Radio Milwaukee turned heads this spring when it announced that it was partnering with the Milwaukee accelerator gener8tor on a music mentorship program called Backline that would provide $20,000 grants to four Milwaukee-area musicians, bands or producers. As you can imagine, musicians applied to the program in hordes—the organization received 340 applications for its initial accelerator session—but today we learned who made the cut.
The 2018 Backline artists are R&B/pop singer Lex Allen, EDM producer Crystal Knives, soul singer/rocker Abby Jeanne and rapper Zed Kenzo. “Among the many talented musicians who applied, these four stood out to the judges as being most ready to make huge leaps forward in their careers,” Backline Program Director Mag Rodriguez said in a press release.
A panel of five industry professionals made the final selections, and it looks like they favored artists who were off to a running start. Lex Allen and Abby Jeanne are already two of the city’s most dependable headlining acts, while many of Crystal Knives’ pop-leaning EDM tracks have been streamed hundreds of thousands of times on Soundcloud; his sound is perfectly pitched to current club and Top 40 trends. Kenzo has a lower profile than the other grant recipients, but she’s one of the city’s most fiercely creative rappers. All of these acts are working with a very high ceiling.
So what’s next for them? Here’s some more information from the press release Backline sent out this afternoon:
The accelerator consists of “create,” “connect” and “plan” phases. During the “create” phase now underway, musicians have been spending time in studios to create music and develop their projects. Musicians have gone to Chicago, Los Angeles and London as part of this process and have worked with studios locally. During “connect,” artists will be introduced to mentors and industry experts locally and nationally. The “plan” phase helps artists develop a 12-month plan to further their careers and equip them with tools to navigate the music industry.
Backline is providing artists with $20,000 each to boost their careers, with use of funding determined by the artists and Backline. They are also receiving services, such as financial counseling and personal training, aimed at holistically preparing the artists with life skills to succeed as musicians.
The 2018 accelerator culminates with a showcase performance by the four artists 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. Nov. 16 at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee’s performance space. Those interested in attending can sign up for the Backline mailing list at https://www.BacklineMKE.org/signup/ to be among the first to know when tickets are available. All funds from ticket purchases will go directly to the artists performing.
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The accelerator program isn’t the only component of Backline. The organization also hosts free quarterly workshops for musicians, the next of which is scheduled for noon to 3 p.m. this Saturday. It’ll cover production and songwriting and will feature producer Bizness Boi and songwriter Rush Davis at the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee performance space. More information is at backlinemke.org/workshops.
