Fusing photography, travelling and music, SAYNN is breaking the mould of the music industry

It’s quite possibly a first for Bristol24/7. We chat to our next artist in our rolling dBs Institute feature spotlighting their students via video call while they are in Nepal.

“I’m on a rooftop in Kathmandu,” Andy Cummings AKA SAYNN tells us. “I’m currently out here for a few weeks, just taking some time to chill and relax. I’m off to see some mountains soon.”

After graduating from dBs earlier this year, Andy has always brokens the mould.

“I studied electronic music production and I started quite late, I started at 28 and then graduated when I was 31. I felt like it was a really good experience to do later on in life, because one thing that I found, that dBs did very well was that they set up the course to be highly customizable,” Andy tells us.

“You could really tailor it to what you wanted to get out of that, which is sort of the route that I tried to go down in all of my final modules. If you knew what direction you wanted to go in, then you could really come up with something that’s personal and meaningful.”

Releasing music under the name SAYNN, Andy released his first record earlier this year, titled Music Through Exploration. Taking his experiences of travelling and his passion for photography and turning it into a musical journey tied to different countiries.

Andy takes inspiration from his travels around the world to create his music

“It was a self-released project and it is music that I’ve made through kind of exploring the world. The idea was that each track was sort of like a soundtrack to not only a different country, but more specifically, my memories related to that country,” Andy explains.

Accompanying the album is a unique website displaying a world map, which allows the listener to experience the music along with photographs and information relating to each country mentioned on the album.

Is this something he’d like to continue with future releases? “Yes, definitely. I think what I’d like to do, just in terms of the website, is add more countries.

“I have a really good collection of photos from my recent trip in the highlands, and I’ve improved a lot on the photography side. So yeah, I’m definitely going to keep on adding photos and music to accompany that.”

Returning to the topic of Bristol, Andy tells us what his favourite place for live music is in the city: “It has to be Trinity Centre. The sound system just sounds so good in that space and there’s a great drum and bass community there. It’s always great to meet new people.”

When returning home, Andy’s focus will be on getting more exposure for his work: “dBs definitely drilled into us that you’ve got to promote yourself. I have so many tracks at home, waiting to be released, so I’ll definitely be prioritsing this once I’m back in the UK.”

You can listen to the album here and visit Andy’s website here.

All photos: Andy Cummings

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