Today, Team Margot have launched ‘Light The Way’ – a moving, must-hear song created by students at Elstree Technical College in memory of Margot Martini, and to encourage more people to sign up to the UK stem cell donor register.
Daniella Bernard, one of the song's creators, takes us through the process of creating the song.
Stay There To Light The Way
My Journey with the Team Margot charity began in the beginning of 2016 and it was about to change my concept of thinking forever. Students from different years of the school went out for a day out of their timetable to film a day with the Team Margot charity, that involved people from all different walks of life, signing up and registering for the stem cell register.
Once the video returned to the Elstree UTC, edited and ready to go, there was one thing missing. MUSIC. After having a think about who in the school would be up to composing a short piece of music for the promotional video, I was contacted by the projects department and was completely over the moon about creating a piece of music. I had never done anything like this before but now that I was buzzing with ideas of creativity, I was ready to start working.
Within the given time, I sat up on the desk with the empty music template, the MIDI keyboard and watched the video over and over again to get an idea of the concept. Out of the many ideas that came through my head, the one that struck me most was emotion. Once I knew what I was aiming for, the recording process began. After two hours or so, I called the projects manager for a quick listen. It ended up being the entire office! They loved it and some even shed a tear! I still had a long way to go, but I felt encouraged to know that the music was moving in the intended direction. I also had ideas coming in from teachers in the music department.
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Working with Team Margot
About a week later I was told that Yaser from Team Margot (Margot Martini's dad) would be coming in to the song to talk about the video and dates for its release. The meeting came around and I met the great Yaser Martini who loved the music for the video!
Following more production meetings with Elstree Productions and Yaser, there was one specific meeting that has us on this journey. After finishing a sentence, Yaser spoke and said, “I would like to release a single.” Boom. Here we are today a few months later with a single that we hope to release to you soon.
After assuring Yaser that I was not the best at writing songs, I asked my music classmate Grace to join me on this project. We set writing and rehearsal times around our timetable and began creating.
Due to the nature of the piece, we had a rough idea of the song and the instruments that it would include. A beautiful serenading string section, the piano and drums were all our list.
After weeks of perfecting the chords, the lyrics and the instrumentation, we had a song. A beautiful ballad that would be used to encourage more people to join the stem cell register in the future to come.
Soon after the song was finished, the events that occurred after happened so rapidly. From recording at the grand Metropolis Studios, to filming a music video to now almost at the release of the single.
Looking back at our journey
The journey so far has been incredible. My most favourite part was the two days spent at Metropolis Studios recording each part of the song. I gained so much experience into how a song is recorded in a professional studio. From listening to the choir record, to conducting a quartet from the Royal Philharmonic, to playing on Freddy Mercury’s piano with exceptional session musicians, the experience was beyond exciting and I learnt so many new things.
At the end of the two days at the studio, there was a feeling in the atmosphere that a single being talked about in the works was beginning to come to life and becoming a reality. A grand applause arose in the Studio room as Yaser gave a brief speech on how a song he wanted to release to the public to encourage more people to register as a stem cell donor was actually coming true.
Now that we have come close to the release of the single, I have learnt and gained so much from the past few months. I also felt that I had to give it my all as I was suffering from my own personal tragedy in my family, similar to the Team Margot story.
To everyone that has had someone suffer from any type of blood related diseases, there is a shortage of donors for patients with a mixed heritage or background, similar to those who are not of a mixed heritage, there is still a shortage is donors!
Through this song Light The Way, we hope that just one more of you each day would be encourage to register to the stem cell register and help save more lives, one more at a time!