We recently had a chat with Connor Dawson, Lincoln’s Level 2 Music Award winner for 2024. Connor spoke to us about his time on his course, his recent award win, and his future aspirations.
Hi Connor! Tell us about yourself.
My name is Connor Dawson, I’m 19 years old and I specialise in playing bass guitar.
I’ve been playing bass for over 3 years and have played many gigs inside and outside of college. I’ve played in cover bands inside college such as Oablurmonkes, R!OTS and most recently Silver Veins. Outside of college, I play in a heavy metal band known as ArknSaw and we specialise in creating original heavy music. My preferred genre of music to play is without a doubt heavy metal due to it being my favourite genre to listen to in my spare time and the pure technicality of certain bass lines sometimes poses a challenge which I am always up for. When writing my music, I tend to take major influence from bands such as Arch Enemy, Parkway Drive and Orbit Culture as I see all three of these bands as inspiration to help me better myself as a musician.
During my free time, I enjoy gaming, hanging out with my friends, attending local bands and established band gigs and pursuing a side career in Martial Arts.
Congratulations on your ACC Award win. How do you feel?
When winning my award, I felt a sense of pure happiness and pride knowing that all of my hard work during the year had paid off. I could tell the potential my tutors, friends and bandmates all saw in me had played a major part in winning this award. When I told my family after the Awards Showcase that I was one of the winners, they couldn’t have been prouder. Winning this award made me realise that dedication and commitment are key factors in improving myself as a musician.
Tell us about your time at Access. What have you enjoyed about it? What have you learned?
During my time at ACC, I have learned many different skills and made many friends along the way. I really enjoyed being given the opportunity to perform live whilst being on the Level 2 course. When I was first asked if I wanted to perform, I was quite surprised that my tutors came to me first and not one of the Level 3 students. However, when looking back at that moment, I could not be more grateful to be given this opportunity to show my friends, family and the rest of the college my true potential when performing at my first college gig.
One major skill I have learned during my time at ACC is staying persistent whether for general coursework or band rehearsals, being persistent is the key to success in my opinion.
What’s your proudest achievement from your time studying with us?
My proudest achievement whilst being at ACC would be forming my cover band Silver Veins in such a short time frame for the End of Year Showcase and being one of the first-ever Level 2 students in Lincoln to perform at the showcase. Furthermore, after the success of our setlist at the showcase we have offered to play gigs outside of college. I could not be more proud of what I have achieved during my time at ACC, but none of it would have been possible without the help of my amazing tutors and my awesome bandmates.
What are your plans for the future? How are you going to take what you’ve learned at Access into your career?
My dream job is to tour the world as a metal musician and to become an inspiration to people young and old and show them that hard work, determination and perseverance always pay off. Until that happens though I am looking to become a session musician to which I am looking to help people who are struggling with their techniques/playing and give them that push to help them set foot within the music industry. With the skills I have learned from ACC, I have no doubt that in the future I can make these dreams one day become a reality.
What advice would you give to someone considering studying at Access?
If you have a major passion for Media, Games Development, Photography or in my case Music then my advice to anyone considering studying at ACC would be to go for it. Pursue those passions and dreams. Take my case for example, you can achieve anything if you’re willing to put in the time, effort, determination and perseverance. I could not have asked for a better time at ACC myself and I look forward to returning in September.
If you want to study a Level 2 music course, ACC can help! Apply for a course online.
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