Mount Maunganui College students are learning the old school way of recording music as they prepare to release this year’s annual album.

The 32 Year 9-13 students have been learning how to record their music straight on to a cassette tape to be released, as well as on streaming platforms.

15 original songs

The “vintage” style album, titled 2025, consists of 15 original songs and will be released on December 5 on streaming services and December 11 on cassette tape with a release gig to celebrate.

It showcases songs from school bands and artists: Three Man Tent, Kenzie, Sketch, Spud, Asylian, Deffex, Stella Grace, Kymira, Zahra Panapa and Conor Tonor, Brooke Baldwin, Olivia Kelly and Amelia Stoutenburg, Evangeline Pitts and Julia Kim, Josh Bisley, Mars Rover, and Ari and Kieran.

Mount Maunganui College head of music Tia Beaufort said the school had been releasing albums annually since 2020.

Mount Maunganui College head of the music department Tia Beaufort. Photo / Brydie Thompson

“Each year, our top music students are chosen to contribute to an original school album.”

From the writing of the music, which started at the beginning of the year, to the recording, editing, mixing, and mastering, the album had progressed through each stage to become the final product.

The album was recorded outside of class time, “whenever there was a spare moment”.

It only took a few takes to record each artist.

Mix of genres

The album consists of a mix of genres from rock to metal, pop, singer-songwriter and funk.

The school’s Spotify account has about 7850 monthly listeners and 364 followers, and Beaufort believed the account had received more than 100,000 listens during the past five years.

Mount Maunganui College students Lennox Lloyd, 16, and Mackenzie Petitpas, 14, learning the process with teacher Tia Beaufort. Photo / Brydie Thompson

Beaufort had been involved in the annual project since its inception in 2020, following an approach by school principal Alastair Sinton who thought it would be a good idea to record some of the school’s talented musicians.

Some students have built their careers from the project, such as touring artist Frankie Venter and band Park Flyers.

‘Best one yet’

Since then, Beaufort had been working closely with the featured artists to create an album each year.

He initially gained his experience in the field working as the music producer and drummer for Auckland rapper JessB, touring internationally as a professional drummer, playing at Eden Park, and he is due to go on tour in Australia next month with artist Who Shot Scott.

Beaufort said this year’s album was the best one yet.

“I wanted to give a shout out to the students involved, they’ve been really awesome and have done a great job.”