Dr Martin Isherwood

Director of School of Music

Martin has many years’ professional experience as a songwriter, producer and music entrepreneur. He has achieved top 20 UK chart success and received a number of songwriting awards including winning BBC Song for Europe in 2003. He has been Head of Music at LIPA since 2001 and is a member of UK Music Skills Academy and has served on the Boards of many music organisations and urban regeneration projects. Martin has featured in a number of TV and radio programmes, panels at music industry conferences, presented songwriting papers at Higher Education conferences and published research commissioned by the Higher Education Academy in 2014.

Tim Pike

Programme Leader: PMMT and Senior Lecturer

Tim studied music at Breton Hall College starting on oboe but switching to bass guitar midway through. He is a multi-instrumentalist playing bass guitar, guitar, keys, saxes and double bass.

After graduating he embarked on a career as a session musician and teacher. As both a music-reader and improviser, Tim has performed in theatres in the UK, recording sessions in London, playing for theatre shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and many jazz gigs. He was invited to teach at two of the institutions that he had previously studied at, and teaching became the dominant passion. After completing his MA in 1994, Tim began full-time teaching at LIPA in 1995. Since then, as well as teaching, Tim has mainly focused on jazz gigs on bass guitar for pleasure. He also turned his hand to other varied projects including the pre-production and recording of music played at The Beatles Story exhibition, to performing with China Crisis, and editing the music manuscript for Bill Bailey’s songbook. He can currently be found playing bass in two big bands (one with a weekly residency), and also holding the bass chair at the Liverpool Jazz Club’s monthly sessions.

Dr Helen Davies

Senior Lecturer

Helen is a popular music researcher. Her key research interests are gender and sexuality, music education, music and visual creativity, music in everyday life and ethnographic research. Her doctoral thesis, ‘Music in the everyday lives of young teenage girls’ (University of Liverpool, 2011), is based on ethnographic research in domestic and school settings in Merseyside. More recently, she has researched gender related issues for young musicians studying on popular music higher education courses and/or in early career. Since 2019, she has collaborated with the organisation UK Music on their research into diversity in the UK music industry. Currently, she is researching visual creativities for musicians. Helen is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), and an editorial board member of IASPM Journal.

Helen is responsible for the design and delivery of all academic and popular music studies modules on LIPA’s music degrees and foundation courses, including supervision and day to day management of a small teaching team. In these modules, students are encouraged to critically analyse their own and other musicians’ practice and explore aspects of popular music culture and industry that are relevant to them. Helen brings her research interests and scholarly experience to all aspects of her teaching.

Selected outputs

Book chapters

2022 

‘How do I look? The importance of visual analysis for musicians in popular music higher education.’ In D. Walzer (ed.) The Handbook on Music Business and Creative Industries in Education. Sheffield: Equinox.

2021 

‘Because I’m a girl’: exploring experiences, practices and challenges relating to gender and sexuality for female musicians in popular music higher education.’ In R. Mathias (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Work in Music, pp.26-35. London: Routledge.

2019 

‘Preparing for the ‘real world’? Exploring gender issues in the music industry and the role of vocational popular music higher education.’ In C. Strong and S. Raine (eds.) Towards Gender Equality in the Music Industry. Education, Practice, and Strategies for Change, pp.29-44. London: Bloomsbury. 

Journal articles 

2019

‘Gender issues in the music industry and popular music higher education: Exploring the experiences of young musicians.’ Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica special issue: Music as a social phenomenon – theoretical concepts and empirical inquiries, 20/2, 211–227. 

2013

‘Never mind the generation gap? Music listening in the everyday lives of young teenage girls and their parents.’ Volume! La revue des musiques populaires, 10/1, pp. 229-247. 

Conference presentations 

2022 

‘Technological change, visual creativities, and popular music higher education.’ International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK & Ireland Branch Biennial Conference. University of Liverpool, 31 August-2 September. 

‘UK Music Diversity Report 2020: the data behind the report and actions.’ UK Music - Music Academic Partnership Symposium. Online, 26 May. 

2018

‘Preparing for the ‘real world’? Exploring the role of music education in addressing gender and sexuality issues experienced by young popular musicians.’ Association for Popular Music Education conference. Middle Tennessee State University, 24-27 June. 

2017 

‘Young musicians, gender and sexuality: researching the issues in an educational context.’ 1st Symposium of the LGBTQ+ Music Study Group. Edge Hill University, 27 May.

