The United Freedom Collective Podcast

Episode number 6 of the United Freedom Collective podcast is a conversation with the DJ and facilitator Ruby Savage. I first met Ruby on the beach in Margate, where we both live, and was instantly warmed by her vibrant, relaxed personality. As a DJ she’s known for her immense depth of musical knowledge, passion and wide-ranging selections, but it’s her other work as founder of the Artists Recovery Club which we were most interested to speak to her about on this podcast.  The ARC is an online course that Ruby facilitates with her friend Femi, which guides students through, and elaborates on, the seminal artist self-help book ‘The Artists Way’. It’s a course I’ve just finished and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. The book, and the course, is all about connection, to your inner artist, your inner child, a higher power, to your dreams and aspirations, to the universe, with the ultimate aim of unblocking your artist within and eliciting creative flow. This is all stuff we find super interesting within United Freedom Collective, and we hope you do too. Info about the Artists Recovery Club and Ruby's other work - https://www.rubysavage.com/work/artist-recovery-club Insta - https://www.instagram.com/rubysound/     https://www.instagram.com/unitedfreedomcollective/

Episode 5 of The United Freedom Collective Podcast is an effervescent conversation with a collaborator of ours and an incredible artist in his own right – Faisal Salah aka FACESOUL. Born in Somalia and raised in London, Faisal lives his life in service and offers his music as a form of medicine. Overcoming many hardships in his youth has given him a deep determination to find and share life’s beauty, which is so apparent when you meet him. He’s an absolute force of nature inside and outside the studio, with a voice that instantly brings joy to all who hear it and a warmth of spirit that is as humbling as it is infectious. He has devoted his life to exploring his spirituality and solidifying the immense power of his voice, which he has refined within medicine circles. Last year he made waves with his debut album YSRA, as well as an amazing vocal performance on the esteemed online music platform Colours. We recorded this podcast earlier this year while we were all down in Cornwall together to write and record music. The conversation meanders through many topics we hold dear at United Freedom Collective - how mediation can help artistic creation, the dangers of getting too sucked in to the music industry, dealing with grief through devotion, the importance of connection through religion and music. Faisal also sings for us, which is a beautiful moment, We really hope you enjoy it… Links; MERCY – United Freedom Collective feat. FACESOUL; https://unitedfreedomcollective.lnk.to/am-taAI Instagram – www.instagram.com/unitedfreedomcollective/ www.instagram.com/ifacesoul/ FACESOUL Colours session - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8lNUArJvvs

Back in Spring we sat down with multi-talented artist Jordan Stephens to talk about growing up listening to his Fisher-Price tape recorder, his mother, a singer-songwriter, obsessing over her Dr Groove drum machine, and his dad, who’s band was called ‘The Self’ and was described by Sound Magazine as “the first black punk”. About watching his little brother Gabriel growing up, watching him getting bruised, and telling him that they first hurt but then heal, and how this life-lesson inspired the song ‘1994’ that we recorded together and have just released. About mental health and campaigning for it, sobriety and creativity, how the The Sopranos are still progressive 20 years on, about communion, spirituality, psychedelics, and the appeal of becoming incognito as a dinosaur in the metaverse. You can hear our latest single '1994' featuring Jordan Stephens by clicking this link - https:// unitedfreedomcollective.lnk.to/am-ta Thanks for listening.

In episode 3 of the United Freedom Collective Podcast we speak with somatic therapist and sound healer Joanna Miller. Jo works with big-hearted over thinkers to reclaim intimacy, creativity & embodied freedom via trauma, shadow, shame work, embodied healing, somatic therapy, somatic movement, sound, and voice work. She also trains other somatic therapists. Jo approaches her work with deep understanding, passion and commitment, something which became even more apparent as we settled in to our conversation. For anyone interested in sound healing, somatic therapy, the relationship between frequencies and well-being, this podcast is for you.

Our second podcast features a conversation with Harry Agius, aka Midland. Robbie and Harry first met at Leeds University where Harry started DJing as Apt Pupil.After adopting the moniker Midland after uni, Harry’s career in dance music went from strength to strength. With a string of acclaimed singles and EPs on Will Saul’s Aus Music label, Harry started to tour the world and quickly became one of the most in demand DJs around. Fast forward to now, he runs three labels, Graded, ReGraded and Intergraded, the latter of which champions the work of new or emerging producers. He has remixed artists such as Little Dragon, The Chemical Brothers and Dua Lipa and was honoured with the essential mix of the year in 2016. Not only that, he has made some of the most unique and influential underground club tracks of recent years. All of this without ever being pigeon-holed into one sound, scene or genre. Thieu and Robbie met up with Harry in his house in South London a few weeks back and had a really honest, open chat, covering topics from his early exposure to music through his older siblings, to how he has found inner peace in his life through having therapy. We were so appreciative not only of Harry giving us his time but how frank he was, talking about topics such as mental health in the music industry, his role within his community, about sitting with discomfort, navigating the ego, and learning to say no.

In this introductory episode, the three founders of United Freedom Collective – Mat Seynaeve, Robbie Redway and WaiFung Tsang - talk about their journeys within life and music, how they formed the collective and what it all means to them.