Three up-and-coming musicians from St Matthew's Catholic School have revelled in the opportunity to showcase their own work, by entering Triple J's Unearthed High for 2020.
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And while the Year 10 students may not have been named finalists in the nationwide search - just five songs were chosen from 1700 - being able to produce and exhibit original music compositions was a rewarding experience.
For Mary Medrano, her love of music was instilled "at birth" because "our nanny loved to sing and would always sing around me".
And she submitted 'Stop', which had already had some positive feedback.
"I had the song, it was fun to play and most of my family members had heard it already, and when I told them I'd entered it they said 'that one was really good'," she said.
Rosie Stoddart's interest in the competition had been piqued after recently doing songwriting in class. Although when it came to choosing a piece to enter, it was something from a little bit further back.
"I had plenty of songs, but 'A Million Thoughts' was the one that had the most meaning to me. I had ones that probably sounded better - melody wise - but that song really stood out for me, plus it was the first song I wrote so it's very special," she said.
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Nakia Berridge, aka SUMRTIME, may have only started making music last year but he's been prolific in that time.
He entered three electronic tracks 'Dynasty', 'Upbringing', and 'Manipulate'.
"I had over 50 tracks prepared and I'd picked three in the end, after I'd juggled about five, it was hard to choose," he said.
Unlike Mary and Rosie who threw their hats in the ring as an extension to their music studies, Nakia did so after he'd spotted the posters around the school. And to see his songs on the Triple J Unearthed High website was "unreal, it's a dream to see my own work out there".
St Matthew's CAPA coordinator Lauren Osborn said a valuable aspect of Unearthed is that it's a catalogue of some of the country's best high school acts.
"I think what's cool is that now they're up there, so even after the competition people looking for someone with a certain type of voice or playing a certain type of music, can go through and push play on one of your songs," she said.
It also provided the experience of recording, which Rosie said gave her a fresh perspective on her work.
"When we were recording I'd never heard myself sound that professional before and having that different approach and being able to add new elements to my song was amazing," she said.
- Mary, Nakia and Rosie's songs can be found on the Triple J Unearthed website.