Finding Rhythms at HMP Brinsford – July 2019

In July 2019, we ran a project at HMPYOI Brinsford in Staffordshire in partnership with Beating Time, a charity that runs choir projects in prisons. The project was led by one of our practitioners, Aron Kyne who tells us a bit more about the project below.

The making of ‘Freedom is a Must’ in Brinsford Prison was a real pleasure. For this project we were joined by the brilliant Katy Rose Bennett from Beating Time who had been running a weekly choir with a group of the participants. This meant half of our group were already used to singing and comfortable working in a group, giving us a flying start.

One really great thing about this group was the vast range of different music they were into! One of the standout moments for me was when making a ‘Stormzy style’ beat (which generally means a remake of ‘Blinded by your Grace’). Unprompted several of the guys got up and freestyled their life stories, it was a very compelling and tender moment.

Another great moment was when one of the participants, right at the very last minute, announced that he’d written a beautiful finished song – Pain. We had to get it together in the final few minutes of the project to make sure we had all the bits recorded.

Challenging moments included making sure everyone had enough attention and time on the mic or time writing with a beat/instrumental, we had some very big characters in this group! It’s always a challenge making sure everyone gets a sense of accomplishment from the project!

I’m very pleased with how this project went, the album sounds great! Big thanks to JP, Katy, Sarah-Nell, Sally and all the guys taking part!

Aron Kyne