SONGMAKERS, a national high school music mentoring program, was enjoyed by students of Coffs Harbour Senior College and Bellingen High on 28 and 29 March.

Through the program the youngsters are given the opportunity to “mix it” with some of Australia’s best hitmakers.

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“An initiative of Australia’s peak songwriting organisation, APRA AMCOS, the program is designed to get secondary school students and their teachers working on real-world songwriting and recording projects, under mentorship by globally-successful professionals,” Dr. Tina Broad, Project Lead at SongMakers told News Of The Area.

Mentors spent two full days at each of the two Mid North Coast schools, writing songs from scratch, talking to the students about the realities of a career in the contemporary music industry, and recording the brand-new songs that emerged as part of the process.

“Students wrote about everything from their bushfire experiences and climate change to the challenges of adolescence,” said Sydney artist/writer/producer Chloe Dadd, who is a mentor on the program and who participated in the program herself while she was a student in a regional South Coast high school.

Chloe has recently returned from a sold-out European tour performing as part of the band MAY-A and has worked with artists including Lime Cordiale and Meg Mac.

“It was a really life-changing experience for me to do this (SongMakers) at school.

“When you’re in the regions and you get to work really intensively with music professionals who open your eyes to career possibilities you hadn’t thought of before, it’s pretty motivating.

“It definitely was for me.

“It’s great to be able to come back into the program as a mentor.

“The students in Coffs were insanely talented and really great, natural writers who worked hard and were really receptive to our feedback.

“The Bello High students were a younger group, so they had to push through some initial shyness on day one, but by day two, they were all over the writing and recording and really came into their own.

“It was great to see,” said Chloe.

The SongMakers program is returning to the region later this month, with two workshops in the school holidays, being run in partnership with Arts Mid North Coast.

Young musicians aged 16-22 who are serious about moving their music dreams up a notch can apply for one of sixteen free places at either of the two workshops: 17, 18 April at Bellingen Youth Hub, 9am to 3pm both days and
19, 20 April at Grow the Music, Toormina, 10am to 4pm both days.

Contact Lizzy at lizzyrutten@growthemusic.org for details on the Toormina workshop.

Contact Jasmine at communications@artsmidnorthcoast.org for details on the Bellingen workshop.

By Andrea FERRARI