One of the things that we love most here at NewSong Music is getting to know the talented musicians and wonderful people that we get to work with every day. We are excited to have caught up with Breagh Mackinnon, this year’s 2013 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest International Round winner. Breagh will be joining the rest of the finalists in New York City on October 19th to perform in the live competition finals at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. I’m finishing my undergrad in jazz piano performance at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Studying jazz over the past few year has definitely opened my eyes and ears to a style of music that I didn’t know much about before getting to university. Just from a songwriters point of view, checking out the Tin Pan Alley standards by brilliant writers like Berlin and Gershwin is like a “How-to” for writing songs. Definitely inspiring!
I have been checking out some of the other finalists in the NewSong contest. I have literally been blown away by how talented everyone is, I’ve found some new favorite songwriters for sure.
I often perform solo, so keeping a balance between vocals and instrumentation is easy in that setting. But when working with a band, it can be hard to find the right arrangement to accompany the song without overpowering the vocals. With my genre of music, I try to keep the lyrics front and center.
