AustraliaBIO:
Ehren is an epic multi-instrumentalist and producer that was born in an inflatable pool in a community near Bellingen NSW. He spent his early years touring around Australia in hardcore punk bands, living the high life of servo coffees, 7 hour drives and “sorry no rider tonight”.
Proving to his mum that it was indeed a phase, he eventually stopped dying his hair black and started reading the manual for Ableton. Using his guitar as the foundation, Ehren began live looping utilising an array of sounds including guitars, keys, synth and electronic percussion to create beautiful and lush soundscapes.
Years later, Ehren has performed at many of Australia’s best electronic festivals such as Earth Frequency, Rabbits Eat Lettuce, Dragon Dreaming and Initiation NYE Festival.
SYNOPSIS:
Awaken your Freestyle is a workshop focused on teaching people the fundamentals of Freestyle rapping and singing in a safe and supportive space. It’s centered on the premise that Freestyling is not some unattainable gift, but rather a skill or muscle like any other that can be trained and improved with time, dedication, and belief.
The workshop is split into 6 primary sections:
1. Introduction
2. Rap circle (Cypher)
3. Brief discussion
4. Song circle
5. Love battle
6. Live Jam (Second hour)
In the introduction, we introduce the topic of Freestyling, some background about the phenomenon, and get a show of hands as to the level of freestyling experience in the space. Then, I open with a brief Freestyle of my own guided by my band to give people an idea of what we mean by Freestyling.
In the Cypher or Rap circle section, we then go around the circle one by one and spit 8 bars each of Freestyle rap to the rhythm of the band. Emphasis is placed non judgement throughout the process, of others and self. Its likely that your first ever Freestyle may be hilariously good or bad and that is both accepted and welcome.
After everyone in the circle has had a turn, the energy is usually very relaxed and jubilant as people realise its not as hard as they thought, and they may have even surprised themselves with the quality of what they just spat. A general open forum is then briefly held, where both myself and the attendees discuss any questions or observations about the Cypher that just happened.
We then move into the song circle section. This is the same as the cypher, only now we go around the circle and Freestyle sing instead of rap for roughly 8 bars each. Some people are more averse to this section for obvious reasons, but everyone is encouraged to have a go. At any time however, during either the rap or song circle, anyone can skip their turn if they don’t feel comfortable.
Finally we reach the best and final section: the Love battle. Now that everyone is more comfortable with Freestyling, we go around the circle one by one and turn to the person to our right, whom we may or may not have known before coming to this workshop, and either rap or sing what you like or love about this person, whilst looking at them.
This challenges the traditional narrative of rap battles about breaking eachother down, as this is about building eachother up. This love is then passed around the circle before it reaches all the way back to the start. During this section, those who are waiting for their turn are encouraged to add any of their own vocal percussion or harmonising that they can think of, to raise the circle into one collective jam. After this our hours time is usually concluded and any additional questions are answered before saying farewell.
Hour 2:
If we have been granted a two hour slot, Awaken your Freestyle then transforms into a live mega jam as more musicians and instrumentalists enter the space, alongside the previous participants of the workshop who are now warmed up, having faced their fears and grabbed the mic.
This natural genesis of the workshop sees it turning into one large collaborative group performance, where there are no barriers or distinctions between performer and audience member, as the mic (or mic’s!) are passed around, and I and my co facilitators pay special attention to ensuring its still equitably shared and everyone continues to have a fair space and ample time to be heard.
This section is remarkable to witness and usually the energy is surging by this point, as the energy that started smaller at the beginning of the first hour blossoms into a self propagating co creation of epic proportions.