Margate explorative music trio United Freedom Collective on collaboration, studio rituals and finding space

With their brand-new EP Space Intention still hot from the presses, Margate’s explorative music group the United Freedom Collective (@unitedfreedomcollective) are amassing a fanbase that is seeking, at the very least, music that offers a multi-genre vibe you can certainly nod your head to.

The founding trio of Robbie Redway, Mathieu Seynaeve and WaiFung Tsang root their music in the influences they each take from the world of meditation, psychedelic cultures and worldwide healing traditions, and the audience is responding.

From their base in Margate, the latest record - released on the Maribou State-founded imprint Dama Dama - features the likes of local musicians such as Falle Nioke on track Ale Would, while Jordan Stephens guested on last year’s track 1994.

Title track Space Intention sets the tone, an uplifting ballad centred on the incredible choral vocals of Thanet’s The Social Singing Choir. The inspiration came from a Quincy Jones documentary the trio were watching together one evening. “There’s a quote where Quincy is talking about orchestration and he says ‘You’ve got to make space to let the Lord shine through’,” says Robbie. “That really struck a chord, especially given the constant temptation to add more and more parts to an already cluttered track.”
The next day in the studio the band agreed to set out with the intention to record a feeling of space. “It’s about being humbled by discovering a power much bigger than oneself,” they explain. “It also reminded us of the ‘overview effect’ described by astronauts when they see Earth from space, triggering a state of awe and self-transcendence.”
The EP also includes a cover version of a song originally released by Beyond, a highly successful and influential Cantonese band from Hong Kong. The song is particularly poignant for WaiFung, whose family and friends have been directly affected by the ongoing civil-rights struggles in Hong Kong, and the band felt moved to record a version in homage to freedom.
With almost 70k monthly listeners on Spotify alone, and almost a million plays of track Mercy, the United Freedom Collective is gathering pace. But to the group, it’s not really about the numbers. We spoke to Robbie to find out more.

What is the United Freedom Collective, where did you meet and why was it created?

We’re a collective of musicians, a trio to begin with, but it’s an open thing! Mathieu and I knew each other from the London live circuit - then he and WaiFung [both mental-health clinicians] were in the Peruvian Amazon on a research trip with The Ayahuasca Foundation, and during one of the ceremonies WaiFung sang a song - incidentally it’s a track we just released, called ‘農民 (For Hong Kong)’. Mat was so moved by this song that when they got back to the UK he arranged a weekend at my studio in Margate for the three of us. There was an instant chemistry music-wise - we wrote our first track Blake Vision that weekend and it developed from there. A couple of months later, we went on a retreat in Cornwall where we got really stuck into not only making music together but practising yoga and meditation, cooking, walking, cold-water swimming, things that nourished us and helped our creative process. It was a really bonding time and the demos we made there were enough to get us a deal with our label, Dama Dama. It’s just snowballed from there, really.

For people who might not know you (how rude!), how would you describe your music?

This is a hard one as we draw inspiration from so many different genres and we’re pretty varied in what we make. We came up with a tongue-in-cheek genre - Hymn & Bass - to describe our music. You could say there’s elements of devotional music, psychedelic music, dance music, dub, jazz, folk and ambient music. All sorts. We wrote a lot of our first body of work during the height of Covid-19 while the world was in the throes of a pandemic, and for this reason we had an overriding intention to make our music healing, for ourselves and for our listeners.

What is the link to Margate? Or how did you end up being based down here?

I moved here about five years ago from London. I was fed up with pollution and crazy rental costs and wanted a fresh start, and to live by the sea. It’s been a great move. I love the community here. And the sunsets. Same old story, really!

With Thanet becoming such a creative hub of artists, has it been easy to find collaborations?

We’ve released tracks with two people we probably would have never had the chance to work with if we didn’t live in a town like Margate - Jordan Stephens and Falle Nioke. Both are incredibly talented performers but also very open and easy-going guys. We also have some other really exciting collabs with other artists based in Margate in the pipeline. There’s a close-knit community here that is full of talent but void of ego. It feels like fertile ground for lots of cross pollination art-wise that maybe wouldn’t be so prevalent in a big city with more defined scenes or subcultures.

How does your work in psychedelic therapy, meditation and yoga manifest itself in your music?

The insight we gain in the studio from Mat and WaiFung’s work - their knowledge of healing traditions, spiritual practices and science - is integral to the project. Together we decided to implement studio rituals like intention setting, devotional singing and preparing the space before we start recording, and it makes such a difference to the process. It’s way less about wanting to get to a specific destination and more about just feeling what’s present and letting ourselves be vessels for what’s already there. Getting out of the way, basically. I think that’s been a big lesson from working with meditation techniques and plant medicines. They help you bypass that overly active mind and allow you to explore things curiously and creatively without constant self-criticism.

Was there a moment when jamming turned into serious ‘band’ discussions to form the United Freedom Collective? Or does it all remain very fluid?

It has to remain fairly fluid due to the nature of being three guys in our 30s with responsibilities… but this is a big part of our lives now. I think we knew we were on to something when we sent the first batch of demos around to our contacts and instantly had amazing people who wanted to work with us, but there always needs to be a sense of perspective, caution even, considering the brutal landscape of the music industry right now. Also, things become way less fun when you start depending on something for money, so we’re good just doing it for the love right now. We have to be patient, but we have a long-term vision for United Freedom Collective that goes beyond just recording, releasing and playing our music.

What does the rest of 2023 hold for you? More musical releases and live performances?

We have more releases ready to go over the next few months - watch this space. And a couple of festivals over the summer. We’re gonna ramp it up from autumn with more live headline shows and we’re releasing another bigger body of work then, too. I’ve just rented a permanent space at Prah Studios in Margate Old Town, so the summer will be a time to collaborate, gestate and create. I’m excited about that.