I love it when my skills and interests overlap into one project and I found myself in a unique situation last year.
As part of the conference team for District 1220, which covers clubs in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, my talents lie with public relations so previously I had taken care of sorting the website and producing a promotional video.
The time came around to prepare for the 2019 conference which takes place in Scarborough this October. All was falling into place with the video, but I wondered if I could bring my musical skills into play.
My New Year’s resolution was to focus on my song-writing. I had written and recorded many songs around the Millennium, but had failed to do anything with them. With this in mind, I felt up for the challenge to write and record an original song for the 2019 District Conference whose theme is ‘The Difference is You’.
District Governor Elect, David Hood, whose conference it will be this October, definitely wanted a Scottish feel to the song with the inclusion of bagpipes. I was excited by the challenge!
One of David’s great ideas is to get attendees to play an active part in the conference. So, I asked clubs in the district to contribute short videos of themselves pointing and shouting ‘YOU YOU YOU’ towards the camera, in order to include them in the video and soundtrack!
Alicia is donating 60% of the profit from downloads to her Rotary district and other Rotary causes.”
It was a last minute idea with the promotional video being broadcast at the 2018 conference, but many clubs surprised and delighted me with their fast and inventive responses.
I used my home recording equipment to play the tracks into a music program on my laptop via my digital piano.
This process is called multi-tracking.
I record one part, in this case the baseline, using an electric bass guitar sound, then change the sound and layer the next instrumental track on top, such as the accordion track. It sounds like several people all playing at once.
After most of the music tracks were completed, I then recorded the vocals – first the main vocal and then the backing vocals, as I sang multiple times in harmonies on each different track. Added to this mix was the wonderful ‘YOU YOU YOU’ recordings from the clubs.
Finally, a sound engineer mixed and mastered the tracks making it ready for broadcast and download.
I completed the promotional video using the club videos from around the district, plus much-welcomed contributions from David Hood and our speakers.
I hope that Rotarians and non-Rotarians will find the song and video inspirational and that it will encourage attendance at our exciting conference this October. I hope to see you there!
‘The Difference is You’ is available from any music download site, such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google Play.
Alicia is donating 60% of the profit from downloads to her Rotary district and other Rotary causes.
For more information, visit Alicia’s website.
