AKA Man About Country! Our first walking podcast along the banks of the River Chelmer through Chelmsford City Centre to Essex Records Office. James aka Man About Country. Born in Chelmsford, raised in Kelvedon. He loves telling stories about Britain, the land, the people, the folklore - pushing it beyond a grey boring concrete place you wouldn’t want to explore. Getting out is great for physical and mental health. Growing up in Essex gave James an appreciation of the countryside. During COVID he was living in Cornwall, and he started to venture out and feel the benefits of outdoor space. It gave James space for self-discovery. Exploring your local area can unlock discoveries and wonder. We find a new bit of street art by Candy Joyce and Scott Brave on a pumping station wall - Knobby the troll. Street art trails like Chelmsford’s Concrete Canvas are so good for exploring within cities. He started making walks with points of interest for his friends, his friends were encouraging and it expanded organically. Finding a job you are passionate about makes you excited to get going on a Monday morning. 2025 was all about focusing on exploring Essex. James will now expand to the whole country. James trained on Dartmoor about outdoor education and nature connection so he could communicate better and with more knowledge. Energy and enthusiasm for a subject is infectious. Discovering Mesopotamia Island in Chelmsford and hearing about the 19th century mock elections and river dunkings. Culture Essex sponsored James to create the Essex Ways project as part of a round of arts funding. Gathering stories from all over Essex travelling 400km by foot. Reclaiming the image of Essex women from the reductive portrayal in TOWIE. His history degree helps with research, his acting experience helps with storytelling. Stories are alive, they adapt and grow with every telling, and over thousands of years parts of these tales can become more important for relevant thought and times. Learning from old stories can serve as cautionary tales today - look at the spreading of disinformation about witches in the Essex witch trials. Essex arguably has the longest coastline of any county in England. Clacton has the best banter and stories in Essex. James has worn his stick down from shoulder height to a short cane. James has recorded a special mini podcast story trail for Chelmsford as part of Essex Podcast Festival. People can explore the town and activate his stories in the place that they were recorded. Like the story of Caesaromagus - which was in Chelmsford in Roman times - basically a market stop off on the way between London and Chelmsford - like a Roman Greggs!

Man About Country website

Man About Country Instagram

Man About Country TikTok

Essex Podcast Festival

Are You Creative? video recorded by Adam from Lawker Media, out and about in Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Sound artist from Colchester. Studied Music Tech in Huddersfield, and could straddle music and engineering departments and experiment for four years. Learning the recording process as well as making music - a great place for a curious mind. Frazer’s first professional music work was performing cover versions for streaming platforms. It was a great learning experience creating different genres and recording them from home. He had an original band called Feeds when he lived in Leeds… sounds like the start of a limerick. He moved to Colchester in 2015 when his parents moved there. He joined Young Art Collective at FirstSite - they had a programme called Circuit funded by The Tate, so young people could put on events in the gallery. And University of Essex had a Games Hub programme, and Frazer started making music for computer games in a company called Teaboy Games. His first sound art used a Makey Makey circuit board, which is a physical interface for a computer - you might have seen banana pianos on YouTube. He started building ‘room scale’ instruments, rigging up whole rooms to play as an instrument. People emotionally love music, but fear getting it wrong, so making new instruments helps them feel the magic. CLIP was a jam night group for non-musicians to play together with gadgets at FirstSite Gallery - Nintendo DS and Hexabugs played alongside traditional instruments. They devise improvisation games and challenges to encourage empathic listening and lead into improvised music. Work with people better than you and use it is as learning experience - If I’m the stupidest person in the room then I’m probably in the right room. Frazer and a group pf musicians played a performance in C in the sea at Great Yarmouth - watched by a real seal! Big up Sue Hogan and Beth Hull at First Site for giving young artists opportunities to experiment and develop. What is foley? Making sound effects for films. You can levitate items between sound waves using acoustic levitation - it is sound science magic. Frazer’s experiment went viral on TikTok. Creating cymatic patterns on Chaladni plates. Frazer invented a device called Photon Smasher which lets you listen to light! Born out of solar panels being used as microphones. Frazer took it to Japan and scanned all of the neon lights, vending machines, and Pachinko machines. The light sounds of Southend’s sea front lights are melodic and beautiful. Why do fairgrounds have pumping music? The answer will surprise you! What is Electronic Music Open Mic (EMOM)? Try your electronic music in front of other creators. Frazer collected plastics from the River Colne and turned them into filament for his 3D printer, and used them to 3D print bird whistles. Circuit bending is taking apart a toy (SAFELY! Don’t do it with anything mains powered!) and poking the electronics to see what happens.

Frazer Merrick website

Frazer on Instagram

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Thanks to NGDA for their support

Ben and his friends run the Secret Island festival on Mersea Island in Essex. An independent music festival - previous headliners have been Mike Skinner from The Streets, Orbital, and Faithless. Ben’s Dad was an oysterman, his brother is an oysterman, he’s about as Mersea Island as you can get! Seagull chat. Ben looks about 95% the same as Nick, it’s like looking in a mirror - WEIRD! Big up Ray Keith and all the drum and bass legends. Ben grew up listening to tapes of raves, jungle and then drum and bass, before putting on his own raves. Breaking news: turns out Nick was at Ben’s very first rave in a barn near Tiptree. Then Ben’s crew moved their all-nighter parties to the Youth Camp in East Mersea - all thanks to supportive adult youth club leaders - big up the Powells! Ultrafunkula (their promotions) spread out to Colchester and London. Teaching the next generation how to run events and specific roles - from lighting, infrastructure, management, set-up, sound, logistics, planning. Secret Island started when Ben and his partners started putting on events again after a long break of nothing, and they started selling out and getting bigger from 250 to over 2000 people now. A local farmer had financial ambitions to run an event on their land, so they took on the location. The site is beautiful, overlooking The Strood and the water, the rolling fields, and amazing sunsets. The first event happened 2 weeks after COVID lockdown and the crowd were up for music and partying - the bar was drunk dry by 4pm! Big up Honkus Rompus - best name ever. AJ from Three Wise Monkeys is helping the festival expand and program their live music stage. Big up Frank Turner, big up The Meffs, big up Bridget., big up Monster Florence - so much amazing local talent. The importance of local promoters and their curational tastes. Would the bass from the Valve Soundsystem make oysters more muscular? Bass so big that you can’t roll a rolly. Cocaine shrimp! Running festivals is TOUGH, so many festivals drop off the radar. How do you manage it financially? Making it work on a budget and cutting elements you don’t need. DJ prices! Islands of Essex. How did it feel to warm up the crowd before Mike Skinner? How to get involved with the festival - give Ben a shout or send him a mixtape.

Ben Wass DJ

Secret Island Festival

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

Don't forget to like, subscribe, share and all the good stuff.

Follow our Instagram for latest news and behind the scenes photos

Send comments, questions, or suggestions for fascinating creative people in Essex give us a shout on our Instagram

Thanks to NGDA for their support