Slave 2 The Grind cover/collage
Sometimes I think we don’t give young artists the credit they deserve. We see a person in their early 20`s and we think: they have their life ahead of them, they will develop their skills and become real musicians or singers or painters as the time goes by. It is of course an undeniable fact that the more time you spend on a thing, the better you become. Practice makes perfect. But we do deny young people the right of being an artist – here and now, not in twenty or thirty years down the line, if they are able to stick at it.
Practicing art is horrendously difficult these days. There are no grants or benefits that can offer a lifeline to those in the creative industries and most of the young people spend their time juggling bona fide education with two or more part time jobs. Arts have been downgraded to an unpaid hobby. Does it make anyone surprised that our future talents are burning out, mental health among youth is at all-time low (one in four suffers from depression) and those who breakthrough usually come from affluent homes? It wasn’t always like that. In the 70`s artists could rely on unemployment cheques to help them get through touring and recording sessions. Here`s a lovely and very informative article from former general secretary of the Musicians’ Union Horace Horace Trubridge aptly named Rock on the Dole on the topic. Through 80s and 90s Enterprise Allowance Scheme (set up by Margaret Thatcher!) helped to fund The Sundays, Pulp and Creation Records among thousands of others who pursued career in the arts sector.
Constant urge to work and deliver compared with anxiety and feeling like an imposter is a leading theme of BEX new single “Slave 2 The Grind”. If I may, I would like to use this upcoming singer as a textbook example why I believe we fail artists.
On the surface, BEX is a musician with a unique voice and quirky home-made clothes. She can surely appeal to alternative crowds and fill a grass root venue or two. But that would be a very limited and very partisan way of seeing BEX. She is a multi-instrumentalist, a producer, a lyricist, she composes her own music. She designs jewellery and upcycle clothes creating a unique line of merchandise. She is also a visual artist, making elaborate collages and sleeves for her singles. She films, edits her social media posts and interacts with her fans directly – so add titles of content creator and social media manager to the fold. Now how many hats should a young person wear and how much work should they do in a day before we finally consider them a business owner / artist?
“Slave 2 the Grind” has been co-written with Stefan Abingdon and is inspired by BEX’s personal experience of not knowing when to switch off when being overworked as a musician. The song is driven by hard hitting bass lines and ear worm choruses. What I particularly like about the single is how clever BEX is in her delivery. Be honest, how many of you realized that the whole composition is built around the formula that made Fear Factory so iconic? It was Burton C Bell`s idea to incorporate melodeclamation in heavy music and pair it with clean, high-pitched vocals in the chorus. That’s how “Replica” or “EdgeCrusher” were written and performed and BEX delivers the same ideas but in her own way.
But that’s just one layer of where Bex is taking inspiration from. The title of her song can refer to both the famous album by Skid Row and the documentary film about the rise of grindcore. Since BEX herself is often incorporated into a rap core genre of music (mix of rap, nu metal and punk), my money`s on the latter. But nonetheless, here`s a very young and incredibly versed in music history person who pays close attention not only to what has been happening in music in the decades past, but also to social and humane issues of today.
Bex is signed to Scruff of the Neck and has recently been supporting Wargasm. If you have a chance to see her live – do so. This is an artist who builds her own career based on her vision and talents, rather than connections and money. And as sad as it may seem – she may soon be in a minority.
One of several digital artworks created by BEX
As I said, if we continue down the path where only the rich can pursue arts and everyone else must survive on multiple jobs, there will be no more outspoken, smart and driven women in music. We will all listen to male approved starlets in frilly dresses who will stand there ready to be objectified and told what to say.
Pardon me this negativity but recently I look at music business and I do think we are at a Last Supper for independent, organic, non-conformist and feminist artists. We need sweeping changes in how we support grass root and young people (benefits, scholarships, allowances) on national level and industry standards to differentiate between those who have professional support and those who are truly independent and self-made. Otherwise, we are collectively failing future generations.
Do I sound paranoid like Fox Mulder? Maybe, but then again to quote Assistant Director Skinner, we have never been in more danger.
We have covered BEX before on Inditerria:
https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/2022/05/16/bex-tiptoe-single-review
https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/2022/12/08/indieterria-meets-bex/
Follow BEX on the socials at:
https://www.bexofficial.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/bex.b.e.x/
https://www.tiktok.com/@bex.b.e.x
https://www.facebook.com/bexbexmusic
https://twitter.com/BEXBEXMUSIC
https://soundcloud.com/bexbexmusic
https://www.patreon.com/BEXBEX
https://www.youtube.com/@BEXBEXMUSIC/videos
BEX also designs and upcycles clothes. Her collection can be seen here:
https://www.bexofficial.co.uk/collections/all
Spooky Malicia
Indieterria 
2 Comments