Dan Sanders

Subject Leader: Music Production

MMus SFHEA Subject Leader, Music Production, School of Music 

As a self-employed music professional, Dan delivered projects with major and indie labels for 15 years before joining LIPA full-time. Day-to-day negotiation with A&R, artist management and label executives plus a practice-based understanding of music rights shaped Dan's experience, allowing him to pick up multiple platinum sales awards for his production work along the way. Dan now looks at how the new generation of music entrepreneurs can meet the challenges of a changing music industry.

Steve Parker

Senior Lecturer

Steve’s professional career includes production, songwriting, remixing, session playing, engineering, mixing, arranging and composition. As a writer and producer Steve worked in partnership with Pete Waterman for over a decade, developing projects and achieving releases on all major record labels (BMG, Sony, Warner, EMI, Universal, Jive/Zomba) and working on music projects for national TV and live events. Steve has achieved numerous top 40 singles and albums, attaining 11 platinum album sales. As a remixer, credits include well-known names such as Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue along with many more underground artists, achieving numerous number 1 dance chart positions. Steve believes that listening to and analysis of a wide range of material, coupled with a solid theoretical understanding is key to broadening your understanding of songwriting and of production and arrangement. His extensive experience helps students develop the practical skills and the work ethic and judgment required for a professional career.

Steve leads sessions in songwriting and in music production, delivering lectures, practical workshops, seminars and one-to-one sessions. He takes a practical task-based approach to teaching and developing skills and holds dear the belief that being able to realise your songs and musical ideas as effective demos is vital for any musician working in the music industry today.

Steve’s professional industry experience informs all aspects of his teaching, experiences such as working to deadlines, making decisions, understanding commercial briefs, analysing and understanding unfamiliar styles of music, and being able to realise commercially viable products are central to the experiences he tries to create for students. Steve is acutely aware that while you’re not always fortunate enough to work on what you want, what you create still has to be musically effective.

Dr Eva Petersen

Programme leader

Dr Dori Howard

Lecturer

Dori is a popular music researcher and writer. She is one of fewer than 100 people in the world to hold an MA in the Beatles, Popular Music and Society, and she has a PhD in Popular Music. Her key research interests are the Beatles and Liverpool, genre studies, and popular music ethnography. More recently, her research focuses on gender and embodiment in popular music.

 Dori is a public speaker on the Beatles and other popular music topics and has been consulted in online, print, and television media considerations of popular music, including BBC World News. She is a member of the International Association of Popular Music (IASPM UK and USA).

Dr Veronica Skrimsjö

Lecturer

Veronica has a BA (Hons.) and MA in popular music studies, and a PhD that focused on popular music, aesthetics, and record collecting. She has been teaching at HE-level since 2009 and is a fellow of the HEA.

Veronica’s research is primarily concerned with record collecting and collecting cultures, materiality and aesthetics. One of her main aims is to highlight how diverse and active popular music fandom and consumption is, and she has a clear focus on the listener and reader-response theories. In 2016 she published the book ‘I, Me, Mine?’: An Initial Consideration of (Popular Music Record) Collecting Aesthetics, Identities & Practices, and more recently published the book The Vinyl Revival, Gender, and Collecting Aesthetics.

Veronica is the co-chair and a founding member of the Society for Music Production Research (SMPR), and the Journal of Music Production (Intellect Books), and sits on the editorial board for The British Pop Archive book series (Manchester University Press). She regularly provides research commentary for various media, including radio, television, and print, and she is the sole owner of the Cunard Yanks record collection.

Selected publications/research

‘I, Me, Mine?’: An Initial Consideration of (Popular Music Record) Collecting Aesthetics, Identities & Practices (2016)

The Vinyl Revival, Gender, and Collecting Aesthetics (2025)

A selection of shorter works is available via www.veronicasvinyl.com

Clare Canty

Teaching Fellow

Clare has been teaching for more than 20 years and singing for even longer. She has worked as a studio session singer, live backing vocalist and radio DJ, as well as writing and recording her own songs. In the 1990s, she fronted dance act Lucid, achieving top 40 singles and performing on Top of the Pops. Having experienced the ‘pop star lifestyle’, Clare understands the fun-side and challenges involved in such things as media attention and giving interviews, live TV, club PAs, photo shoots, making videos and touring. In her teaching she uses a holistic approach, combining physical exercises and confidence building techniques to help each singer find and express their own unique voice.

Bob James

Teaching Fellow

Bob has over 30 years of music industry experience including working in publishing, record labels, management, digital and other areas of exploitation of intellectual copyright. During this time, he has built up a strong network of contacts in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Germany and Asia as well as the UK.

Bob was founder and former CEO of Music House, which was the UK’s largest and most successful independent music promotions company. It worked with most of the UK and Europe’s largest labels and artists on club, radio, TV and international promotions.

