Kool Skools

Eight Xavier students recently took part in the Kool Schools recording project. On Tuesday June 10 the students boarded a bus at 5.45am.

After the obligatory stop at Glenrowan Maccas the students arrived at Studio 52 in Collingwood at 9.30 a.m. excited and ready for a full day of recording.

Eyes definitely lit up when students first saw the state-of-the-art recording equipment, very much resembling the cockpit of a plane. Special thanks must go to the Albury Council who helped subsidise the recording, which would normally cost somewhere in the vicinity of $2000 per day.

Emerald Cooney and Blake Furness were the first to record their composition “Bruises”, a very interesting multi-layered song they wrote and recorded with two Albury High students. This was followed by the power rock of Vince Cheng, Chris Mulcahy, Cameron Adam, Jake Wiffen and Imara Buchanan, who recorded the Simple Plan song “Crazy”. After waiting patiently for a good portion of the day Matt Ortiz then stepped up to record his original composition titled “Hangman’s Noose”, an intricate and personal song featuring excellent acoustic guitar fingerpicking and vocals.

The students were amazing on the day. They displayed tremendous musical ability and their conduct was exemplary. They related well to students from other schools and worked well with the recording engineers, listening carefully, asking insightful questions, all done with a good dose of humour. As a staff member I’ve got to say that I also loved the three part harmonies in many a song on the bus home – no “99 bottles of beer on the wall” for this lot!

Special thanks must go to Mandy Wilson from the Albury City Council who put in a tremendous amount of work in the months leading up to the trip. The recordings are currently being mastered, artwork is being added, and the students eagerly await an album launch later in the year. Well done to all!