QSM So, intellectual property plays a big role in your ventures, how is it controlled?
RH It's a really difficult one, because they know the baseline is that if you go to prison as they have, you've lost all your freedom. When someone comes along and says “okay, I want to record your music but you don't own the music and you can't sell your music because you are in a prison”, they get very sensitive and rightly so about who owns the copyright. The way we have agreed at the moment is to have a creative common license, which essentially means that they have complete ownership over their music. When they are released they are totally eligible to go and register for PRS and PPL so that they retain the rights to their music. What I would say from the charities perspective is that we have no commercial gain from any of the music production and the music is available to download by anybody. We only ask for donations so our total funding 100% doesn't come from people paying for the music but that's something we'd like to do at some point because it is good music.
QSM And where can one find the material for this?
RH The music is available on various multi-platforms like Bandcamp, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, YouTube and Facebook. You can also go to our website www.finding-rhythms.co.uk, all the information is there.
QSM Fantastic!. Would you consider taking the program abroad?
RH I think there is some real potential for it to go abroad. There was a recent program about Michael Gove going out to jails in Texas and looking at pioneering initiative schemes working with offenders out there. For example they have the hounded offender, where they have dogs to look after. They take care of the dogs by stroking, grooming and basically looking after them. The dog becomes a big part of their lives and they've found that kind of engagement and program really heals them. I think that the focus on creating and composing music and song writing in these environments can be of real help so I think there's a huge scope.