He left Music House in 2002 to set up Asylum, managing the careers of various song writing and production teams including DEEKAY Music in Copenhagen and has through strategic co-writing and artist development built relationships with most of the major songwriters and producers worldwide. His writing and production credits have been responsible for over 60 million records sold. 

Artist management included a selection of platinum selling acts, including Misteeq, and he has developed acts that have involved Randy Jackson (American Idol) and Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac). 

Bob was instrumental in the negotiation of the first ever digital deal with Universal Records and has done ground-breaking deals for his artists involving major brands, including Motorola.  

Still an active manager, Bob’s roster of artists includes Kelvin Jones (gold and platinum selling artist in Germany) and Hannah Trigwell. He has been a consultant to Arista Records (BMG) and EMI Records and been part of a production team with projects signed to Warners, MCA and Telstar Records.

Bob now runs Get Money from Music, where he mentors and coaches' songwriters, producers, recording artists and music industry entrepreneurs. He regularly sits on industry panels and lectures on the music industry and new business models across the UK and Europe.

Bob currently works on the MPP modules and mentors' performance, songwriting and production students at LIPA. He provides feedback, support and guidance as he uses his experience to guide students on the best way to navigate the music industry. 

Through his years of experience Bob has learnt that artists need support not only in business but also with their mindset and creativity. Before entering the creative industries, you need to learn how to understand and deal with the pressures you will be under, be your authentic self and have the right knowledge to help you navigate your way to success. Bob’s role with students is to help them create possibility.

Paul Mitchell-Davidson

Lecturer

Paul has been a professional musician for over 50 years, starting out in pop music before moving on to jazz and classical. His career has spanned radio, TV, theatre and dance and he has worked as a studio session musician for radio and TV as well as a composer, arranger, musical director, conductor and performer. Paul has arranged for pop and rock acts including rap artist Red Venom, N-Trance and China Crisis. Having worked in most areas of the music profession at the highest level, he is able to pass on the techniques and pragmatic elements involved in making a living writing music.

Joe Duddell

Teaching Fellow

Kate Blair

Teaching Fellow

Kate is a singer-musician who has enjoyed a dual career as a performer and teacher since the early 2000s. An experienced vocal and performance coach holding both a PGCE and an MA by Research in Vocal Pedagogy, Kate has a particular interest in working with pop/rock artists in order to develop their individual sound and the expressive skills required for effective live and recorded performance.

Kate specialises in contemporary vocal technique, rooted in an in-depth knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the voice and 'voice science'. Having trained extensively with international voice pedagogues in a wide-range of areas such as Estill Voice Training, Accent Method and Primal Voice, Kate continues to develop her teaching and performance practice, keeping up to date with the latest research.

Vocal health and rehabilitation are key areas of Kate’s practice and she is an active member of The British Voice Association, regularly working and training alongside interdisciplinary voice professionals, such as speech and language therapists. Kate works with singers to develop efficient vocal technique and an understanding of how to look after the voice, reducing the risk of vocal fatigue and other vocal issues which may arise as a result of busy gigging and recording schedules.  This technique also underpins the exploration of the capabilities of the vocal instrument and the development of the artist’s individual sound and expressive performance.

Kate's approach is holistic and she draws on a wide range of research and related practice in order to develop the skills required by the contemporary singer and artist-songwriter. Kate’s research interests include interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary singer training; her postgraduate research focussing on Laban technique and Michael Chekhov technique.  Her current research centres on somatic movement practices and how they may be utilised in order to build healthy vocal technique and to develop stage skills such as physical expression, emotional connection, stage presence and artist persona. Kate plans to extend this work to explore the use of physical techniques in combination with other approaches, such as Primal Sound.

Carl Parris

Lecturer

Carl is an experienced dancer, singer and actor performing across all genres. He made his film debut in Superman 2 aged eight-years-old, his West End debut, as an eleven-year-old, in Bugsy Malone and rehearsed with Hollywood legend Gene Kelly for a Royal Command Performance. Carl’s other theatre credits include Cats, Anything Goes, Fame and Smokey Joe's Cafe. His film and TV work includes Jesus Christ Superstar, Gulliver’s Travels, Muppets Most Wanted, Game of Thrones, House of Dragon and Wicked Parts 1 and 2. Carl helped create work with Lloyd Newson on JOHN as part of the DV8 Physical Theatre company. He was also resident choreographer at the Hackney Empire. Carl's vast experience allows him to tap into different methods and styles to empower, nurture and instil confidence in his students.