First song writing camp a great success
By Jodi Steele - Camp Director.
It was a week of riffs, writing and raw talent at the inaugural Coromandel Songwriting Camp last week as an incredible pool of local young musicians gathered to sharpen their songwriting skills and build on their creative know-how. The camp, held at The Monkey House in Whitianga, was a week-long songwriting workshop to give young musicians, aged 13 to 18, access to gain songwriting skills, share a love of music and get vital industry knowhow.
It was amazing to see a group of young people bound by a collective love of music come together in such a way. We recognize that living in a small town can mean there’s sometimes not that many opportunities available, especially for young creatives. So, it's been our mission to unlock doors to their imagination, to give vision and hopefully more tools to continue their musical path.
In five days, these guys collectively wrote almost 50 songs. That's incredible. We’ve spoken with music producers from around the world, including the unique songwriting scene in Nashville and spoken with record executives to get the inside knowledge on how to get a record deal.
The week finished with a warp party where the young creatives performed their newly written songs for family and friends.
Jodi described the support from local business and passionate musicians as amazing and thanked Recorded Music NZ for a grant to help get the camp off the ground.
We couldn’t have done this without the support of local business and passionate local musicians including The Monkey Houses' Molly and Kaspur who have a heart for our young people, coupled with a true love of music. A shout out also to the incredible Stu Pedley who was on hand to bring his musical insight and passion and to local photographer, Karen McLeod.
A song can say so much, when you can’t find the words. It can be a best friend, it can be a therapist, it can be a comedian, it can be the light in the dark. And to the families, your support to these young creatives is invaluable.
We know it may not be all roses pursuing a career in the music industry, but that’s just it, they haven’t chosen music, music chose them.
Caption: The participants of the Songwriting Camp outside The Monkey House Theatre.