Idlewild star Rod Jones swaps life on road for mentoring role

Published on Wednesday 4 August 2010 12:39

HE is more used to playing to huge crowds at sell-out gigs and festivals across the globe.

But now Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones is coming home to the Capital to mentor budding rock stars.

For the next two years the 33-year-old is to serve as Musician in Residence to the city's Stevenson College and Edinburgh Napier University, as well as a number of community music projects.

Along the way Rod says he will bring together rock musicians, production students and even tuba players to "create a new genre" and put young hopefuls on the music map.

Rod also plans to record his next solo album at Stevenson College's The Music Box and involve students there.

Rod said: "I'm really just going to be involving the students as much as I can in playing and getting them to make the record.

"Some of them will be playing on tracks and others will be working on production.

"They'll be learning as they go along and it'll be a good experience.

"I'm going to get as many students involved as a can.

"Along with that I'll also be working with Whale Arts Agency and their community projects, which will be a little different. We're encouraging people who haven't played music before and people who can play but haven't played in years to come along."

Alison Reeves, Whale Arts Agency manager, said that Rod's post would give valuable experience to young students hoping to break into the industry.

She said: "We are thrilled to have someone of Rod's ability and experience on board. We want as many aspiring musicians as possible to take the opportunity to learn from Rod and improve their skills"

Rod added that while he will be teaching students to arrange and compose music themselves, there will be plenty of time for some fairly unorthodox performances.

He said: "At the launch I found myself with people who play the tuba, people that play in samba bands, and students that want to make rock music, so it should be interesting.

"We have two years and a lot of resources so the possibilities are limitless."