online
Tech Dissect: Production as Writing w/ Art School Girlfriend
27th January 2025
7.30 pm GMT
£8.30 or free for Saffron Members (all tiers)
Saffron’s monthly workshops are part of the Saffron Members Club, but non-members who are women, non-binary people, trans or gender non-conforming folks may also purchase a ticket.
CREATIVE PROCESS: PRODUCTION AS WRITING
Art School Girlfriend’s productions have been described as everything from techno-influenced shoegaze to lo-fi dream rock. Alongside her artist practice, she has also been lecturing in music production and engineering for five years and is currently studying for an MFA at Goldsmiths. Currently working on her third album exclusively on Ableton, Polly, aka ASG, will guide us through her approach to drum programming, self-sampling, tape manipulation, using mistakes as inspiration, and walk us through one of her new unreleased work-in-progress.
About Art School Girlfriend
Hailing from Wrexham, North Wales and currently residing in East London, Polly Mackey has been making music as Art School Girlfriend since her debut EP in 2017. Combining organic instrumental textures with blue-hour tinged electronics, the producer/multi-instrumentalist has released two acclaimed albums. With 2021’s Is It Light Where You Are, Mackey captured a long-term breakup in vast sonic landscapes, skittering beats and diaristic lyrics. She followed this with 2023’s Soft Landing – a gauzy, liminal take on finding joy and contentment, described by Pitchfork as an “intimate and adventurous second album… guitars are processed to sound like synths, synths function like lead guitars, and drums flip between electronic and acoustic”. Mackey spent the last two years touring and building her own studio, which has become a creative hub for both her own music making and working with other artists and bands; her third and upcoming record will be a product of her new space, with fresh music expected in 2025. Alongside her artist project, Polly also runs a monthly radio show on Foundation FM, specialising in leftfield electronica, lo-fi dance and ambient/nu-classical music. She lectures in production and studio engineering and is currently studying an MFA in Creative Practice at Goldsmiths University where her research focuses on generative ambient instruments and human-ness in electronic music.
WEBSITE – INSTAGRAM – TIKTOK – SPOTIFY
ACCESSIBILITY
We never want money to be a barrier to people accessing music tech, so if you are unable to afford a ticket but believe you would benefit from attending these workshops, please email us on members@saffronmusic.co.uk.
Workshops are open to people worldwide, but will be running at 7.30 pm GMT so please bear differences in time zone in mind. If you purchase a ticket but are unable to attend live, you will automatically be emailed a recording of the workshop(s) after the event.
We are committed to making our online events as accessible as possible. We have created a guidance document about this – Click here to view the accessibility document. Alternatively, please email us with any access requirements you may have: hello@saffronmusic.co.uk
GENDER POLICY
The gender imbalance in the music technology industry is well-recognised. While we are absolutely not ‘anti-men’, we see that a shorter-term solution is to provide fellowship and learning environments that are not dominated by the cisgender male perspective. Therefore, these workshops are intended for women, non-binary, trans and gender non-conforming people to attend. While we do not ban cisgender men from attending, we hope that they will respect that this event is not intended for them.
BOOK A TICKET