Young Producers is a new project for young people who have taken part in Making Tracks, supported by the Arts Patron Trust. Our first 2 Young Producers Helen and Johnny are collaborating to put on a gig involving other young people and will be blogging about the process.

Helen’s Blog #3:

We met for the first day today, to form a ‘super band’ consisting of previous making tracks participants, ‘sounding out’ mentors, a student from Guild Hall, a student from the Royal Academy of Music and Johnny and I.

Between us, we were able to form a band, with everything from a drummer to singers/ rappers.

I am always nervous to form a band with a new set of people, but everyone was really nice, and I felt like we were all included and equals.

We started off with ‘Phoenix’; which was a song I had written whilst in hospital. When it was written, I only had access to a 5 string guitar, so, as you can imagine, it had to be totally reworked musically. I was also unhappy with some of the lyrics, so with Fudge and Louisa’s help, we rewrote some of the lyrics.

It was a difficult process for me; firstly, writing about anything positive, and secondly sharing something I hadn’t shared with anyone before, so I felt quite hesitant, but everyone was really supportive, and after a good couple of hours; the song was finished.

We then started on a previous Making Tracks project song, ‘strive’, as Louisa wanted to revisit it.

The recording sounded amazing, but it was difficult to pick out the chords and replicate what happened in the recording, but we all put our heads together and persevered, and got a brilliant end result.

The chords and the pattern they were in felt quite unique, which was really special for us all. Louisa then put her verses over it, and Fudge wrote two rap verses. I was on the keyboard, and Emma helped me come up with a melodic harmony to the part she was playing on the synth.

At this point in the day, we were all starting to feel pretty tired, and I was really struggling to keep to the correct rhythm during the song.