By Rachael Grealish

Cumbrian musicians and students teamed up to create a ‘meaningful song’ to celebrate Great Big Green Week using low-carbon ways to showcase their talent.

Tom Salmon, founder of Oh My Days Promotions, commissioned professional singer-songwriter, Emma Dockeray, to work with students from Mayfield to write a song as part of a project for Great Big Green Week – a nationwide celebration of action on climate change, which took place across the UK between June 10 and 18.

Emma, along with Dave Roberts, worked with Mayfield students on behalf of Soundwave music charity to write ‘Believe’ – a song about the sea with an upbeat melody and lyrics that raise awareness for the need to do more to save our planet.

“Most students in the session hadn’t taken part in a song-writing activity before, which was hard to believe because their lyrics and teamwork were really impressive,” Tom explained, “For the future, I hope it’s helped the students discover a new, creative way of expressing what’s important to them.”

Emma and the students started writing the song together while they visited Rosehill Theatre one afternoon, as part of a Centre for Leadership Performance project.

The workshop was filmed by Tom, along with a video of Emma singing the song outdoors, who then previewed it at Rosehill using a solar-charged generator to power the TV.

This was then followed by a live debut performance of ‘Believe’ at The Harbour Sessions on Saturday, June 17 – one of several monthly events hosted by Oh My Days for the Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners, all the Oh My Days gigs use a solar-charged PA system where the camera, system and sound mixer all use batteries which are always charged off a solar-powered generator. 

Tom said: “Oh My Days is all about promoting Cumbrian musicians and using low-carbon ways to showcase their talent.

“It was important to give young people the chance to work with a skilled musician from their area, so they know how much creative talent is on their doorstep.

“It’s a joy knowing the students now have a new meaningful song out in the world, which they can enjoy and share with friends and family.”

Nicola Woolley, the Secondary Programme Manager at Centre for Leadership Performance, who was working with the Mayfield students on a creative careers project, explained how the Mayfield students had been ‘inspired’ by the session.

She said: “Working with Oh my Days and the team at Soundwave was a fantastic addition to our recent ProjXArts work awareness programme with students from Mayfield School. It has been a brilliant example of true collaboration on a project. 

“The songwriting session arranged by Tom really inspired the young people’s creativity and raised aspirations as all the group were able to contribute to the process. We can’t thank Tom, Emma and Dave enough for supporting our young people and the ProjXArts Programme.”

The Oh My Days project was funded by the Cumberland Council and is part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s ambitious emission reduction programme to make Cumbria carbon neutral by 2037.