Lions of Dissent
Starting out as a sole endeavour and beginning life as part of my Master of Arts final major project, the music and art collective Lions of Dissent began in 2015. At its height in 2017 there were over 10 members working across the various parts including songwriters, musicians, producers, filmmakers, photographers, web developers and graphic designers.
With a proven pedigree proudly built on back-to-back sell out gigs, international critical acclaim, BBC 6 Music plays and a wide and varied canon of self-produced sonic and visual material. Lions of Dissent are group with a legacy, and future most could only dream of.
Image: Chris Close
Some of the key achievements include:
Selling out 2 high profile self-promoted concerts in Wolverhampton & Birmingham, selling over 400 tickets in the process
Self-releasing and managing every aspect of our 7-inch vinyl single release
Achieving over 25,000 plays on YouTube, worldwide press and radio coverage, including plays on BBC 6 Music and heavy rotation in both mainland Europe and South America
Collaborating with Reggae superstar Lee Scratch Perry on a social media campaign
Over 100 plays on BBC Introducing Radio shows
Creating and printing our own merch range and selling t-shirts all over the world
Image: Euripidies Altintzoglou
Image: Courtesy of Lee Scratch Perry
a full-on multi-dimensional sonic experience. Lions of Dissent don’t quite fit in anywhere – too punk to be psych, to psych to be punk, they sit defiantly outside the norm
Clash Magazine
As creative director for Lions of Dissent I write the music and work across all aspects of production – both in a home studio and collaboratively at a fully equipped recording facility.
But the music is only one part of our creative output and I also lead on conceptualising, directing and editing video content and photoshoots along with developing merchandise ranges which we have sold online to our fans around the world. Our band t-shirts and posters have always been hand screen printed by myself which allows for a more personal touch in the corporate world of mass-produced band merch. I also curated the LoD exhibition space at Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of the MA Show in 2015.
Image: Chris Close
Building and nurturing our audience has required plenty of creative approaches, from building the Lions of Dissent brand identity on networks including Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and SoundCloud, to devising ad campaigns, competition concepts and content ideas for social media campaigns. I have built an extensive network of contacts at digital music distributors and the music press (radio, print and digital) through managing PR and press campaigns and delivering content onto digital music platforms. Most recently I devised and built a new LoD EPK.