Focusrite Awards Tileyard Education MA Student With Bursary Tileyard Education is a postgraduate and professional training facility that houses a world-class recording studio, tech lab, production and songwriting rooms and a lecture space. Located at Tileyard London, it forms part of a creative hub in the heart of the city, with a diverse community of artists, independent creatives, entrepreneurs and businesses.
Abi aka VNRBL, winner of the Focusrite 2020 music education bursary, has been studying a Commercial Music Producer MA course at Tileyard over the past year. Awarded with one of our Clarett 4Pre USBs, and an SL MkIII, Launchpad X, and a Bass Station II from Novation, we caught up with Abi to find out what's next for her as an artist, her route into music production and how she works through her creative process.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and why you wanted to study the commercial music producer masters at Tileyard Education?
I'm a producer, singer-songwriter and drummer from a friendly beach town in Western Australia called Perth. A few years ago, I moved to London to pursue a career in music and decided to take my production to a more professional level - I knew I could do that at Tileyard. I realised that being around likeminded and ambitious music producers would help keep me motivated and achieve my goals.
How long have you been making music?
Back in Perth I had been experimenting making demos in Logic, so I was familiar with using a DAW and working with loops. I've been producing full length tracks for around four years now. I've been lucky to have some amazing producers as friends to help mentor and encourage me along the way. I've always kept this mindset of if I work on this every day, I'm going to improve'. It's nice to hear the progress I've made when I listen back to some of my first tracks.
What was it that first made you want to produce music?
I grew up being musical. I used to get hold of my older teenage sister's CDs to listen to. At the age of nine, my music teacher told me I had talent and suggested to my parents that I should start taking drum lessons. Soon after, I naturally picked up bass, piano, guitar - if there was an instrument around, I would find it and start jamming. Learning instruments at a young age gave me a strong foundation for music which I'm really grateful for.
As a singer/songwriter in London, I spent a lot of time with producers and asking lots of questions. I came to the point where I thought, I could do this. The producers encouraged me to start and gave me loads of tips and feedback on my tracks. They also thought it was great that I was an aspiring female producer who was enthusiastic as they were.
What challenges do you face in your creative process and how do you overcome them?
My greatest challenge is also my greatest strength: managing my emotions. I seem to feel everything so deeply whether it's positive or negative. It feels overwhelming sometimes and, like a lot of artists, I can find it hard to keep motivated. I'm getting better at separating the technical side of me from the creative side. Having a daily routine that I always stick to really helps. I use my emotions when it's time to do the creative stuff where it's useful, like songwriting. I also try to live a healthy lifestyle and eat well. I also love boxing and want to get back into that. It's great because it's a full-on work out and teaches you how to control your emotions by staying calm.
Who are your greatest inspirations?
Peter Gabriel immediately comes to mind. I have many musical inspirations, but he's someone I've looked up to a lot over the past five years. He not only inspires me from an artist and a producer perspective, but also I'm drawn to his character and integrity. Not many people would believe this but I'm really shy and he is too. He often talks about how he uses masks and costumes on stage to help him perform as he naturally quite introverted. He's a seriously empowering guy and I really hope to meet him some time soon. In terms of my current producers that I really like are DJ Snake, Clean Bandit, Zedd and of course Max Martin.
Talk us through your creative and recording process.
Whenever I feel a strong emotion, I grab it and then work with that feeling. I'll usually get a hook line in my head first, and just start singing it around and playing with a melody. From there anything could happen. Sometimes I'll find one sample or sound that inspires me and work a song around it. Other times I'll look towards the piano or guitar and find the chords first. It largely depends on how I feel and what kind of mood I'm in. I don't have one way of doing anything, I'd get too bored.
How would you describe your current sound?
My influences are wide and diverse, but my current sound draws from tropical house and afro beat. Its groove based with energy but also has a laid-back feel at the same time. I love London and consider it home now, but Australia is still close to my heart. Memories of hanging out with my friends at the beach, swimming with our clothes on and coming home covered in sand is influencing the way I'm producing at moment, I want to recreate those memories in my music.
Why Tileyard Education?
I had heard about Tileyard from my producer friends and I could see it had a magical kind of buzz. I was drawn into Tileyard's community of artists and creatives, all working together to achieve the same goal. It's the first time I've found somewhere that I felt I could get behind the vision and that's what makes Tileyard special: you get to be part of something bigger than you.
What do you hope to be doing in three years' time?
I want to be performing my songs at festivals all over the world. I
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
Focusrite Awards Tileyard Education MA Student With Bursary Tileyard Education is a postgraduate and professional training facility that houses a world-class recording studio, tech lab, production and songwriting rooms and a lecture space. Located at Tileyard London, it forms part of a creative hub in the heart of the city, with a diverse community of artists, independent creatives, entrepreneurs and businesses.
