The Pro7ect Residential Retreat Experience

Day 1: Arrive at Rockfield

Artists arrive and check in by 5pm.

The first evening is about settling into Rockfield, meeting the other artists and producers and getting ready for the three writing days ahead.

After dinner, we hold our welcome, orientation and ce-breaker, introduce the team and explain how the retreat works. You will also explore the studios and creative spaces that become your home for the week.

By the end of the night, the introductions are over, conversations have started and the retreat is already beginning to take shape.

The next morning, the writing starts.

Days 2, 3 & 4

Three Days. Three Teams. Three (or 4) Songs.

Each morning begins with breakfast and the announcement of that day’s writing teams.

You will work with a new group of collaborators every day.

Across the retreat there are five writing rooms and studios running simultaneously. Four studios are dedicated in-the-box writing and production rooms, where teams write, record, arrange and produce a complete track, or two, during the day.

The fifth studio is the Legendary Live Lounge, where the team works as a temporary band, writing and arranging a new song before performing it live that evening. This song will be recorded live and a one-take video will be made of the performance.

The challenge for every room is the same:

Write and record one original song each day.

No demos prepared in advance. No prescribed genre. No formula. You begin with the people in the room and whatever ideas emerge between you.

The Headline Producer Runs the Room

Every writing room is led by a Pro7ect Headline Producer. This is central to how the retreat works, and what makes the Pro7ect retreat experience different to most other camps. Our Headline Producers are highly skilled, experienced and respected professional songwriters and producers. They are not there simply to observe the session or offer occasional advice.

They run the room.

Each daily session is structured like a professional writing room, with the Headline Producer guiding the creative process, managing the pace of the day, helping the team make decisions and making sure the song keeps moving forward.

They know when to challenge an idea.

When to simplify.

When to push harder.

When to change direction.

And when a song is finished (by the 7pm deadline every day).

Their job is to bring out the best in the people in the room and help the team achieve something exceptional by the end of the day.

At Pro7ect, the producer is there to help the room reach brilliance.

What Happens in the Writing Room?

A song might be written for one of the artists in the team (a Featured Artist), for another performer, for sync, as a future release, or simply because that is where the day takes you. You might contribute a lyric, melody, beat, guitar part, vocal idea, chord sequence, production concept or something nobody expected when the day began. The important thing is that everybody contributes. You are expected to bring your own skills into the room, but also to respond to the strengths of the people around you. That is where the real learning happens. Professional collaboration is not about getting your own way. It is about serving the song.

The Evening Playback

After a delicious dinner at 8pm, the entire retreat gathers for the nightly playback. This is one of the defining moments of Pro7ect. Five teams started the day with nothing.

A few hours later, five completely new songs are played back to the whole camp. You hear how every room interpreted the challenge differently, how the collaborations worked and how far an idea can travel in a single day. We discuss the process and the highs, and lows, of the day. The playback sessions finish with a live performance of the daily song in the Live Lounge.

Then we reset. The following morning, you walk into another room with a different producer and a new collection of writers. And you start again. That pace is deliberate. It pushes you beyond your usual creative habits. You learn to trust your instincts, communicate ideas quickly, listen properly, compromise when necessary, defend an idea when it matters and, crucially, leave each day with an incredible monitor mix of the track written.

The Live Lounge

Every artist has the opportunity to experience the Pro7ect Live Lounge. For one of your three writing days, your team becomes a band. You have one day to write and arrange a completely new song together before performing it live that evening. The performance is professionally multitrack-recorded and filmed, capturing something very different from the tracks created in the production rooms.

In the Live Lounge there is less room for overthinking. You write it. You arrange it. You rehearse it. You play it.

More Than The Songs

The songs matter, but they are only part of what you take away. Pro7ect gives you the chance to work closely with artists, producers and writers in a way that would normally take months of networking and individual writing sessions to achieve. You are not exchanging business cards across a crowded industry event. You are making music together, socialising, enjoying meals and evening gatherings together. People hear how you write, how you perform, how you communicate and what you bring into a creative room. That creates genuine professional relationships. Songs written at Pro7ect have gone on to be developed, released and performed by participating artists.Writers have continued collaborating after the retreat, artists have found producers, producers have found new artists, and creative relationships formed at Rockfield have continued long after the event itself.

What can I expect from the songs we create?

At Pro7ect, each writing team has one day to write, arrange and record an original song from scratch, guided by an experienced Headline Producer. Our aim is to create a high-quality demo that captures the potential of the song.

Some tracks may be close to release-ready, while others will require further production, mixing and mastering. Commercially releasable recordings are not guaranteed as part of the retreat.

We actively encourage artists to develop and release their Pro7ect collaborations, but any post-camp production, associated costs and release arrangements are the responsibility of the artists and relevant rights holders.

Above all, Pro7ect is about the songwriting process, creative development, professional relationships and the opportunities that grow from working together.

Day 5: Leaving the Rockfield Bubble

After breakfast, artists check out by 11am.

Four nights earlier, many of the people around the breakfast table were strangers. Now you have written songs together, eaten together, listened to each other’s work, stayed up too late talking about music and watched each other take creative risks and share emotional vulnerabilities. You leave with access to the monitor mixes produced in your teams during the retreat, ready to be developed further where appropriate.

But the most valuable thing is often harder to quantify. You leave with greater confidence, better collaborative instincts, a stronger understanding of how you work creatively, and a network of artists and producers who now know what you can actually do.

You do not simply leave Rockfield with songs.

You leave with momentum.

Stay for the Saturday Masterclass

Residential artists can extend their time at Rockfield by joining the Pro7ect Saturday Masterclass, available for an additional fee.

The Masterclass is a separate day of practical learning led by an established music industry professional and offers the opportunity to explore another area of songwriting, production or the wider music industry in greater depth.

For Saturday 15 May 2027, the Masterclass will be led by composer, producer and sound designer Owen Gurry, focusing on:

• Songwriting and composing to brief

• Writing music for film, television and games

• Composing for moving picture

• Production techniques

• Sync and production music

• Routes into professional screen composition

You can add the Masterclass when completing your residential retreat application.

Who Is the P7 Residential Retreat For?

Committed artists, songwriters, musicians and emerging producers who already have songwriting and recording experience and are ready to work collaboratively at a professional level.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate that experience through the music and information submitted with their application. We are looking for people who can bring something useful into a room. That might be: great lyrics, a strong voice, instrumental skill, melody, musical instinct, production ability, arrangement ideas, energy, adaptability or a combination of all of them.

You do not need to do everything, but you do need to bring something.

Places are carefully curated to create the strongest possible mix of artists, writers, musicians and producers in reach writing room

If you are ready to challenge your creative habits, contribute seriously to other people’s ideas, work under the guidance of professional producers and write three completely new songs in three days (or four, or five), we want to hear what you do.

Apply to join us at Rockfield Studios.

“P7 is an experience like no other. A few days being absorbed in the P7 camp is a priceless opportunity for anyone looking to become an artist, songwriter or producer. No matter the experience, everyone has something to give and absorb in this ultimate form of creative collaboration.”

- Gethin Pearson, Pro7ect Headline Producer (Charlie XCX, Badly Drawn Boy)