dBs Institute

“The course has prepared me for a career, but it’s also taken me out of an artist management job I didn’t want to do anymore. I’m now going into a completely different area of the music industry. That would never have happened had I not done the course. What I like most about dBs is the community spirit, family feel, endless resources and amazing facilities. It’s changed my life.”


Amanda, recently launched FEAR; an immersive audio-visual experience that highlights homelessness and insecure housing off the back of developing the project as part of her MA. The project secured partnerships with Shelter, the UK’s most prominent homeless charity, and Bristol-based accessible music technology company Soundbeam.

“Studying at dBs has helped me a lot, especially for three things; the students that you get to know, the lecturers that you get to know and learn from, and the equipment. It's really nice to come around and interact with the other students and get to know them, and to get to know the lecturers. Having access to the studios; to these mixers like the SSL or the API, or a lot of gear that I would not normally have access to in my studio, this has helped me to go deeper in some parts that I didn't know so much about. I went deeper and filled all the gaps that I had, so it kind of gave me a more complete understanding of the whole production and mixing and mastering and even the business side of it.”

Originally from Barcelona, Oriol Frexia came to Bristol in 2012 and has spent the last decade growing his studio and record label, Yam & Banana, into a flagship for St Paul’s reggae and dancehall communities. Working with some of the biggest names in the local scene, including Da Fuchaman, he has used his MA degree to ‘fill the gaps’ in his knowledge to continue expanding his business.