Sounds of the Street - live and Sticky

Students from Mission Australia’s Sounds of the Street (SOTS) music program shared their Sticky CD tracks yesterday at a live launch in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.

Friends and family, Mission Australia staff and former SOTS students packed Heffron Hall to watch graduates from this innovative program perform hip hop, pop, dance, rock and Pacific Islander tracks live.

Backed by the Sounds of the Streets Band, featuring course coordinator Liz Martin and music tutors David Kelly, Michael Hanlon, Ivan Jordan and Zoe Hauptmann, the young performers put on an amazingly professional show.

A great effort considering that, for many, it was the first time they’d ever got up on stage. The launch also featured a session from Sketch The Rhyme, who combine rap with sketching in a form of musical Pictionary.

After a thrilling performance by former SOTS students, the class of 2011 were presented with their graduation certificates. Of the 17 graduates, nine are pursuing music at TAFE, while others are sitting for their HSC or studying further.

A couple of brave students did a great job of freestyle rapping about sketches being drawn by Artworks students, trying their best to come up with the winning words.

The Sticky CD represents the culmination of a 20-week TAFE-accredited music course, which taught students to compose, perform and record their own music.

SOTS offers young people facing many and varied challenges in their lives the opportunity to use music as a platform to explore and realise their potential.

This year’s eclectic album, Sticky – mastered by Free Energy Device Studios – is the final physical CD to be released by the program. As of next year, tracks will be made available online.

At the end of every year Mission Australia’s Creative Youth Initiatives (CYI) studio releases a CD of original music written and recorded by the students from both semesters.

Many thanks to Sounds of the Street’s major supporter, Alberts, for making Sticky possible.

For a free copy, call CYI on (02) 9356 8897 or email cyi@missionaustralia.com.au. You can view photos from yesterday’s Sticky launch on Mission Australia’s Facebook page.