LL THIS WEEK
TEAMWORK: Jenny, left, and Cassandra share a light-hearted moment
Sounds like magic Group releases second charity track in lockdown
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Southport music group have teamed up with Liverpool Lighthouse, a non-for-profit music and arts centre, to release their second charity single of the year. ‘Play That Song To Me’ is set to be released next month, with all the royalties going to Help Musicians UK. The Rainbow Collective have chosen Help Musicians for their recent single because of the financial hardship inflicted, particularly on musicians, during the pandemic. Founders of The Rainbow Collective Jenny Wren and Cassandra Kotchie are both musicians, so the plight of performers hit close to home. They both spoke about how this time the pressure is on with people eager to hear the new single. Cassandra said: “What we’ve found so far is that people are liking this song more. “We’re quite excited, and since we have a bit of a following now there is a little bit of pressure, but I think we’re more excited than anything.” The Rainbow Collective had massive success earlier in the year during lockdown when they released ‘Pass On The Rainbow’, raising more than £1,000 for the NHS and reaching number 46 in the iTunes charts. The success of the group’s previous single has also added to their reputation, meaning bigger musicians are
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By BEN ROBERTS-HASLAM enthusiastic to get involved. “The standard and the talents that are on this is just fantastic. We have Susan Lambert the harpist, Mike Smith and Jamie Brownfield from the air horns, and just really well-known musicians from Liverpool and the North West,” Jenny said. Putting together one single during lockdown is tough, let alone two, with the musicians recording from home. This has hindered the scale that the duo wanted, but has also proven the ability of many. One stand-out has been Tom Percy, the producer and engineer working behind the scenes to make sure the record is as smooth as possible. The improvisation and creativity from all the musicians also seems to
SOUNDS: Musicians performing virtually at Liverpool Lighthouse have added to the excitement around the song. Jenny said: “When you go into a studio, they will set all the levels, but everyone is doing it from home so they’re coming in all different and all over the place. “If it is video even the lighting will be different. It has impeded us definitely but also makes it really interesting. People have had to be creative on their own without an awful lot of guidance from us.”
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She added: “We have guidance for musicians and said what we want in terms of arrangements, specifically with strings, with Cass writing all of the string arrangements, but the rest of them have done their own arrangements for their parts. “That’s what makes it really exciting because you don’t know what’s going to come in. “They’ll upload it to a drive, and we’ll have a listen. It happened with the harp the other day - it’s magic.”
There is a little bit of pressure, but we’re more excited than anything
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