Wise words, here's an email I sent to someone asking me advice on where to study music production earlier today if of any use.

Hello Jack, great to hear from you mate.

To cut to the chase, there are a few good reasons to study the arts, they're fun, give you time to develop your music, you'll make a good set of friends, but they are nearly counter-productive in progressing in the real world as a musician. The only course that holds any weight in the UK is the Tonmeister, maybe LIPA at a push...the rest will often be taught by failed musicians with a poor understanding of engineering and how things actually work in the real world...harsh, but fair.

It's really fantastic that you're doing so much with your band, working full time to support it, and getting in touch with people in the industry...you're already ahead of 99% of music production students who think they'll be working in a studio after they graduate when infact they'll be unemployable with little/no real world experience with a mickey mouse qualification and a silly amount of debt.

Are you based in London? If so you're already half way there, and as you know it's very much who you know so my advice is to get yourself right in the environment you want to be in, whether it's making the tea or manning reception on the night shift in some kind of studio you'll be in a place to learn how the industry actually works and slowly build up a great set of contacts. You'll get paid bugger (although hopefully enough to live off) all and get treated appallingly a lot of the time but you'll learn useful skills and be on the bottom of a very cool ladder in an environment that creatively inspires you.

Have a good think about exactly what it is you want to do in audio, making it as a studio engineer is going to be extremely challenging, but there are more obtainable careers in tv/film/games if that's your thing. I studied Creative Music Technology BA Hons at Bath Spa and although it was a great laugh, gave me time to develop my music and what I wanted to do with it...it was my tea boy job in Soho (Evolutions Post) that got me meeting the right people and ultimately got me doing what I'm doing now, same as with anyone I work with now, they all started out making the tea and working there arses off in the right environment, my two most successful young mates (same age as me) skipped uni and went straight for the tea boy job and are doing embarrassingly well now for their age, doing what they love all day and pulling in a decent amount of dosh (BBC offline editor & Dubbing Mixer for Halo Post).

I'm out of the UK until 15th April but let me know if any of this is useful and if you'd like to grab a beer for music chats when I'm back.

Mash

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www.matthewcracknell.com

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