"It
all starts from a great song" -
Michael
Gudinski, CEO - The Mushroom Group of Companies
As
part of their 150
commemorations,
NAB in conjunction with Mushroom Marketing and support from The
Mushroom Group and APRA, launched the NAB Songwriting Competition -
an initiative designed to help inspire, educate and unearth the
nation's next generation of great song writers.
This
new initiative supports a raft of music initiatives NAB have been
undertaking in 2008 - free public music performances by established
artists, showcases for local and upcoming music artists, the
successful NAB Songwriting Workshops at secondary schools as part of
the NAB 150 Roadtrain tour across Australia which
have featured likes of Dean & Adalita - Magic Dirt, Monique
Brumby and Nicky Bomba, and NAB's recent Sponsorship of APRA's
inaugural S3 Summit 'Play the Music" Showcase.
"It
was an honour for us to play the NAB 'Play the Music' showcase at
the APRA S3 Song Summit Sydney in front of a receptive crowd of our
musical peers. To be selected to play, with so much talent and
competition around at the moment, gave us a real buzz and we're
grateful for the opportunity".
Ben
Grace - Happenstance, Performer @ the NAB "PLAY THE MUSIC"
Showcase
APRA S3 Summit
- Sydney, April 2008
"There's
nothing more we like doing than these workshops, and especially in
regional areas... I feel like I'm contributing to the community. I
love the exuberance of young people - they're so passionate and I
hope that we can inspire them all to keep doing what they're doing.
It's so important to come and share experiences with the students
and let them know that making a career in music can be an easy thing
to do."
-
Adalita
Srsen
and Dean
Turner
of Magic
Dirt
With
the NAB Songwriting Competition, aspiring
songwriters and would be songwriters all over the country of all ages
are invited to submit their original songs - with the chance of
having their song professionally produced and then
performed at the NAB finale later this year (details
of which will be announced over the next few weeks)
Entries
are
open
@
www.nab.com.au/songwriting
Entries
close last mail Friday, 1 August, 2008.
Entries
are being accepted in three categories to allow for people of all
levels of skill to enter:
Category
1
- open age section, the most basic category. Entrants are required
to provide lyrics to one of three existing backing tracks available
for download on the website.
Category
2
- open to persons under 16 to enter a completed demo of their own
song.
Category
3
- is identical to Category 2, but open to all aspiring artists aged
16 years and over.
The
only requirement is that all of the entries must address the theme of
"ideas,
dreams and aspirations".
To
help aspiring artists with writing their own song, there is an entire
section on the website dedicated to providing some insight and
education into the craft of song writing.
"The
NAB Songwriting Competition is a fitting progression to NAB's support
of the inaugural Song Summit Sydney and demonstrates their commitment
to
the
creative talents of Australian songwriters.
APRA
is proud to support this initiative which we hope will go some way to
help realise the dreams and aspirations of songwriters across
Australia."
-
Sally
Howland, Director Members Services, APRA
The
judging panel:
Andrew
Hagger - Executive General Manager, Private
& Institutional Wealth, National Australia Bank
Ian
James - Deputy Chairman of APRA, Chairman of AMCOS, Managing
Director - Mushroom Music Publishing
Bill
Page - Creative Director - Mushroom Music Publishing
Sally
Howland - Director, Members Services -
APRA
Paul
Anthony - CEO - Rumblefish (USA)
Street
press, street posters, mail outs and web banners are running all over
the country in the promotion of the NAB Songwriting Competition with
a national radio campaign on Nova kicking off soon.
In
an era of reality TV Karaoke competitions, Mushroom Marketing is
proud to get some focus back on the real essence of where great music
comes from and we would like to thank NAB for giving people the
opportunity to have a go at writing a song.
"Music
is a powerful means of story telling - a wonderful expression of
Australia's culture, stories and history," said Mr.
Andrew Hagger, Executive General Manager, Private & Institutional
Wealth, National Australia Bank
- and a classically trained pianist, songwriter and music lover.
"Through
this competition, NAB hopes to help provide voice to a new generation
of Australian artists to share their dreams, hopes and aspirations
for the future."
"It
seems strange to me that we are obsessed with storytelling through
the arts in a nation that is still relatively young. I don't
know if its the influence of our indigenous Dreamtime stories or our
many and varied cultural stories that we've brought with us here
but its almost as if we're writing, drawing or singing our national
identity into existence".
Ben
Grace, Happenstance, Performer
@ the NAB "PLAY THE MUSIC"
Showcase
APRA S3 Summit
- Sydney, April 2008
For more
information, please contact:
Bianca Curry,
Mushroom Marketing on ph) 03 8687 1355
