How a new local project is helping young people write their first songs

Liverpool’s newest songwriting class has seen a huge takeup over the past couple of weeks, and hopes to carry on its success this summer.

Stories in Song is working at full capacity over the next few months to deliver songwriting sessions to people aged 18-25.

Georgie Weston, founder of Stories in Song said:

“It’s been really popular, I think with a new project, you’re not really sure what the takeup is going to be like. It’s all filled up now, so it shows there is a lot of demand to do more there in the future which is really good.

“Having real life space to space to make stuff and meet new people is important because there isn’t much arts provision for that age. They’re straight out of education, and even now in education, there’s a lot less arts provision than there was. It’s a creative outlet, it’s a fresh perspective and a new thing they can have a go at.”

The sessions, which last just over 2 hours on a Tuesday evening at Liverpool Central Library, began last week through funding from Arts Council England.

“As a songwriter in Liverpool, I felt as though there was a gap for more of a community style project, a creative space where people can come together, even if they’ve not done any kind of songwriting before, but they’re interested in getting their words out.

“Libraries are looking to put on more art and community projects, so it’s worked really well. They’ve been really helpful with everything and it’s cool as well because it’s a library, people can find inspiration and stuff through old books.”

Stories in Song is split into three cohorts through June, July and August with each cohort supporting around 12 people.

Georgie said:

“The idea is to cover quite a few different songwriting techniques. I also want to make sure that everybody is involved and it’s not too advanced, I want it to be balanced and everybody gets a go. We’re focusing on the foundations of songwriting, song structures, chord progressions, rhyming schemes for lyrics and stuff like that, and how we can use songwriting as a way to get young adults’ voices heard.

“I deliver the sessions, but we’ve also got Samya O’Grady from Capeesh who is the assistant on the project, alongside Phoebe McSweeney who’s the producer but is also helping in some sessions as well, and also Alan Muller who’s going to work on some sessions, too. So we’ve got a couple of facilitators, but it’s more about facilitating people than teaching them how to do things.”

Though Stories in Song has only secured funding for its summer sessions thus far, Georgie shared his hopes for the future of the project

“There’s definitely a lot of options where it could go really. I’d like to take it to different areas and different age groups as well down the line, that would be really interesting. Obviously, it’s great for anyone to have the chance to write songs and put their ideas into an art form. I think Liverpool has such a strong legacy of songwriting. So it’s quite interesting to sort of give that to people. Liverpool has always been a real centre of songwriting and political writing as well. I think we’re carrying on that legacy, because the arts are almost becoming like a privilege now. So we’re giving people from different socio economic backgrounds the tools, because there is a lack of that through education.”