Since 2018 WaterBear has been providing undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in popular music, songwriting and the music business, all accredited by Falmouth University. MT's Phil Croydon went along to an Open Day in Brighton to find out more.
 Guitar class at the WaterBear College of Music, Brighton
Guitar class at the WaterBear College of Music, Brighton - WaterBear / Kitty Wheeler Shaw

I'm visiting a music college that describes itself as ‘alternative’ and, according to a glossy guide to the WaterBear brand, a ‘disruptive start-up’. Already there's the name, WaterBear – so-called after ‘the Tardigrade, one of the most resilient beings known, able to survive and flourish in the most extreme conditions’.

There are three college buildings in the centre of Brighton. We're in ‘WaterBear HQ’, part of an unimposing office block just four minutes from the station. Inside, it has a dedicated teaching space, two rooms with rows of monitors and computers – running Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools and other software – and a modest-sized studio and control room. For the 30 or so students arriving, the space soon fills up. There's a second building close by, which houses additional teaching spaces, Mac suites and DJ practice facilities, and a third building that I'll come to later.

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