NWRC students shine spotlight on mental health with launch of original album – PARANOISE

North West Regional College’s (NWRC) Music and Performing Arts students will launch an album full of original music promoting a positive attitude towards mental health.

PARANOISE is a collaborative album featuring songs written by NWRC music students as part of their ‘Hear Us Out’ project. It will be available from April 9 via all major streaming channels.

The album will be launched at a special ticket only event in the college’s Foyle Theatre where all the Paranoise artists will perform their individual tracks, accompanied by a pit band made up of fellow music students.

And money will be raised for local charity the Foyle Foodbank through the sale of merchandise and a bucket collection.

Lecturer Matthew McCracken who is one of a team of NWRC staff mentoring the students through the project, described the album as a “massive achievement.”

He added: “We are immensely proud of these students and for some of them this is the first time they have had their music hosted on a streaming platform. There is some incredible talent on the album, and they all bring their own different style which ranges from Folk, Hip, Rock, Indie and much more.

“The launch will be compered by students Oisin Kerrigan and Brendan Halford, and we can’t wait to welcome our students, family and friends to show them what we have done. This is very much a collaborative project with students from across the music and performing arts department supporting in terms of marketing, production, mixing, live sound, lighting, compering, and performing on the day.

“Most importantly this project is very much about promoting good mental health and we’ve a fantastic album that we’re sure the public will love.”

Paranoise will feature the talents of students: Lewis Nevin, Ben Coyle, Presley Meng, Erin Halford, Hannah Logue, Maya Patterson, Dearbhla Duddy and Donnacha McHugh. The album will be available from April 9 via all major music streaming platforms.