from Thanet and Dover took part in stop motion animation workshops with, artist Hannah Whittaker in which they learnt lots of different mediums, that can be used to make their final animation. We asked them to work with the idea: ‘The World We’re Dreaming Of’. They did a fantastic job thinking about their hopes and dreams for the future as inspiration to create some brilliant animations both together and individually.

Pie is turning 20 this year and we hope that by offering free creative workshops like these, it will help to give platforms to young people and help them to express their feelings in a safe environment without judgment. Using the arts to open up discussions into aspirations and dreams really helps to engage young people with visualising their futures.

It was brilliant watching the young people’s dreams come to life, they worked in a range of different materials to make different animations. Using Card to create people and faces, Bluetack to make characters, plasticine and various other craft bits and bobs. The young people got to learn how to use new software to create their animations. No dream, no matter how big or small, should be wasted, and even if dreams don’t become reality, they can lead to other things in the future. Gaining these skills helped young people work together in groups, connecting with one another through art and having passions in common.

Have a look at some of the brilliant animations made by the young people from this project:

Keep an eye out on our website for upcoming workshops and sessions: www.piefactorymusic.com/whats-on/

Thank you to Reconnect Kent for funding this project and helping young people connect with one another about their ambitions for the future.

Pie’s Emerging Artists launch the first single on their record label, Wantsum Music?

Debdepan (Deb-De-Pan), Kent’s rising female duo, release their genre-bending first song Darkest Hour, on 16 September — marking the second release of our emerging youth record label Wantsum Music?

Childhood friends Chelsea Tolhurst and Grace Bontoft established the band during the first lockdown in 2020, out of a growing need to express themselves and create the music they wanted to hear. Proficient guitarist and vocalist Chelsea and gifted bassist Grace are known for their quick-fire creativity, often writing a song in a day and performing it that same night.

Discovered by Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists and the Wantsum Music? collective, Debdepan’s ethereal, experimental sound and grassroots ethos chimed with the label, which launched in autumn 2021 to promote and support young homegrown talent.

“Lyric-wise Darkest Hour is open for interpretation; but the origin of the song is personal, it’s a reflection on an experience I had, that I needed to capture musically in order to move through it” says Chelsea.

“After modifying the BPM numerous times, Darkest Hour is intended to captivate listeners, to move them through one place emotionally to another – to journey to the quiet within the loud” adds Grace.

Following several successful live gigs throughout Kent (Elsewhere and The Albion Rooms in Margate, Tunbridge Wells Forum, Ramsgate Festival of Sound, Maidstone Fringe Festival) the duo have honed their progressive style, reminiscent of Warpaint, connecting closely to audiences. Chelsea and Grace are now partnering with Wantsum Music? to take their music to the next level and to even more people across Kent and beyond.

Listen and download Darkest Hour on all streaming platforms and Wantsum Music? Bandcamp at www.wantsummusic.bandcamp.com