The Original Track Award (Group) is sponsored by Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification has a vibrant and dynamic history within the music industry and is celebrated by some of the greatest artists in the world. Catapulted from humble beginnings in Hanwell, London, Marshall is now a global brand achieving manufacturing excellence. Creativity and innovation are at the heart of the business and every product they create. With over 55 years of amplification experience, Marshall continue to push the boundaries of possibility for the musicians of the future.
For a track written and recorded by a group (two or more people) from a Youth Music-funded project.
WINNERS
FORM
Offshoots East Midlands C.I.C, East Midlands
FORM attended the first Circle of Light Youth Music funded project thinking they were "going to be backing singers" to a group of male rappers who had also enrolled on the project. This soon changed as each member of FORM recognised they had a talent, something to offer and voices that needed to be heard.
They locked themselves in a room, put a notice on the door saying strictly ‘NO MEN ALLOWED’ and at the end of the day presented this track to the group. This track won the Young Creative Awards 2020 and FORM have since gone onto be an inspiration to other young women, fighting the fight in male-dominated industry.
Big Den, Nemo, Oscar & King Dre – Love Letters
Finding Rhythms CIO, Finding Rhythms x Rugby Portobello Trust, London
The group formed through a music workshop run by the charity 'Finding Rhythms'. Together, with other artists, Big Den, Nemo, Oscar and King Dre wrote, sang and produced an album ('Ladders of Life'), from which 'Love Letters' is one of the songs on the album. The chorus and second verse were written and sung by Oscar, the intro by Nemo, the first verse by Dennis and the bridge by D'Andre. 'Love Letters' is about teenage angst of lost love, the pain of nostalgia and remembering happy memories with someone who now is the reason for your sadness.
GOMID - NO ONE (ft. QOVŌP)
Reform Radio CIC, North West
The name GOMID comes from ‘A Hunter in the Forest of a Thousand Daemons’, the first Yoruba novel ever written. "NO ONE" digs into the mythology of this book and the wider Yoruba mythologies.
GOMID says: “'NO ONE' is a snippet from the life of a creature also called GOMID. It is about the tragedy of never being known, but always craving the sensation. 'NO ONE' goes on an erratic, erotic rant recalling the many ways people have misunderstood him, causing him to retreat into music. Drawing from and interpolating the words of Sampha's ‘No One Knows Me Like the Piano’. QOVŌP serves up a wise and tempered retort in her native language of Creole. A reminder to stop forcing yourself to transform for someone else.”
Qazi & Qazi - Forward
Youth Music NextGen Fund, West Midlands
Inspired by a short news documentary about the struggles of a recently orphaned child from a war-torn country, the story moved Qazi & Qazi so deeply that they wrote a song about it. They say: "We wrote 'Forward' ahead of extremely difficult circumstances for us, and little did we know that this song would serve itself as our beacon of light, and strength in finding our reason to go 'forward', together, and continue on our path to make and release music, despite all odds.
“This song is the first song we ever produced by ourselves, it is the inspiration and seed from which our artistry and music has bloomed.
“We wrote, recorded, produced and mixed this entire song at home, from our little bedroom studio. All aspects of our recordings are captured live, in their element. We perform all vocals together, live, in one take, and build production with harmonies and instrumentation.”
Treeboy & Arc - Retirement
Music:Leeds, Yorkshire & The Humber
Treeboy & Arc say, “Retirement was one of the final songs we wrote for the album. The instrumentation was mainly constructed in the studio in just one day. The majority of the lyrics were hastily thrown together from note pages that evening and then recorded the next day.
We recorded the album in winter and at the time I was working at a cafe/restaurant. It was frustrating that I had to work this meaningless job in order to survive but wasn't able to commit the time and effort to the things I actually cared about. Being any kind of “creative” often takes a lot of hard work, and to do it properly is almost like a full-time job in itself, except usually minus the financial gain. Many people are in a constant battle between survival and finding the time to do the things that truly matter to them, this is what retirement is about.”