Shaun Buswell

Shaun Buswell

Shaun Buswell at Shepherd's Bush Empire, 2013
Born Shaun David Buswell
(1976-09-14) 14 September 1976
Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Occupation Musician, comedian, musical challenger
Website www.buswellmusic.com

Shaun David Buswell (born 14 September 1976) is an English musician, comedian, and music challenger.

He is known for performing with his band Buswell, and for completing musical challenges, sometimes for charity, and often involving strangers.

Early life

Buswell was born in Swindon, England.

Music

He began his career as a solo artist, Buswell, in 1999. By 2006, this had grown into a 5 piece group and the band’s debut single “Let Me Love” was featured on MTV’s “This is Americana” & VH1, as well as getting to #1 and #2 in Amazon’s Pre-release & Hot 100 CD Singles Chart respectively.[1]

Music challenges

Buswell started work on what he would call “musical challenges”, often for various charities, where he would attempt to do seemingly difficult musical tasks, often including him writing and arranging the music without being able to read a single note.[2]

Royal Wootton Bassett Orchestra Challenge

In 2011, Buswell's first challenge was to compose and write music for the Royal Wootton Bassett Orchestra and perform a one-off show in Swindon in aid of UK based charity Kick 4 Life.[3]

121212 Underground Orchestra Challenge

In 2012, Buswell attempted a year long challenge, where he had to form an orchestra from strangers he met, travelling as passengers on the London Underground for Daytrippers, a charity supporting disabled and terminally ill children and young people throughout the UK. The challenge was called the 121212 challenge as he had until 12 December 2012 to complete the task.[4]

Halfway through the year, to promote the challenge, and to raise funds for UK charity Music Alive, Buswell formed a small group from musicians he had met so far, and performed on the London Eye.[5]

After 12 months, Buswell had approached over 300 strangers carrying musical instruments and formed a 68 piece orchestra. He then performed a one-off show at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, again performing music he scored without being able to read it, as well as a medley of movie themes from films featuring the London Underground.[6][7]

SN1 Fest Challenge

In 2013, Buswell reformed 30 musicians from the 121212 Orchestra to take part in the Live and Cultured portion of the SN1 Fest Summer Ball at the Town Gardens, Swindon. The challenge this time was to score original accompaniments for songs by local acts of varying genres, and get the orchestra to perform with them. The orchestra performed with punk band 2 Sick Monkeys, indie-folk band Old Colours, alt-rock band British Harlem and hip-hop act AJ Live. The orchestra also performed a rendition of Arctic Monkeys’ I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor with Radio 1’s Huw Stephens.[8]

Edinburgh Fringe Orchestra Challenge

In 2014, he set himself the task of forming an orchestra from strangers he bumped into at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 10 days. As with previous challenges, he composed the music without being able to read it, using composing software Sibelius.[9] After 10 days, he had formed a 24 piece orchestra, who performed a one-off show at The Jam House as part of the Edinburgh Free Fringe.[10]

Geronimo Busking Challenge

In January 2015, Buswell was asked by Decca Records to create a music video for Sheppard’s Geronimo from random buskers and musicians he met on the streets of London. He spent 5 days travelling around and recorded 12 musicians to create a multi-screen video.[11]

Pilton Pop-up Orchestra

In 2015, Buswell formed The Pilton Pop-up Orchestra at Glastonbury Festival which was made up of people who were attending the festival. They performed on a number of stages during the weekend, including the famous Glade Stage. Special guests also joined the orchestra to perform a rendition of one of their songs, including Nick Harper, Ellie Rose and The Cadbury Sisters.[12]

10 Day Orchestra Challenge 2015

In November 2015, supported by Arts Council England through a Grants For The Arts Award, Buswell worked with Swedish musician Erik Nyberg from Last Box of Sparklers, to create 10 pop-up orchestras in 10 days around the UK, with the aim of playing with 100 different musicians. Buswell was not allowed to personally discuss payment with any musician he met, nor could he hire musicians through advertisements. Instead, he had to find each musician personally and they had to live within a 50-mile radius of the venue. The pair travelled around the UK, eventually forming 10 orchestras that totalled 101 musicians.[13]

10 Day Orchestra Challenge 2016

In June 2016, again supported by Arts Council England through a Grants For The Arts Award, Buswell and Nyberg set out around the UK in an attempt to better their record of 101 musicians from 2015. This time, they set a target of 150 musicians. In 10 days, they managed to form 10 pop-up orchestras from 143 musicians.[14]

Paris Orchestra Challenge 2017

In April 2017, Buswell and Nyberg completed their Paris Orchestra Challenge, where from 1–9 April they formed a 27 piece orchestra from strangers they met in Paris, wrote and arranged an album of music with the group, and then recorded 12 songs in 6 hours for a live studio album in Ferber Studios.[15]

GPS Penis Art

Whilst touring the UK as part of 2016’s 10 Day Orchestra Challenge, Buswell noticed it would be possible to reroute the travels in order to draw a giant penis across England and Scotland in GPS drawing. Using GPS tracking that users could log into and watch, the drawing was created in real time, and Buswell and Nyberg drew a 400+ mile penis during their tour.[16]

References

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