Posted on: September 16th, 2022 by Steph Dickinson No Comments
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
Posted on: August 26th, 2022 by Steph Dickinson No Comments
At Pie, we’re acutely aware of the rise in mental health support needed for young people.
Over the past two years, you’ve helped us to raise nearly £10,000 through our Soundcheck campaign to enable us to offer free counselling for young people in Thanet and Dover.
We are now offering free 1-to-1 counselling support for over 18s every Wednesday at Pie HQ in Ramsgate.
Trainee Counsellor Rohan has joined our team of counsellors to give these sessions as part of his qualification.
I’ll listen to you, accept you for who you are, and try to understand what’s going on in your life from your point of view.
I don’t offer advice or tell you what to do, instead, I try to support and empower you to find your own ways to cope better with whatever issues you are facing.
Posted on: August 16th, 2022 by Steph Dickinson No Comments
Grace, Girls Programme participant
Hi my name’s Grace 👋
I had recently moved to the area from Essex and Rachel who was my next-door neighbour who runs the girl’s group invited me to come and join in.
Being a part of The Feminist Complex (that’s what we called the group) has really helped with my social anxiety. The Covid lockdown had meant I felt quite anxious being around other people and I found it hard to socialise again. The group opened up many opportunities to build on my knowledge of sound engineering, and it has given me purpose and friendship.
The support of the Girls Programme leader Rachel and session worker Moa has inspired me to volunteer at Rosslyn court in Margate (a venue that hosts a range of live gigs) and attend the Tech 31 workshop at the Gulbenkian in Canterbury, which has given me a lot of experience and made me feel like I belong.
Grace at Rosslyn Court
The change in myself being in The Feminist Complex has given me a lot of confidence
It has helped me with my social skills and enabled me to leave the house, it’s given me knowledge on how studios work and extended my work on Logic, then at Rossyln Court and the Gulbenkian I learnt about how to use different desks in live event situations.
I created an original track for the event from field recordings and transposition of music from a Japanese anime game which was played at interludes, amongst the other members of The Feminist Complex singing and dancing.
My favourite experience with The Feminist Complex has been when we went and saw the Frankenstein beatbox at the Gulbenkian- that was a really cool production and it was fun to shout out a bunch of songs on the bus home 😂
Collaborating with Kim from Palm Bay Music was a lot of fun- I learnt a lot. Kim understood my anxiety and dyslexia and gave me a lot of confidence in studio work, which has been really great.
Grace with mentor Kim from Palm Bay Music
What are you planning next for your music projects?
As far as the future is concerned, I’m excited to be continuing going to Rosslyn Court and getting hands-on experience there, and I have been invited to Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate – another opportunity to carry on doing what I love.
If I could describe my experience of being a key member of The Feminist Complex it would be:
Challenging, motivating, and learning
Stories like Grace’s make you realise that what starts out as a chance to be creative, can become so much more for a young person. It can be that transformative experience that helps them with another aspect in their life, in this case Grace’s social anxiety following the pandemic. If you would like to donate towards our ongoing work to empower and inspire young people CLICK HERE
Posted on: June 21st, 2022 by Steph Dickinson No Comments
We’re proud to have launched an important new programme, Open Arms, for young unaccompanied asylum seekers and refugees aged 13 – 21 years.
Taking place as an open session every Friday from 5 – 7pm at our HQ Ramsgate Youth Centre, it’s a safe, relaxed environment for these young people to enjoy music, art, games and make friends. Food and drink is provided and we’ll be cooking together, making music and more.
It’s FREE and no need to book – just turn up on the day.
We have a small budget to offer travel expenses and can offer support to book a bus, train or taxi if needed, tell us before or save your receipt for reimbursement.
This truly is what we’re about – supporting ALL young people, using music as a vehicle to bring people together, promote equality and find joy.
The programme is for Young Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers and Refugees aged 13 – 21 years, in the care of Kent County Council/Medway local authority or another local authority and is generously funded by NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group.
