Ocean Grove contemporary pop singer and songwriter Jeff Harwood has won an opportunity of a lifetime.
Harwood, along with two other emerging songwriters from the Geelong region won an opportunity to work with their music industry heroes to record a song and create a video clip.
Connecting Song is a City of Greater Geelong initiative to support unsigned acts by teaming them with mentors to write a song inspired by a place on the 80km Mountain to Mouth arts walk. Their songs will debut at the pop-up arts festival Geelong After Dark on 5 May.
The mentors are Geelong’s best in the business: Adalita (of Magic Dirt fame), hip-hop artist Trem One and highly respected musician Tim Neal.
Mentors were charged with the task of selecting an up-and-coming artist from the dozens of unsigned music acts who applied to be part of the project.
All mentors found it incredibly difficult to choose just one, but after many sleepless nights, the winners were announced.
Australian rock icon Adalita, who began as lead singer of one of the most successful indie rock bands to come from Geelong in the ’90s, will mentor Ocean Grove’s very own Jeff Harwood. They will create a song inspired by the coastal area of Ocean Grove.
“I’m excited and honoured – I listened to a lot of Adalita’s when I was a teenager,” Jeff said.
“Musically it will be a great experience, but just learning more about managing gigs will be great. It’s still early days with the song, but part of it will be about the Seachange experience and being near Barwon Heads.”
Prolific blues and roots musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist music teacher Tim Neal will work with solo performer and community radio announcer Tex Miller to develop a song about the Point Lonsdale area.
For Harwood, who moved to Ocean Grove three years ago, it will mean more exposure.
“It will mean I reach a wider audience, which this is a great opportunity to do,” he said.
Harwood plans to release a short album in the near future and describes his music as “somewhere between guitar pop and folk”.
“I think it’s (Ocean Grove) a great community. I’m a member of the Community Garden and I think musically, there’s places to grow here.“
Trem One of Lyrical Commission, one of the most reputable underground acts to emerge from Australia, will work with Shaun Fogarty, a Geelong born and bred hip-hop performer who performs under the name Fatty Phew. Phew’s experiences and connection to the Central Geelong area will be the inspiration for his composition.
For more on Jeff and his music, check out jeffharwood.bandcamp.com
