Collaboration: R U OK? Sunshine Coast All Stars
Songwriters Roundtable member Carla Bures was recently involved in a collaborative project for R U OK day with local Sunshine Coast musicians. Below are a few of her experiences and learnings from being involved as a musician and vocalist and in the music video...
I jumped on board this project as I felt it was an important issue to tackle and also wanted to collaborate with others as I haven’t done so in a while. It started off on Facebook and we used Rob Godrey’s song from Mantis Empire. It then went from there as a messenger thread. I found this method of communication to be quite tricky and noticed pretty early on that it was becoming a bit of a boy’s club! So I quickly accepted that and reminded myself what I was doing it for, so that I didn’t let that affect my will to participate. I just knew I had to let go throughout the process when things became too much or too frustrating for me, otherwise I wouldn’t enjoy it-which to me is the point.
Angus Woodhouse from Glasshouse Studios collaborated with Rob to free up time for people who were interested in adding vocals and harmonies to the song. So I took part in this and visited the studio one afternoon. There were lots of people who took part in this part of it. Then over the following weeks, the song was refined by the producers etc and I stood back until the next part, which was the filming of the video.
I attended a filming at Mooloolaba TAFE-my friend, Chris Mitchell, who jumped on board as the photographer and videographer. We had a small group of people who attended, including some children, and I commend Chris for all his efforts in finding a time and venue that was free and available when everyone. He organised with Mooloolaba TAFE to make this happen and brought all his professional (and expensive) gear into the auditorium. He even organised a make-up artist to come along and do us artists up-it was fun!
Rob did have a vision in mind of where he wanted his song to go, which I think is fair enough being that it was his original concept and idea. There was a bit of tension between him and Chris towards the end regarding adding the lyrics on the video clip. Chris was very upset about this as he felt he put in a lot of his free time to make it happen and felt insulted that Rob was not happy with the result. I sort of became a bit of a mediator, and as always, in the end, it worked out. And everyone learnt something from the experience! I am glad I was a part of it. The best thing was hearing the song on the radio on my way home from work on the RU Ok designated day!
Carla x
I jumped on board this project as I felt it was an important issue to tackle and also wanted to collaborate with others as I haven’t done so in a while. It started off on Facebook and we used Rob Godrey’s song from Mantis Empire. It then went from there as a messenger thread. I found this method of communication to be quite tricky and noticed pretty early on that it was becoming a bit of a boy’s club! So I quickly accepted that and reminded myself what I was doing it for, so that I didn’t let that affect my will to participate. I just knew I had to let go throughout the process when things became too much or too frustrating for me, otherwise I wouldn’t enjoy it-which to me is the point.
Angus Woodhouse from Glasshouse Studios collaborated with Rob to free up time for people who were interested in adding vocals and harmonies to the song. So I took part in this and visited the studio one afternoon. There were lots of people who took part in this part of it. Then over the following weeks, the song was refined by the producers etc and I stood back until the next part, which was the filming of the video.
I attended a filming at Mooloolaba TAFE-my friend, Chris Mitchell, who jumped on board as the photographer and videographer. We had a small group of people who attended, including some children, and I commend Chris for all his efforts in finding a time and venue that was free and available when everyone. He organised with Mooloolaba TAFE to make this happen and brought all his professional (and expensive) gear into the auditorium. He even organised a make-up artist to come along and do us artists up-it was fun!
Rob did have a vision in mind of where he wanted his song to go, which I think is fair enough being that it was his original concept and idea. There was a bit of tension between him and Chris towards the end regarding adding the lyrics on the video clip. Chris was very upset about this as he felt he put in a lot of his free time to make it happen and felt insulted that Rob was not happy with the result. I sort of became a bit of a mediator, and as always, in the end, it worked out. And everyone learnt something from the experience! I am glad I was a part of it. The best thing was hearing the song on the radio on my way home from work on the RU Ok designated day!
Carla x