Music / Saffron
Music video series reimagines studio culture
There’s no stopping Saffron.
The music tech organisation that set out to redress the industry’s gender imbalance has gone from strength to strength over the last decade, and was recognised as Culture Champion at the 2026 Radio 1 Dance Awards followed by a win in the music category of the Bristol Legends awards in March.
Now they’ve revealed the details of their latest project, the ‘most ambitious and exciting’ to date.
The non-profit organisation has teamed up with Peter Gabriel’s studios, Real World, to reimagine studio culture
Joining forces with the renowned Real World recording studio, they’ve produced a video series of live performances featuring exclusive and unreleased material from eight South West-based artists that are pushing the boundaries of sound in distinctive ways.
The Saffron Sessions series was produced to mark the organisation’s tenth birthday, and will be accompanied by a limited-edition vinyl release and a printed zine.
Yushh, Grove, Holysseus Fly, Manami, Sarahsson, Babealicious, My Midnight Heart, and Bristol Legends music newcomer winner t l k performed in the space known as the Big Room of the studios founded in Box, near Bath, by Peter Gabriel in the 1980s that has hosted a wealth of big name artists.
“We’re proud to support the work Saffron is doing,” said head engineer Katie May.
“Real World was built as a space for everyone, rooted in collaboration and shared creativity, and it was fantastic to see the Big Room doing exactly what it was made for – bringing people and creativity together.”
The sessions reimagined studio culture for those that have historically been excluded, creating a warm, supportive community atmosphere in the process
A behind-the-scenes documentary captures the process and takes a considered look at the realities of studio culture, where currently 95 per cent of producers and engineers are men.
Envisioning a more gender-balanced future, Saffron worked with dBs Institute to bring in women and non-binary students as apprentice sound engineers on the project.
The sessions served to practically demonstrate the music industry that Saffron have been advocating and training for, and the difference was felt by those in the room.
Saffron is making space for artists, producers and engineers of marginalised genders
dBs innovation in sound student Katie Maguire said it created a supportive environment:
“It’s made me realise that I can do it…that I AM doing it! It makes those dreams feel less far away. I’ve never been in a studio with a lead engineer who’s not a man.
“This has been a really nurturing vibe, everyone’s really supporting each other with their fullest heart and care for each other’s craft.”
“It’s exciting to see that it’s achievable for me to work in a space like this,” dBs sound engineering student Paloma Faingold said.
“It’s very different to what I experience at uni. Being the only girl in my class, I get mansplained a lot or people presume I don’t know stuff, but here I’m like “yeh I do know”. And I don’t feel embarrassed to ask questions.”
Women and non-binary people currently represent less than five per cent of the music tech industry; Saffron ask which voices are going unheard and what stories are left untold as a result of this gender imbalance
Within this newly built community, Saffron say, artists felt able to explore and experiment freely, one performing with a polished sheet of metal ‘played’ with a vibrator, and another with a fruit bowl with plastic balls used as a tactile MIDI controller.
“Studios like Real World represent the pinnacle of recording in the UK,” said Saffron founder Laura Lewis-Paul.
“For our community to take up space there, on their own terms, feels powerful. We’re not just showcasing talent, we’re working to reshape the whole creative ecosystem in which music is made.”
Saffron Sessions showcases, the organisation says, a group of artists they believe in deeply, and captures them at full creative force – ‘bold in sound, intentional in vision and unapologetic in identity’
One video will be released per fortnight beginning with Grove’s session, which includes their own contextual explanations as well as behind-the-scenes footage, on March 31.
The sessions will be screened at Strange Brew on March 30 – find information and tickets at saffronmusic.co.uk/events/saffron-sessions-screening-party
All images: Emma Davies
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