Emerging artists constantly seek new avenues to showcase their creativity and music, and Rise Ldn is dedicated to spotlighting fresh talent in Lewisham.
On November 21, Rise hosted an event at the Goldsmiths Student Union, headlined by Lizzie Esau, with performances from Alexandra Leaving and Meg Noya.
Meg Noya
The performance started out with Noya taking the stage.
They told Eastlondonlines: “I just felt really cool to play there not as a student but as an artist, the crowd was crazy, I was not expecting that many people to be there.
It just made me want to perform, [and] scream even more and I love energy like that. I’m just so happy people showed up for us because it was our first time playing as a band in nearly 2 years.”
Noya debuted ‘Choke’ as well as played some of their already released songs such as “Ashamed”, and “Through your Teeth”.
They said: “The audience’s energy and reaction will always influence how far I take the performance. I think I’m quite an eccentric performer, I just love screaming and bouncing around on stage. Because there were that many people there it just made me want to go that step further.”
Noya’s music is a way to express themselves, and they hope that it encourages their listeners to do the same.
“I’d like to think that my music helps convey a sense of freedom and anger and hopefully portrays that it’s okay to feel those things.
It’s okay to feel a bit mental sometimes and having a scream is so cathartic.”
Lizzie Esau
Lizzie Esau is an up-and-coming artist, who now has over 22,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
She said: “My mom and dad are really musical and artistic, so it [music] was always, in my house everywhere. I just remember, really loving music. I think it was my mom who said, you should write that down, [and] see what happens. Now, I’m not stopping, so don’t overthink it.”
Esau said she was really excited to perform at Goldsmiths and connect with a different audience.
“I knew of the university from doing art in the past. I knew [what] the vibe sort of was, and that straight away, made me really excited. I thought, there’s gonna be loads of people, lots of great opinions, in all different kinds of ways. I just thought, okay, this is a good group of people. I think they’re gonna like it.”
Esau told Eastlondonlines: “I want every gig to be an emotional rollercoaster in the best way! There’s angry moments, crying moments, dancy moments which hopefully inspires people to not think they need to stick to one genre or sit in a box in any way, and that being fully creatively free and dramatically expressive is way more fun!”
Rise Ldn
Rise Ldn is a live venue and club in Lewisham, that believes in helping artists showcase themselves.
A spokesperson told Eastlondonlines: “There are many ways in which we come across artists who may later feature on our platform.
Some of our team members have close connections with artists within the Goldsmiths Music department, so in many cases are aware of some really cool and talented bands. However many of our team members are also just music lovers, so in their spare time may attend or even play in shows around London, identifying great bands in the process.
We try to curate shows of certain genres to appeal to fans of that style of music!”
