How this project began.
Following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Abery in 2020, we found ourselves having challenging conversations about racism.
Although our paths had never crossed before, we both had experience of the UK Northern Soul scene in different ways. We got talking about how problematic some aspects of the scene were when it comes to openly discussing these subjects. When we attempted to raise George Floyd on online Northern Soul groups and forums - we were told “don’t think this space is a place to discuss such things ” by moderators.
In the UK, this is a music scene made up of a predominantly white crowd, and which is based entirely around a love and appreciation of rare Black American soul records from the 60s and 70s.
We saw there was an opportunity to open up the conversation somehow - a small contribution - to give a platform to the original music and voices. To let the songs do the talking.
By actively listening to these records again with these themes in mind, we ask rare soul collectors from across the globe to revisit their music, to revisit their records and the artists, and to create and contribute a set of “Soul With a Message” for the platform.
This is just the beginning, we've much learning to do but we’re excited to see how this will develop over the next few months.
Paul and Kristen