Mercury Bay Area School students celebrate at the album release party. Photo/Deb Greenfield
Mercury Bay Area School students celebrate at the album release party. Photo/Deb Greenfield
Mercury Bay Area School has celebrated the completion of an album featuring original compositions from students in pop, indie and hip-hop, RnB to rock, punk and heavy metal.
For the third consecutive year, students have participated in Creatives in Schools, a nationwide wellbeing initiative funded by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Creative New Zealand.
This year’s album MBAS In Resonance is the biggest and most eclectic yet, featuring 18 tracks.
Its completion culminated in a recent community event in Whitianga with students delivering live performances of their songs.
Students from thrash metal band Prisoners of War had produced four songs in the last two years, one of which placed in the voter-led Rock 2000 this year.
The band said they had learned a lot about the world of recording and producing and were grateful for the knowledge and advice they gained during the last two years.
Thrash metal band Prisoners of War perform at the album launch party. Photo/Korimako Creative
Solo artist Poppy Carpenter had produced five songs across the last two years and took out the top two spots on Coromandel’s CFM Kiwi countdown earlier this year.
“Being involved in these projects has really boosted my inspiration to write songs, and my idea of what a song can become outside of just me and my guitar,” she said.
Poppy Carpenter delivers a song at the launch event. Photo/ Korimako Creative
In Whitianga, local music producer Dave Rhodes had guided Mercury Bay Area School students through the process of writing and recording the album.
Rhodes grew up in Whenuakite, near Whitianga and is a former Mercury Bay Area School student.
His parents Alan and Julia Rhodes, musicians and craft potters, inspired him to pursue a creative career early on, but at that time there was less emphasis on creative employment pathways, and no specific arts mentoring programme, he said.
“For someone who wasn’t interested in sports at a school that only seemed to value sportspeople, school was rough for me.
“Mercury Bay Area School has come a long way since then and there is now a wonderful arts department that includes a small recording studio; it’s been a privilege to have the opportunity to support students to create, record and release their own music.”
The album cover was designed by Poppy Carpenter.
Across his 30-year career, Rhodes has recorded and produced music for Kiwi bands and solo artists including Devilskin, Blindspott, Hollie Smith and The Warratahs.
He established a professional recording studio in Whitianga in 2019 and collaborates with various artists.
Anyone keen to sample the album can hear it on Bandcamp, and on all the usual streaming platforms from October 9.
