16 October 2015
STUDIO: Tarawera High School’s Rangimari Teirney records her song Unconditional Love at The Porch recording studio in Hamilton.
A SONG written by a Tarawera High School student to reflect her relationship with God was a finalist in the 2015 Play it Strange national secondary school songwriting competition.
Although Rangimari Teirney, 17, did not take out the top prize, as one of the top 42 finalists she has had the opportunity to go into a professional recording studio and record her song Unconditional Love for the annual Play It Strange double CD.
Rangimari and her music teacher Teresa Hoskins travelled to Hamilton on Monday to The Porch recording studio to do the recording, which went well.
“It was fun – cool as,” Rangimari said. “He made me sing it through a couple of times so he could pick bits or parts out of it and change it, and do voice-overs.”
She was not too sure whether she liked the finished recording initially, but has since changed her mind.
“At first I didn’t like it – I didn’t like hearing my own voice and my own piece of music, she said. “I think it was because it was the first song I had ever written and I didn’t know what it was supposed to sound like.”
Rangimari has been singing since she was at intermediate school where her school principal at the time uploaded her song clips to YouTube.
She said this led to her entering competitions as well as singing just for the fun of it.
She wrote Unconditional Love for a school composition assessment and was surprised when her teacher asked if she could submit it to the songwriting competition.She was even more surprised, but pleased, to be named a finalist.
Rangimari is heavily involved in the Kawerau Community Church and drew on her personal experiences and feelings to write the lyrics.
“It was a song I wrote for God – about how his unconditional love changed me,” she said.
Source: Whakatane Beacon
Photo supplied