Heart N Soul Believe in the power and talents of people with learning disabilities and Autistic people, I have been. part of their artist development programme since 2017, this is my story.
April 2017
We made a brainstorm about all the different things that I do. A sort of snapshot of were I was at.
May 2017
Richard Phonix from heart N soul helped me to register my music with PRS and also register my EP on CD Baby ( A digital distributor). My then band ‘Robyn Steward and the Hatonauts’ played our first gig outside of London at the Rockhouse in Brighton. At first the audience did’t like us, but-by the end, they wanted a encore of the last song. It got played on Resonance FM.
June 2017
I felt amazingly privileged to spent time with Warren Huart (www.producelikeapro.com ) Phil Allen and Los Rios Rock school’s Tyler Marlof (http://www.losriosrockschool.com/)
July 2017
Andy Diagram (www.andydiagram.com) mixed and mastered my EP. It was launched at the Mint Street Festival in South London.
August 2017
Sam Castell Ward (https://samcastellward.bandcamp.com/), Dean Rodney Jnr (https://deanrodneyjr.bandcamp.com/) and I did a gig at the Albany Theatres Café.
September 2017
6 months into my support with Heart n Soul we had a meeting. Mark and Rich advised me to get a residency. In the meeting, I e-mailed a local venue (vinyl) I knew about and they said yes!
My residency was called Robyn’s Rocket and me and Andy Diagram’s duo “two horns” had our first gig.
October 2017
Me and Dean Rodney Jnr were invited to speak at the PRS (performing rights association) Talent Development Partners (https://prsfoundation.com/talent-development-partners/) conference.
November 2017
Robyn's Rocket happened.
December 2017
Achieved my 2017 goal of a gig once a month. The Jazz Biscuits (a duo of Robyn Steward and Andrew “Hatonaut” Foster) had our first gig. We used a looper at a gig for the first time.
January 2018
I created a musical installation called ‘Pedal Power’ with Kathy Hulme and I at ‘The Hairdressers’ gig.
February 2018
My duo with Andy Digram, Two Horns’ had our first gig, and I was on Resonance FM. This is the gig where I learned the importance of a tidy pedal board as I pulled cables out by accident!
March 2018
SXSW - I spoke on a panel about neurodiversity (https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/PP76105)
April 2018
I got my radio mic.
May 2018
‘The Hairdressers’ had our 2nd gig at café OTO supporting the Bitchin Bajas. (http://www.dragcity.com/artists/bitchin-bajas)
June 2018
I made some music using a tin whistle and my pedals.
July 2018
First performance of ‘the valves of surplus value’, a project by Simon Yorkshire (https://yorkshirevsessex.bandcamp.com/)
August 2018
Tourettes Hero (https://www.touretteshero.com/) commissioned me to wrote a piece of music for Battersea Arts Centre.
September 2018
Robyn’s Rocket landed at Café OTO
October 2018
Worldwide radio with my friend Ben Connors (http://benconnors.blogspot.com/)
November 2018
I sent the recording of me playing at the Wellcome to a friend, Steve Pretty and he invited me to do a warm up set for the Hackney Colliery Band at Scala in London.
December 2018
Played at the Heart N Soul Play Rave at the Wellcome.
January 2019
Got PRSF (Performing Rights Society Foundation) and Help Musicians UK funding to put on 3 Robyn’s Rockets at café OTO in 2019.
February 2019
First Funded Robyn’s Rocket!!!!!!!!
March 2019
Played at the Barbican as part of my Drake music commission.
April 2019
Played Counterflows Festival as ‘The Hairdressers’ with Kathy Hulme in Glasgow
April 2019
First Heart N Soul at the Hub jam which I host and lead monthly.
May 2019 - Brighton gig
Played Spirit of Gravity at night in Brighton and got invited back in August to play Splitting the Atom. I started making video animations for the next Robyn’s Rocket.
June 2019
Started working on a production with theatre company Oily Cart (as a musician )
July 2019
2nd 2019 Robyn’s Rocket (one in Feb) July edition!
August 2019
First performances of Oily cart Production, ‘Jamboree’.
October 2019
Robyn and Kathy Hulme as ‘the Hairdressers’ played at gig at Scaledown.
October 2019
Robyn’s Rocket stuff was too much for my flat so I started renting a storage unit .
November 2019
Robyn’s Rocket was part of the EFG jazz festival. We had 54 paying audience members. On the day I got the news I’d been awarded funding for Robyn’s Rocket for 2020.
January 2020
Oily Cart took me to Japan to run workshops on Sensory theatre. I made some music up for a group of theatre makers. Also Jamaica a band who played at Robyn’s Rocket got another gig at Cafe OTO and invited me along to play too. Made Videos for the next Rocket.
February 2020
Spaceheads (Andy Diagram and Richard Harrison) , played Robyn’s Rocket we had an audience of over 50.
March 2020
Went on Tour with Oily Cart, we got as far as Coventry before the tour was called due to COVID 19, I started using IEM’s ( In ear Monitors).
April 2020
I played a live gig from my living room, on Facebook live as part of thee Gig Buddies Coronavirus fest.
I got COVID - 19 and then long COVID so I took a break End of april- september
September 2020
I got a commission from a studio at Somerset house in london called call and response. The Commission was to create a piece of work exploring what you could do with space , the studio has 27 speakers all around the room creating a sound universe
October 2020
I was involved in developing events for Heart N Soul’s beautiful octopus club online festival
November 2020
I hosted and co hosted 2 events at the beautiful octopus club online festival . I also had a track on the mixtape heart n soul put out to show the work Heart N Soul artists had been doing during the lockdown.
December 2020
I did a evaluation of the Beautiful octopus club and write a report , easy read summary and made a short film about what I learnt.
December 2020
I did a live instagram post with Richard Phonix as he quotes me in his book D I Y as a privilege : a manifesto .
Jan 2021
Since the first lockdown the Heart N Soul music jam’s moved online, when I was ill with COVID-19 some months this was the only hour of work I did , William King who is co host of the jams makes tracks out of peoples sounds recorded at the jams , we released a EP of the tracks made on the last hub jam ( The jams will still continue but as part of Heart N Soul in general rather then just the hub). I also made some short films about the jams for the hub website. www.heartnsoulatthehub.com
Jan 2021
Dean Rodney Jnr and I made a song together called the dean wave.
Feb 2021
I have been given a 3 day residency at cafe OTO in east london , to collaborate with different musicians record audio and video for forthcoming live streams.This is a photo of me and andrew foster, the second day was with cellist Kathy Hulme.
October 2021
First Live streamed Robyn’s Rocket to a in person audience
November 21
I attended a zine making workshop by Rachel House at the V&A , I made several mini zines
December 2021
Started work on the Robyn’s Rocket Comic
Jan 2022
Robyn’s Rocket had to be live streamed only , but featured a performance by Robyn Rocket and ChaRLES HAYWARD
February 2022
Recording for Alabaster DePlume’as march edition of Realstic behaviour on woerldwide fm,
March 2022
I released a 3 track ep “ It’’s ok to be scared” .I am releasing an ep once a month when there isn’t a Robyn’s Rocket
April 2022
I signed a contract with Bucks music to get my music on places like spotify and did a gig with Kathy Hulme at flim flam part of which was played on resonance fm
may 2022
Mark williams from Heart N Soul and Simon Platz of bucks music helped me get a music publishing agreement and now I am on lots of digital platforms, this was my first release