The Make Space EP

The project is a collaboration between David Green (Musician, Producer and start-up Principal of a school in DRC) and Stephen (Spoken word artist/poet and Nurse in Bristol). 

The project started out as a lockdown-driven adventure into new musical territories for David who was quarantining a camper van studio after being whooshed out of Africa on the last plane. A few months later he was in DRC and thinking about his friends back home and wondering what to do to help the frontline staff dealing with the crisis in the wards and beyond. David reached out to Stephen and he brought some lyrics to the project. 

Make Space is an artistic reflection of, and a response to, Covid-19. It is given freely on the following platforms in return for contributions to the RCN Foundation's Support Fund for Nurses.

Track 1) Make Space - The last year has been a time of instructional overload as the advice keeps changing and arguments abound as to how we should behave. This track blends snippets of government guidance from the early stages of Covid-19 with a sequence of guitar loops and escalatory synths, set to a collage of actual reliable guidance from WHO.

Track 2) Respiratory Failure - Was the Covid-19 crisis the final straw that broke the back of trust in our government? This track blends clinical details with actual drivel uttered by Donald Trump during the early months of Covid's arrival in USA. The video speaks for itself. 

Track 3) Innocent - A more personal journey charted by S.J.M., the lyrics blend clinical and technical data about PPE with extracts from Psalm 19 to explore the power of ritual, fetishes of cleanliness and the complexities of our perspectives about nurses during the early stages when some were being blames for transmitting the disease despite not being adequately protected.

Track 4) Reasons to Believe - a call-to-arms for all those who, like nurses, haven't yet found a good enough reason to integrate service into their lives or be compelled to reach beyond themselves to something bigger and better. A simple ditty with a singular message - no need for middle eights, choruses or verses.

Track 5) Covid-#9 - In times of crisis; hope. Lyrics adapted from an article by Charles Eisenstein that challenges us to reimagine our world in the wake of realisations brought about by the crisis. What lessons have we learnt? How do we want to shape the post-Covid world?Recording features Fraser Anderson and Bex Baxter on vocals.

The Charity -  RCN Foundation

“Right now, thousands of nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers across the UK continue to be at the forefront of battling COVID-19. This is why we want to support the RCN Foundation and are asking you to donate to enable them to continue to help nurses, midwives and health care support workers who are been adversely affected by the pandemic.

We want to help people like Assy, a paediatric agency nurse for 13 years, who had to self-isolate for two weeks due to a member of her household showing COVID-19 like symptoms. During this time, she wasn’t paid any sick leave – and later lost her job. As a single mother of 2 young children, she felt desperate and worried that due to the loss of income she wouldn’t be able to pay her rent or bills. On receiving the grant, Assy said “I am so grateful to the RCN Foundation – I am not sure what I would have done without this grant, the money provided me with much needed relief at one of the most difficult times in my life. Thank you so much.”

For more info about the RCN Foundation and how your money will help please visit https://rcnfoundation.rcn.org.uk/

As little as £5 can make a difference - Thank you for your support from us!”