Edinburgh International Festival's Amplify song-writing project: How an incredible group of young people experienced the transformative power of music – Caroline Donald

At the Edinburgh International Festival, our mission is to present and create a global platform for artists from around the world, but this aim does not stop at world-famous conductors, singers or performers.

Nova Scotia the Truth, wearing a hat, helped young people from Edinburgh's Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre record three songs as part of Edinburgh International Festival's Amplify project (Picture: Ryan Buchanan/EIF)

In August 2021, we embarked on Amplify, a song writing project with a group of young people at the Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre in Moredun, supported by the charity Vox Liminis and Screen Education Edinburgh.

As an organisation rooted in Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival works with local communities throughout the year, and with the inspirational words of Scottish town planner and social activist Patrick Geddes – “think global, act local” – at the forefront of our minds, our aim was to shine a spotlight on the community and create a platform for young people’s music to be heard.

However, the project has achieved far more than I could have imagined.

After working for the first time with Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre on one of our final community events before the pandemic hit, and subsequently learning about an incredible group of young people who actively contributed to their community during lockdown by organising and delivering food parcels, we wanted to design a project that would give something fun and creative back to them, in recognition of everything they did for other people.

We were acutely aware of how much young people had been through during the pandemic and how much they had missed out on, so we wanted to create a vehicle for them to creatively explore these experiences.

The Amplify project was created to encourage the young people to express themselves and amplify their voices through music, while developing their skills in song-writing and music production.

Twenty-five participants between the ages of 12 and 17 received ten coaching sessions from local musicians Kim Edgar, Louise McCraw and the award-winning rapper and DJ known as Nova Scotia the Truth in song-writing, vocal and rap technique. Out of the eight songs written by the young people, three were chosen to be professionally recorded as demos and music videos.

The young people have described the transformative impact of Amplify, and the benefits of being able to express their thoughts on a range of issues.

For 75 years, the International Festival has united people through cross-cultural experiences, and we are proud to share the songs these young people have written, addressing topics of mental health, bullying, knife crime, the negative perceptions they encounter, and their desire to be heard by teachers, politicians, and parents.

The International Festival’s learning and engagement team works with so many people in lots of different ways, from a one-off invite to see a show, to a creative workshop with a performer or an education residency, such as our partnership with Leith Academy.

While I shouldn’t play favourites, projects such as Amplify are extra special to me because they are built on long-term relationships and take the participants on a truly impactful and meaningful journey.

The young people are rightly proud of their recently released tracks and music video but, for me, the magic of Amplify lies not in the product, but in the process.

The International Festival has made a long-term investment in this community and built up a valuable relationship with Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre. Thanks to the success of the project, we’re now working with a second group of 25 young people who are currently writing their own songs and I look forward to continuing this journey of exploration together.

We are immensely grateful to Baillie Gifford Investment Managers, our learning and engagement partner, whose support makes this project possible.

But that’s enough from me. We need to pass the mic to the young people and hear their stories, as they are, after all, the creative force behind the project. They expressed the following to me in conversations throughout the creative process:

“It started as a project but the more and more we done it, I understood what it was about. Opportunities to make music and speak how we feel. It gave us an opportunity to address to other people what the problems are so people can listen.”

“There is a lot of stuff that hasn’t… that has just been ignored… I think it gave us a chance to proper, you know, let people know.”

“It geez confidence to even pursue music if they want to. It just geez them extra, ‘Oh I like this. This is what I can do. This what I am capable of.’ Like I’ve put my voice out there… discussed problems that are going on… You feel a bit proud of yourself.”

“At the start, I didnae ken what to expect. I wasn’t that confident… But the more and more I done it… it was like a safe place, ye just speak your mind and write whatever you want and you get the support you needed so the more and more I done it the more confident I became.”

“It’s inspired me to make music and also to change my perspective cause I’m… a rap person and like beats and stuff but then like the people I was doing Amplify with were making like guitar music kinda stuff, singing and that, which I wasnae really a fan of but now… I enjoy all music and I was like… oh this is actually good.”

Caroline Donald is head of learning and engagement at the Edinburgh International Festival

The Goodtrees Way and two other songs written and performed by young people from the Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre in Moredun, Edinburgh, can be heard on Edinburgh International Festival’s Soundcloud page. A music video for Goodtrees Way can be found on the International Festival's YouTube page.