It is Thursday and more than the half of the time in Leeuwarden is over. It is scary how fast the time is running. Out of the daily life of Tampere we can truly say that this trip and the experiences we have in here are just overwhelming. The kindness we get from the Dutch participants of the project is just amazing and made us quite fast forget the turbulent start of our time in Leeuwarden. After the first shy baby steps of getting to know each other we are now at this point that we feel more like a little creative family. This vibe is bringing so much productivity, intensity and inspiration to the daily work that the results are more than great.
Day by day the students not only learn from each other but also about themselves, their proficiency and their limits. It is a growing process which makes the Finnish-Dutch songwriting collaboration already now to something really special.

Mika and Guido while their co-writing.

Monday started quite rough for the Finnish students. The lack of sleep made the assignment to write a pop song within a few hours to a real big challenge. Until the late evening the different Dutch-Finnish couples worked hard to write some catchy song. Alumnus Freek, who is also the alumni coordinator from the Dutch side, gave a great input as well to support all of the students in their first assignment. The result turned out pretty good however the circumstances at this day have been.
The second day went – despite still missing luggage - a bit more smoother. Alumnus Jeroen made a students with the topic “Alternative" really happy. Full of vim and vigor the students created five great pieces of music. Even if these compositions are still raw sketches, many of them are on a good way to become something really special.

Anna writing lyrics ...

... and together with Michelle while the composing of their song.

One of the most exciting days of the week was the EDM day (and because the luggage FINALLY got back!!). Most of the students never worked with this music genre before, so it seemed to be a huge challenge. But even if a few of them were a little bit afraid of the assignment, they got great support from Watse De Jong, a Popacademie alumnus who started with producing his own music in his teenager years, worked in the famous record label “Spinnin’ records” and concentrates nowadays on the management side of the business.
While the students were working on their songs, I was able to have a short interview with him.

!!! INTERVIEW WILL BE UPDATED IN HERE AS SOON AS I HAVE THE PERMISSION OF WATSE !!!

Alvaro and Rosan concentrated.

Now we are having the 4^th day of the workshop and the creative process is in a perfect flow. The depressing weather outside gives the perfect inspiration for today’s topic ballad and the curiosity of the end results is growing fast. Let’s see where our Leeuwarden adventures still takes us.

To be continued …