A WELL-KNOWN former music student visited a Bournemouth music academy to offer advice to aspiring musicians.

Newton Faulkner, 27, the Brit-nominated folk/pop musician, famed for his dreadlocks and laid-back attitude, has toured the globe since he left the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford.

In the wake of his third album, Write It On Your Skin, being released this summer, he toured Bournemouth’s ACM, and spoke about the work he did to get him to the position he’s in today. He says, with cautious honesty, that he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do in life, but he didn’t want to do anything but music.

Newton said: “I absolutely loved my time at the ACM, and my tutors were such an amazing array of people.”

He added: “Music is just my entire life, I can’t seem to separate myself from it all.

“I think that partly for me, it’s a communication thing, as usually when I do a gig, I’m completely on my own and because of that, you can just talk to people.

“This next album is a different kind of beast. I think that the first two, Handbuilt By Robots, and Rebuilt By Humans, were kind of inter-linked, and it reflects how I was mentally and in regard of the producer, they were done in the same way. With this one, I’ve recorded a lot of it myself, some in LA and the last bit was in a studio called Lightship 95 in London.

“There are songs on the second album that I absolutely love, like I’m Not Giving Up Yet and I Took It Out On You, which I’m incredibly proud of.

“My songs are always very personal. On this album, I literally play it from start to finish with a guitarist and it’s much more accessible, and it’s a hopeful album.

“This time, I think that I know my sound a bit more, and I’ve got a son now, which changes things massively.

“After being in the studio for quite a long time, and just focusing on writing and recording, I think I’d forgotten how much fun proper touring is.

“I can’t imagine having functioned without the ACM, because it also gives you the business side of things and that really helped.

“My advice to young musicians is to just gig a lot, and I think that the way that the industry works can’t really change, and using Facebook and Twitter can be really useful.”

For more information on Bournemouth’s Academy of Contemporary Music, go to acmregional.co.uk/southcoast