‘Believe In Yourself’ was created remotely over the past few months of lockdown by Athrú Collective, a group of musicians, producers and writers from Cork City, in collaboration with young musicians from a number of Music Generation Cork City programmes.
Athrú Collective was founded in the early months of 2020 when core members Cillian McSweeney, Ben Janning and Rory McGovern began writing music together remotely with an aim to write new material and collaborate with other singers and musicians on new creative projects. Their first release ‘Don’t Give Up’ was written and recorded in collaboration with singer and writer Kate O’Connor and drummer Rob Kennedy and was a song directly reflecting the health crisis of early 2020.
The follow up release, ‘Believe In Yourself’, aims at addressing the subject of mental health challenges and maintaining a positive outlook. For this production Athrú Collective collaborated with a number of local community music groups from Music Generation Cork City who worked on and recorded the track remotely during online workshops facilitated by Music Mash Up, The Kabin Studio, The Hut, Cork Academy of Music, and Mahon Youth Development Project with support from Foróige Link Point Youth Services, Music Generation Cork City and Cork ETB.
The track, produced by Rory McGovern, features vocals from Athrú Collective collaborator Kate O’Connor; lyrics and vocals from Sophie McCarthy and Cara Cullen (Music Mash Up Terence Mac Swiney CC); rap from ShirleyAnne Hegarty (The Kabin Studio); Aaliyah on trumpet and Shelly on trombone (Mahon Youth Development Project); Niamh O’Driscoll on saxophone (Mahon Community Pop Academy – Cork Academy of Music); and Zac Coveney on guitar (The Hut).
The video, developed by Cara, Erika, Mark and Sophie from Music Mash Up and edited by Ben Janning, aims to give an insight into how the track was created remotely, beginning with Cillian, who has cerebral palsy, writing the lyrics using Eyegaze technology. It illustrates how, although connecting online isn’t an ideal situation, there are still plenty of moments of creativity, silliness, and fun to be found.