Greater Shepparton Secondary College students become recording artists

A mix of students, including those studying VCE Music Performance, got together in groups to create their demo songs with support from musician mentors Dana Lowrey and Taka Perry.

Never Happy was the creation of Year 12s Sophie Woolstencroft and Alice Peters, and Year 11 Brodee Sinclair.

“This is like the best day of my life,” Sophie said.

“What a cool opportunity — you’d never dream of it.”

The group wrote the song on the first day, before recording it on the next, adding layers and sounds to create their masterpiece.

“I like to think our song is about how people think too much about lyrics and it gets overthought, but really I think Alice has some pretty deep lyrics in there as well,” Brodee said.

GSSC director of music Lachlan Gallagher said it was an “unbelievable” opportunity for the students.

“To see what they can create in such a short period of time; the looks on their faces at the end of the day when they performed for each other, they were really excited about what they had accomplished,” he said.

“They’re really excited about the fact they’re creating something from nothing, basically.”

Triple J assistant music director Claire Mooney said she hoped the students would submit their songs to the station’s high school music competition, Unearthed High.

She said she came to Shepparton three years ago with a music charity and “left feeling pretty gutted”.

“The kids were like, there’s not really a venue I can come sing at, I don’t know who to connect with here,” she said.

“Today has shown them that they can work together and collaborate. I think just giving young people that opportunity, because you just don’t know things until you know them.”