I became involved with Utrophia in 2003 when I met
Stephen Molyneux at a gig both our bands were playing, at the Spitz in London. I'd been writing and performing instrumental music for a number of years and really enjoyed the
Naciente Quartet that night. I lived out of town but began to attend Utrophia events when I could and played music at some of them, either with bands or in improv groups. I also had music included on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Utrophia compilations. I was keen to chip in at events where I could as I fell in love with the joyous and unpretentious nature of this arts network, the first Cwm festival, in particular, broke my heart.
I became a more 'definite' member of the collective when I took up a studio at the project space in September 2007, the last few months of the engine house that we'd all had so many different kinds of joy in. When we moved studios to the Ice Cream Factory, I began to make films, initially about Utrophia, because I wanted to contribute a record of the things that had happened at the previous project space. In the end I made 6 parts of something we've shown as a 'promotional' film: Events before and external to the original project space; Project space happenings; Bands that make up and surround Utrophia; The Marching Band; The third Cwm festival; and Utrophia's Public programme.
I'm now an active part of the running of the project space, have begun curating shows and was part of the team working at last year's Cwm festival, including co-booking the bands with Jono Allen, which was an amazing event. Towards the end of 2009, my chief preoccupation for Utrophia became converting the 'Left Side of the Barn' space into a place for music nights, puppetry and small theatre performances, which, save for the curtains, is pretty much done. A couple of performances took place before the winter weather drew in, and with the rebirth of spring, the space began housing a new music night, 'We Came Here To Save You'., which I ran with Melody Wood, as well as rehearsals for performances by various artists. More recently I set up Utrophia's very own reverb chamber using the Utrophia project space.
Outside of Utrophia, I work as a sound engineer, play guitar, drums, melodica, glockenspiel, percussion and a little clarinet and berimbau. I enjoy improvising and often work with movement artists, as well as being singer/ songwriter in folk quintet Mouth 4 Rusty. I make short films and videos, contribute shows for Creot Radio and occasionally write articles for magazines. I have a website at www.rigsbysmith.com