What does a dystopian sci-fi adventure sound like? How do you tell a post-apocalyptic story without a screen, a camera or special effects?

Marcus and Vikki from Sybil Productions Ltd are giving creative and immersive businesses from the North East the opportunity to find out just how this might work, for one night only, at the Advanced Media Production Studio at PROTO in Gateshead on Wednesday 18th June 2024.The event, Don’t Look Just Listen, is a social/networking mixer for creative industries, part of the TechNExt festival fringe programme.

“We wanted an opportunity to bring people together from a predominantly visual industry, to give them a flavour of how we can tell stories and create immersive experiences just with sound.” Vikki Price is co-founder at Sybil Productions and wrote the story for The City: Revolution, the sci-fi music and audio drama that the event is based on. “We love the idea of hosting the event at the Advanced Media Production Studio at PROTO because the big focal point of the room is a huge screen, so it means something when we turn that screen off to just play audio.”

The City: Revolution is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi audio drama, set between the North East and London in a not-too distant, imagined future where the government give up on serving the public and turn off the national grid. The only people with power, infrastructure and services are those who are in the financial centre in the City of London, whose resources and wealth are protected by a huge wall with AI weapons as defences. The final touches of production will happen this summer ready for an autumn release, but the team are making the pilot of episode 1 available for people to listen to tomorrow evening.

“We have a listening room set up with a silent-disco style playback, and we’re really interested to see how people find listening to the first episode at an event. So far, people have listened to the pilot on their own devices, at home or in the car or wherever works for them. This is the first time we’ll be giving the people the chance to listen at an event as a group, so it should be interesting!” Vikki explained.

Marcus Brown, creative director at Sybil Productions and composer of the music and sound design for The City: Revolution, has had a career of international music events to help him prepare for the event on Wednesday. Growing up in Chester-le-Street, County Durham and learning his trade through classical piano, the northern youth jazz orchestra and local 90s bands Live Room and Dance Class, Marcus’s music career led him London...and then LA...and then around the world, most famously as principle keyboard player for Madonna in the 2000s. He’s played huge international events like Coachella, Live 8 and the MTV Music Awards (and yes, Millennials, he was on stage for the famous Britney kiss!).

The Don’t Look Just Listen event might seem like a breeze compared to world tours with Madonna, Seal or Ozzy Osbourne, but that’s not how it feels to Marcus. “This is the first time my music has been front and centre; I’ve always been supporting someone else to do their best work. So, while it might seem like a small event in comparison, it means a lot to be doing it in my own name. That’s a whole different kind of excitement and nerves!"

“I’m so grateful for everything I’ve had the chance to learn just by being on those big tours – needless to say, working with Madonna was the ultimate in education on how to run an amazing show," Marcus says, "but tomorrow is about showing what I can do with music and sound - with our team and Vikki’s great story. So it would be a lie to say this feels familiar, or easy. And I’m just as prepared and putting just as much time and energy in as I have for any big name artist on a massive stage – if not more so, because this time it’s personal and it’s exposed. I want it to show how amazing The City can be, and the great team we have around us.”

Marcus has built a top class team to write and record The City: Revolution, including attracting an all star cast, which he’s keeping schtum about: “We’re going into final production this summer, so it’s too early to say this artist’s coming in to record, or that actor’s coming in – but the cast and team we’ve got are amazing and world class. We’ll have to see how schedules work out and what we can get done. We’re still working on a shoe-string budget because we’re indie. And sometimes stuff just gets in the way, for example, Steve Sidelnyk – who I’ve worked with for years and was the drummer in most of the big bands I’ve played in – Richard Ashcroft, Madonna, Seal etc – he would have been at the show tomorrow, but right now he’s driving in a convoy to Ukraine to deliver baby incubators and aid to locals fighting in the war there. So, you know, you don’t expect to be saying “our drummer’s in a warzone” when trying to work out which team members will be at which events, or which recording sessions!”

Don’t Look Just Listen is an immersive audio networking event for the creative industry, held at the Advanced Media Production Studio @ PROTO, Gateshead from 6pm on Wednesday 19th June 2024.

You can get tickets on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dont-look-just-listen-immersive-audio-social-event-at-technext-tickets-918659153257?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete&_gl=1*yvk390*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjEyNzk3NDc5Ny4xNzE4NjIxNDcw*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*MTcxODYyMTQ2OS4xLjAuMTcxODYyMTQ2OS4wLjAuMA..

The City: Revolution is in pre-production and will be released later this year. You can find out more at www.sybilproductions.com/listen

For media enquiries or access to our online media kit, please email hello@sybilproductions.com