How Nottingham’s CRS studios helped my artistic development.

Guest blog by artist Razor (Raisa Haines), singer, violinist and regular at Nottingham’s CRS studios which now has a dedicated, fully-equipped space for rehearsal, provided through the DCMS Rehearsal Spaces scheme.

I first came to CRS as a member of a band on a course I’d heard about through my school. The course was for young aspiring artists and producers to get the chance to create and record their own music. Sadly the band I was in split up and I soon started recording as a solo artist.
From there my studio experience really took off, I was taught how to use the recording equipment, I had sessions where I would sit with a producer to get the right beat, there were lyric writing sessions, confidence building sessions, I could book my own recording time where I would lay my own songs and finally I had rehearsal sessions in preperation for gigs. All of these taught or overseen by Nick Stez and Big Trev (Trevor Rose, CRS Studio Manager in Nottingham).
Back when I first started at the Nottingham studio there was a single space with a small back room for recording and although all of the sessions were good, they were cramped.

Access to instruments

Fast forward to the new studio, the space, available instruments and the amount of musical talent that is going on is just mind blowing! Now the studio has a room solely for the purpose of rehearsing, with a range of instruments and considering that my violin has lost a few strings it’s reassuring to know that I can still play because of the resources that the studio has!
There are children learning to play the cello and in the next room grime mc’s making tracks, ready to record. There are rock bands rehearsing on the new guitars or drumkits, theres even an electric double bass which I am very much looking forward to working with on my next track!
The studio is a very big part of who I am. Because of CRS I have met and worked with various artists and gigged in and out of Nottingham, had radio interviews and radio play and recorded in Maida Vale studios, making some good friends along the way.
CRS, Big Trev and Nick Stez have done so much for me as an artist, without them I would have never had the opportunity to even think about a singing career.

Update: Razor was recently featured on BBC’s the Beat – watch her performance below.

Further information

Ed Vaizey and Feargal Sharkey launch Nottingham rehearsal space
Rehearsal spaces scheme