Open Door has announced Talking Through the Music – a new in-depth music programme presenting young adults with the opportunity to write, record, perform, and contribute to the creation of a unique album.

The project comes as a collaboration between Open Door, Youth Music, the Bloom Building, and Balloon Music, the latter of which will be running the sessions commencing on Tuesday, 22 August.

Like other offerings from Open Door, the project is centred around providing mental health support through creative outlets and is completely free of charge.

Ella Holland, Head of Development at Open Door, said: “Through the outcomes of the project, we hope to demonstrate a shake-up of the norms, be brave in testing new ideas and approaches, and provide unique experiences for our members that we can develop further for longevity after this project.”

Delivered over six months, the programme will take the form of weekly two-hour sessions, taking two cohorts through 4 weeks of “Sounds Ideas” – sessions exploring musical topics, types of songs, expression through music, poetry, found words songwriting, group performance, beat making, and more.

This will be followed by a dedicated songwriting stage, where the album will come together over eight weeks. The final stage in the new year will come in the form of recording the album, with a launch party at the Bloom Building seeing the programme out.

Dan Astles – Project lead for Talking Through the Music – will lead the sessions over 6 months

Project lead and Balloon Moon creator Dan Astles said: “Talking Through the Music uses songwriting as a tool for all to express themselves with no prior knowledge. Anyone can write songs that make the world a better place and this is your chance to do it.”

“We aim to write songs which express parts of ourselves that have maybe not been accessed before. Or even just songs that make us feel good and have a laugh.”

Dan has previously undertaken a similar project with Open Door’s OOMOO programme, where looked after children and young people wrote, recorded, and released an album in 2022.

Talking Through the Music begins on the Tuesday, August 22 at the Bloom Building in Birkenhead. Those interested can sign up via https://linktr.ee/opendoorcharity