During the winter school holidays, Island Base headed north to Mahurangi College in Warkworth for two days of music making, creativity and connection with some awesome rangatahi.
This was our second time running one of our music programmes at Mahurangi College. It was special to return and see lots familiar faces from our previous programme alongside a whole bunch of new rangatahi joining us for the first time.
With the incredible guidance of two of our notable mentors, Jason Eli and Simon Abela, the rangatahi spent two full days creating something completely original from the ground up.
What makes this track particularly special is that it is the first ever Island Base song created completely from scratch by our rangatahi.
The beat.
The instruments.
The lyrics.
The vocals.
Every part of the song was created and performed by the young people involved in the programme.
Jason worked with a small group on the drum line and bass, building the foundation of the track piece by piece. At the same time, Simon worked with another group to lay down keys and guitar, bringing melody, texture and a whole new layer to the sound. As the instrumental came together, everyone had a part to play.
The rangatahi worked together to write lyrics, sharing ideas and building on each other’s creativity. Our two main vocalists, Betty and Ataeua, then took those ideas into the recording process, writing and recording their own lines. Betty also added stacked harmonies, bringing even more depth to the finished track.
For us, that is what Island Base is all about. Creating spaces where rangatahi can experiment, collaborate, find their voices and see what they are capable of when given the opportunity, the tools and the support to create.
It was awesome to watch these rangatahi build something amazing together over just two days, from the very first drum patterns and guitar chords through to writing, recording and putting the final track together.
And perhaps the best part was seeing the returning rangatahi reconnect with the programme and taking charge while we welcomed new faces into the Island Base whānau.
A huge thank you to Lottery Grants Aotearoa, Foundation North, Mahurangi Hope Community Trust and Mahurangi College for helping make this programme possible and for supporting opportunities like this for our rangatahi.
And of course, a massive thank you to Jason Eli and Simon Abela for sharing their knowledge, creativity and time with the rangatahi. We are incredibly proud of what they created.
This is only the beginning. We can’t wait to see where these young creatives take their sound next.
