The Echo Lab is a new and upcoming music business based in Perth, established in November 2017 by Kerr McCall and Charlotte Bibby, which seeks to empower musicians throughout Perthshire.
The Echo Lab has been built from the ground up by the pair as a response to the publicised budget cuts across musical education in Scotland. These budget cuts have led to lesson times being reduced and class sizes being increased. The main concern for The Echo Lab is to ensure that young people have the access to guidance, development, tuition, experience and collaboration opportunities in music.
The Echo Lab has been providing music tuition throughout the Perthshire area all the way out to Auchterarder. Earlier in the year they held their first ‘Music Taster’ workshops which were a huge success, allowing the opportunity for a wide range of ages to practice, play and perform music with each other. The Echo Lab is becoming a huge asset to Perthshire and to young musicians, the growth of the new business is nothing but a credit to the young graduates who run it. Running a business at a young age surely can’t be easy and we caught up with Kerr McCall from The Echo Lab to find out a bit more…
“The Echo Lab is our main focus, and we are working hard to fit in part time jobs around this during the infancy of our business. As with any new business it takes time to grow and a lot of work, so we are making the most of current opportunities to spread the word about what The Echo Lab is all about and providing more opportunities across Perth and Kinross for musicians of all ages.
We believe that Perth’s music scene is gaining momentum and is probably the biggest it has been in recent years, with larger festivals and events coming to Perth, and Perth College being recognised as one of the best in the UK to study music, there is a lot of support and a lot going on. There are also a lot of up and coming bands who are creating great new music and therefore the talent must be recognised and rewarded. The City of Perth is recognised as having one of the best colleges for the study of popular music in Scotland. UHI Perth College has helped develop and grow a thriving music scene, including several established live music venues.
As young people, experience will always be questioned, however, our motivation and drive to teach, guide and create with those seeking to learn really shows in all our work. We don’t let having “a lack” of experience stop us, and I think this surprises people, because we are young people currently running a business which a lot of people find daunting. “
Following on from their hugely successful workshops at the start of the year, young entrepreneurs Kerr and Charlotte have decided to expand The Echo Lab’s offering even further. They will be catering to intermediate and advanced musicians as well as young, with sessions still focused on the main idea of creating, playing and performing music collaboratively. The Echo Lab will be running Music Taster Sessions, Adult Rock ‘N’ Roll Sessions and a 3-day collaboration workshop throughout the next few months. You can find out times and dates here on their Facebook page.
