{"id":686834,"date":"2026-07-12T00:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/686834\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T00:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:47:11","slug":"renegade-zoo-the-alt-pop-rockers-putting-inclusivity-centre-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/686834\/","title":{"rendered":"Renegade Zoo: The alt-pop rockers putting inclusivity centre stage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It has been a busy few months for Renegade Zoo, a band formed through a creative arts project for young adults with learning disabilities in Londonderry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A debut album showcasing their brand of alt-pop launched earlier this year, a summer performance at the Foyle Maritime Festival followed, before taking to the stage at this year&#8217;s Stendhal Festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All students at Derry&#8217;s Tuned In Project, the band describe themselves as a group of neurodivergent and physically diverse musicians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rapper Donna Marie Duddy, known as DM, says Renegade Zoo is &#8220;about not putting limits on ourselves&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She adds that is is about friendship and having the opportunity to write songs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Before joining the band, songwriting was not something she had much chance to explore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The lyrics come much easier than the melodies,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a busy few months for Renegade Zoo, a band formed through a creative arts project&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-686834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}