Posted on: April 20th, 2022 by Steph Dickinson No Comments
Pie’s Emerging Artists launch the first single on their record label, Wantsum Music?
Vỏ Sò Alive Again released 29 April
Vỏ Sò’s Alive Again launches the first in a series of original new tracks presented by Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists – a collective of young musicians who are resetting the agenda for homegrown talent getting their music into the world, by creating the Wantsum Music? record label.
Vỏ Sò (voh-so) is a collaboration between Claire Pitt Wigmore (multi-instrumentalist and singer) and Liotia (duo Abi Hubbard and Matt Smyth).
This new dreamy, trip-hop, dub track Alive Alive symbolises starting afresh – what the collective of young musicians strives for with their new label.
“For me, the track is about turning over a new leaf. Saying goodbye to people who perhaps haven’t benefited you in the long run. It’s about self-reflection.
I want people to feel elevated when they first listen to it.
I originally set out to do a one-off collaboration with Liotia (duo Abi Hubbard and Matt Smyth), but it ended up becoming its own entity because we worked so well together.”
Claire Pitt Wigmore
Claire joined Pie’s Emerging Artists programme in 2021, during the pandemic, to hone her skills and work with mentor Kimberly Anne from Palm Bay Music to grow knowledge of music distribution and promotion.
Listen and Download
Alive Again is available on all streaming platforms and Wantsum Music? Bandcamp at
“It’s an immensely proud time for us at Pie as we see the release of the first track on the Wantsum Music? record label, especially as we enter our 20th anniversary year.
To not only bring a group of artists together, but to see them independently use their passion, skills and experience to inspire other young musicians is incredible. We know that this is just the start of what promises to be a unique, supportive and successful venture.”
Zoe Carassik-Lord, Pie’s Programme Manager
Wantsum Music? x Tonetic Records
Vỏ Sò and the WM? collective are joining forces with fellow youth-led Tonetic Records to present a showcase of youth music
Friday 6 May, 7:30pm Ramsgate Music Hall Tickets – £3 for under 18s, £5 for over 18s Pay on the door
Wantsum Music? is hosted by Pie Factory Music through generous funding from Youth Music, and support from Thanet-based global record label Moshi Moshi Music and Berlin-based City Slang Records.
Posted on: April 5th, 2022 by Steph Dickinson No Comments
This is a blog post I’ve written about the sexism and misogyny I have faced as a female guitarist. I am an instrumentalist and my new single with my band Vỏ Sò, Alive Again, is being released on Wantsum Music? record label I co-founded on 29 April 2022.
! Please note that some descriptions in this blog may bring to mind your own experiences of sexism. Please consider this before reading.
In 2002/03, when artists like Busted, McFly and Avril Lavigne were at their ultimate peak, I developed an infatuation with the sound of “rock” music and the electric guitar. An instrument that is very much associated with the genre, and one that I immediately took a great liking to after hearing Lavigne’s 2002 hit “Sk8er Boi”. It was from then that I wanted to learn how to play the guitar and master its intricacies. I was utterly determined to achieve this.
It wasn’t until late 2008, at the age of 10, that I started learning the guitar. I remember my Mum taking me to a pop and rock music centre in Ramsgate which is where I had my first proper experience of playing an electric guitar.
I remember learning the chord of G major – that may have been about it, but that was enough for me to want to embark on my journey as an electric guitarist. The one major thing that stuck out, that I initially did not even notice until I hit my teen years, was that I was the only girl in the guitar group.
By the time I got to my early to mid-teens, I was becoming invested in the lead guitar side of things. I’m not sure if I was conscious of the fact that each role model or player I admired, were all male. No other girl I had met, yet, was passionate about wanting to nail a Metallica solo from the And Justice For All album. It’s around that time that the sexist remarks started – when we were all becoming more mature and perhaps more self-conscious, wanting to conform to social norms.
