SongHubs Melbourne 2021 is a wrap

The SongHubs program's first-ever all women-identifying and non-binary songwriting sessions to take place in Australia.

Curator Gretta Ray brought together G Flip, Anna Laverty and Montaigne with emerging Victorian talent.

Proudly presented with Creative Victoria and held at Fall Back Studios.

On Friday, SongHubs wrapped up the program's first-ever all women-identifying and non-binary songwriting sessions to take place in Australia, following four days of intensive studio work led by acclaimed songwriter Gretta Ray. SongHubs Melbourne took place 23-26 February at Fall Back Studios and was produced in partnership with Creative Victoria.

The sessions were originally set to take place in July 2020, but despite a couple of COVID-19 lockdown-related delays, curator Ray and special guest songwriters and producers G Flip, Anna Laverty, Montaigne, KLP and Lisa Mitchell were finally able to get down to the business of writing, producing and recording a song a day, per the SongHubs brief.

They were joined virtually by internationals Bre Kennedy and Best Original Song Oscar nominee Rosi Golan (for ‘Loyal Brave True’ from Mulan) and in the studio there was an eclectic mix of Victorian talent including Beatrice Lewis, Alex Lahey, Tulliah, Chitra, Keeks, WILSN and more.

“I am grateful that we finally held the first Australian SongHubs of its kind with all women-identifying and non-binary collaborators, including the studio engineers Bonnie Knight and Gabby Crump,” said Ray, who assigned working groups each day and also participated as a songwriter. She is a previous triple j Unearthed winner, took out 1^st place in the prestigious Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition, and has a debut album set for release this year.

“As songwriters, producers, and artists, we have all been through so much in the last year and we miss seeing each other at festivals, gigs and just around, so these four days were all about harnessing our creativity and channeling our experiences into new music together.”

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson said, "The SongHubs program has developed a reputation as a hot house for new music, ideas and inspiration – bringing together homegrown songwriters and composers with top international talent.

“This was an incredible group to kickstart the 2021 program. The Victorian Government is proud to be part of SongHubs, it's one of the ways we are supporting the reactivation and recovery of our music industry. I look forward to hearing the results up ahead.”

True to SongHubs tradition, but adhering to COVID-19 guidelines, a listening party took place after the final session for everyone to playback their new tracks.

Since SongHubs launched in 2013, over $2.7 million in performance royalties for the initiative's collaborators has been earned. SongHubs has produced commercial releases for the likes of Briggs, Troye Sivan, Tayla Parx, Morgan Evans, Client Liaison, Peking Duk, Tkay Maidza, Ainslie Wills, The Chainsmokers, Guy Sebastian, Ecca Vandal, Kate Miller-Heidke and many more.