A word from Liverpool - Yaw Owusu

Yaw Owusu

As the preparations to announce London Music Fund’s first Amplify Liverpool 2025 funded projects get underway, meet Yaw Owusu - the Creative Consultant for Amplify Liverpool 2025!

Yaw is a Liverpool-based music and culture strategist who delivers projects that seamlessly blend music, culture, and content production to create lasting impact for creatives, brands, organizations, and communities. He has managed his own creative consultancy company, Nothin but The Music, for over 14 years, and is considered a change maker in the UK music industry, seen through his ground-breaking work with projects such as Google’s Union Black, POWER UP, LIMF Academy, Open Sauce and Liverpool Against Racism. He is passionate about empowering and amplifying underrepresented voices, cultures, and stories, believing that this enriches and strengthens the art, media, and culture we engage with, so is the perfect choice for Amplify Liverpool’s Creative Consultant.

We spoke to Yaw about Amplify’s exciting expansion. He told us:

‘It is amazing to have the London Music Fund ‘come out of London’ and invest in one of the key music cities in the country, Liverpool. The expansion of the initiative with the Amplify Liverpool fund is dynamic and bold and makes a statement that talent is everywhere, and the support of that talent should reach as far and as wide as possible. 

Amplify Liverpool comes at a great time for the Liverpool City Region. There is a wealth of music talent development programmes, ranging from LIMF Academy to the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company to the Noise Project and many more doing exceptional projects that are creating impactful change in the lives of young and emerging talent. On top of that, we have a vibrant music ecology with clearer and stronger pathways to industry than we have seen in a long time. Couple that with the investment to the local industry that the music focused SIF funding intervention has given to regionally-based business and music leaders over the past 5 years, and what the soon to be launched 6.75 million pound Music Futures programme will give, it is fertile ground and fertile times to sow the seeds. 

Financial support for grassroots music programmes in Liverpool is crucial for nurturing talent, fostering community cohesion, and driving economic growth. Our rich musical heritage, from The Beatles to Cream and everything in between and happening now underpins our city’s global cultural significance. Investing in the next generation of talent, and those that support that talent, ensures this legacy continues and evolves. On top of that, it is important that there is targeted support for those who offer progressive creative and career provision for underrepresented and under-served young and talented music creators. We need more of this. Amplify Liverpool hones in on this area, aligning with what is needed in the city. 

We know what happens when we back under-supported and under-represented talent - which goes beyond just investment in their art and career - but has benefits that include improvements to health and well-being, citizenship, economic impact, social cohesion and so much more. This is another brick in the foundation of creating a fairer, more equal and more equitable industry for all. And it’s great that Liverpool gets to work with London Music Fund to create something that will contribute to doing that in our region.’

We can’t wait to see what Yaw’s passion and vison for Amplify Liverpool will bring to this year’s projects. Stay tuned for more announcements…