Mazzy Maclean has been singing her own songs as long as she can remember and has lost count of how many she has written, but she will remember her latest song about peace which has won her an opportunity to record it in a studio for an album.
As one of 45 winners in the national Play It Strange Peace Song competition, the 13-year-old Waimea College student will spend a day working alongside some of New Zealand’s most recognised producers and engineers to record her song. It will then become part of the 2024 Peace Song digital album and uploaded to Spotify and Bandcamp.
Like most of her songs, her competition song, Hold On, is very personal, and in this case it’s about finding peace in her relationship with her mother.
“It’s basically about the tough times and how we get through it,” she says.
“I’m a bit nervous about it being released on the album because it is personal. But I also like the idea of sharing it with other people. If you can write something other people can relate to, then it can help them get through the same thing you have gone through.
“I get these ideas popping into my head and when it’s happening it’s a good way to deal with emotions. Even if you don’t want to talk about something, if you write it down and make a song out of it, then good. It’s also fun.”
She has been told she sang in her own fashion before she could talk and she remembers, as a young child, making up songs in the car to sing.
The first song she completed was called Rabbit Hole and was based on Alice in Wonderland, so her music has evolved over the years.
Now, much of her songwriting stems from the desire to write stories, and as she says, “songs are technically short stories” where she creates lyrics.
Down the track, she would love to get more songs on Spotify, even if she recorded them herself, but she is ambivalent about music as a career.
“If I could be a musician, I would love that. But it’s also nice to have a hobby that you just enjoy.
“I would really like to be an English teacher and have music on the side,” Mazzy says.
Play It Strange is a charitable trust that has been promoting and inspiring songwriting for secondary school students for the past 20 years.