The first remark experienced was around the age of 12, when I brought my guitar in to school. A boy in my year decided to kick me on the leg and sneer “You should grow a d!*k you guitar playing d$%e”. A series of incredibly misogynistic and homophobic comments ensued and I started to learn that my chosen hobby wasn’t safe territory for a young female. Comments from some of the older musicians at school came my way too… “What is she even trying to play?!” Still, I persevered and continued to study guitarists from the likes of Kirk Hammett, Slash, Jimmy Page, and many more. No women though.
Thinking back to when I had guitar tuition, I was never introduced to any female guitarists. They were all men. I don’t think I ever really consciously thought about it until I started playing in bands myself and became aware of the dynamics within the music industry. Female instrumentalists were somewhat of a novelty and it certainly feels that way still, at times.
During my late teens into early adulthood was when my eyes were really opened to the male/female divide in the guitar world. I studied Music Performance at college and I was met with a pool of male instrumentalists and female singers. At the time, I wasn’t a vocalist, so this really rocked the boat in some people’s eyes. I remember not long into my course, a man in the year above me wrote a post on Facebook which stated he found “female instrumentalists cringy and infuriating”, he then went on to proceed with “singers are fine though”.
The initial seed of the “Man’s world” mentality was starting to grow and it seemed to be thriving amongst a fair few people.
Claire Pitt Wigmore
“She’s not even that good”, “she’s not the right fit for the band”, “you’re actually alright, for a girl”, “Girls aren’t sexy on the electric guitar, acoustic guitar is fine though.”Some of these comments came from people in authority (college tutors) so I really felt like I had no hope of being heard or being given a fair chance. I often felt like I had to prove my worth because there was no hope of being accepted into the “boy’s club” – even though those ‘boys’ weren’t masters of the instrument either and were at the same stage of development as I was.
I have been in bands where the line-up was predominately male and the conscious/subconscious underhand misogyny ran deep. Subtle remarks or even a lack of communication can make a person feel extremely unwanted or uncomfortable. We’re told to “ignore” or “dismiss” these kinds of behaviours, but I simply wasn’t prepared to let myself be second-guessed, sidelined, or even mocked purely because of the fact that my gender, attitude, and chosen profession was not a common occurrence in the music industry, especially in the area I’m from.
There’s been unfair pressure on women in the industry to appear glitzy and appealing. I know in recent years things have started to change, and there have been more female/non-binary instrumentalists making a name for themselves, but it’s still a struggle and it’s still fairly rare. I have never understood the terms “female-fronted bands” or “all-girl bands” like they were a genre of their own. Fast forward a decade and I’m now a music teacher, established artist, and an active member of the local music scene. I’m also part of the collective of Pie’s Emerging Artists who are supportive and share the same goals as I do. Although I haven’t managed to meet as many female instrumentalists as I’d quite like to, I’m striving to be a pioneer for the next generation of female guitarists. Hopefully, I can channel the frustrations and injustices I faced into creating a fairer and more diverse community, amongst musicians.
Like any embedded issue, there needs to be a systemic change. Starting with seemingly small things like birthday cards. If a family member wanted to buy me a birthday card with a guitar on it, they’d have to go into the “boys” section. Or posters with “legendary guitarists” on them and they only depict male guitarists. This, to me, is one of the reasons children are conditioned into believing there are “girls” toys and “boys” toys.
It’s encouraging to see companies like Fender showcasing talented women on their social media channels regularly. Female bassists and guitarists who I fear could easily go under the radar because of embedded societal views are now, hopefully, getting their chance to shine on major platforms. Locally though, I feel this could be something we strive towards. Sharing, supporting and investing in talented women. Not because they appear to “look good” or they’re “fitting the bill” but because people genuinely admire their talents and achievements.
It’s extremely important at Pie that we provide opportunities for young women and genderqueer people, upping representation in the music industry, which is still so very very needed, even today. We do this through all our programmes, and specific opportunities such as our Girls Programme and the Emerging Artists collective.
Need to talk to someone?
If you need to talk to someone about your experiences, Pie offers a free counselling service for 13 – 18 year olds, and you can also visit www.musicmindsmatter.org.uk.
