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In the studio with Eskimo Joe's Kav Temperley

It's not every day you get to record a song with a chart-topping rockstar, but that's exactly what our Year 10 Music students did. Joined by Kav Temperley, the lead singer of iconic rock band Eskimo Joe, they spent two days writing and recording an original track. Rory Fleming (Year 10) shares what happened at their action-packed Song Writing Workshop.

Last year, 11 of us had the privilege of taking part in a Song Writing Workshop with the lead singer from Eskimo Joe, Kav Temperley. The workshop ran over two school days, with the aim being to produce a finished song. We started the first day with an exercise to get the creative juices flowing where we just wrote whatever was in our minds down on paper, and we were not allowed to stop writing. After the exercise, and a bit of inspiration from Kav, we split into three groups and went into our own rooms to write a song. Although it wasn't as simple as just "writing a song" …

Our group was made up of Alec Prendiville, Year 10 Cameron, playing keyboard, James Winch, Year 10 St Andrews, on drums, Tom Mengler, Year 10 Stuart, (a cello player) who picked up a bass guitar for the first time, and myself on vocals. We had a slow start at first, trying to figure out what type of song we wanted to write. Eventually a line popped into my head – "I don't know where I'll be, ten years from now" – and it all went very quickly from there. Tom and I worked on the rest of the lyrics while Alec and James worked on chords. Kav rotated through the groups, helping when we were stuck or unsure, and giving suggestions for lyrics. By the end of the day, we had finished most of our lyrics and had some structure to the chords. To finish the first day, each group performed, and everyone provided feedback.

The second day involved finalising our songs and recording them. As Kav could only record one group at a time, and with our group being last, we had a lot of time to improve our song! During this time we also took band photos and Kav's assistant gave us some insight into the working of bands. We then recorded our song, which was an awesome experience. With Kav's expertise our song slowly came to life as we recorded each part and added them together one by one to make a complete recording.

Once we finished our scratch demo (first recording of a song), we all came together to finish the day by listening to each group's song. It was amazing to hear what we had all achieved in just two days! This concluded the Song Writing Workshop, leaving all of us completely creatively and mentally exhausted.

Thank you to Mr McLean for organising the workshop. It is not every day you get to record a song!

Rory Fleming
Year 10 Brisbane