Song-writing success for rising talent Brooke

She has won – and enjoyed – an hour’s long Zoom mentoring session with Guy Chambers, the songwriter, musician and record producer who is best known for his work with Robbie Williams.

Brooke, who attended Steyning Grammar School and is currently in the first year of a two-year extended diploma in music performance at BN1 Arts in Brighton, entered a competition which Guy launched on Instagram, inviting people to write a chorus inspired by his song Lazy Days: "I think he wrote it a while ago but he's doing a new rendition of it which was released recently with a new band. I have followed Guy for a while and I went to his show in Hastings in 2020 where he was talking about songwriting and actually wrote a song on the spot.”

Brooke saw Guy’s Instagram challenge and responded, coming up with a little video on her keyboard and using his hashtag to enter the competition.

"He took a few weeks to get through all of the posts that people had put up and then he messaged me and said ‘Yours is my favourite and you have won!’ I think there must have been more than 100 posts. I was so happy about it and he messaged me about organising a time for the mentoring session which was the prize. I had it last week, and we went through some of my song ideas and he gave me some advice on some ideas for songs I had already written and on how to proceed with them.”

“He said I was good at writing melodies and choruses and he gave me some advice about the length of my songs. He said I should shorten them, and I definitely agree. He was right about everything he said. It was lovely. It was just a discussion and he was really good. He was very calm and chilled but he seemed to have very wise ideas in how he responded to each of the songs that I showed him. I think I gained an insight into how to write and also lots of little hints and tips to work on to get through some of the things that I was struggling with.”

After BN1 Arts, Brooke is hoping to go on to university.