By Sahar Foladi
With the backing of renowned music label Mushroom Group, young local musicians were set to get Noble Park grooving to their beats.
NP Beats unveiled their Noble Park-inspired original song in a live performance at the suburb’s community fun day on Saturday 4 March.
It was the final step in a process that started in early February.
The young songsters took part in song writing workshops, record and performance coaching workshops and then recorded their song in a professional studio The Band Booth in Dandenong.
The youngest participant, 13 year-old Asli said she was introduced to NP Beats through his music teacher who’d suggested he take part.
“My experience with NP Beats has been great. I’ve been really enjoying hanging out with other teens who like music.
“We’ve even started a band!”
Asli said she’d like to pursue music in the future and had been on the lookout for an opportunity like this.
Mushroom Group project director Rebecca Schaefer said the aim had been to connect like-minded youth for this opportunity.
“We wanted to provide access to an initiative that celebrates a diverse range of young people and their experiences and to channel these experiences into a creative outlet.”
NP Beats artist Mantra mentored the youth throughout the process and says he’s “stoked” to be part of it.
“I’ve had a lot of experience working with young people from a range of different backgrounds and have seen time after time the positive impacts something like song writing can have.
“Seeing a young person build confidence within them and find a platform for positive self-expression is incredibly inspiring.”
With 20 years in the music industry, Mantra has been involved in numerous programs with Mushroom Group and in the South-East region.
“There’s a lot of talent around the area but more importantly there’s a lot of passion and hunger to develop skills in music and song writing.”
Mushroom Group also runs an ongoing school holiday program, ON TRACK for the Department of Education and Training across Melbourne.
The first ON TRACK program kicked off in Dandenong in 2018.
“Proudly we have our 20th program coming up in the April school holidays at Staughton College, Melton before heading back to the South-East mid-year,” Ms Schaefer said.
Seventeen-year-old Ryan was part of the ON TRACK program and excitedly joined NP Beats to test his lyrical writing and creativity to pave way for his musical career.
“The positive vibes from everyone was a good boost after a school day. I’ve loved working with both the mentors and music aspiring participants.”
However for Ryan the most exciting opportunity was recording the song.
“I have always wanted to experience what it was like to record in a studio as well as understand the process behind producing and recording a song. I felt so professional!”
Ryan has started to publish some of his hip-hop rap songs on YouTube and recently SoundCloud.
“I’ve considered either going indie or working towards a label. All I know is I love working on music it’s one of my greatest passions among many other things like art.”
The NP Beats project is sponsored by Noble Park Suburban Revitalisation Board as part of the Revitalising Noble Park initiative.
Ms Schaefer said: “We would love NP Beats to be the first of many Suburban Revitalisation initiatives that Mushroom Group Community Partnerships delivers to engage young people through music in other municipalities across Melbourne.”
