Latest demo stars head to theatre to record tracks

Wagin’s Polly Medlen and Lake Grace’s Hayden McGlinn have spent last week at Merredin’s Cummins Theatre recording original songs for WA Music’s Demos from the Wheatbelt.

Ten artists were chosen to represent the Wheatbelt for WAM’s “sounds of” and “demos from” regional recording projects, which have led to 100 tracks being broadcast on radio stations across the country and streamed tens of thousands of times online.

Pete Byfield is one Wheatbelt artist whose career has been boosted by the Demos from the Wheatbelt program.

“The recording experience provided by WAM through the ‘sounds of’ project turned out to be life-changing,” said Byfield, who won the Best Independent Album of the Year at the 2016 WA Country Music Awards.

“I was so encouraged by the process that I set to work and wrote a further 16 songs once production had wrapped up.”

Over the years, the Cummins Theatre has played host to a number of Australia’s favourite artists, including AC/DC, Slim Dusty, Johnny O’Keefe, Lano & Woodley, The Wiggles, David Helfgott, Sherbert, Marcia Hines and John Paul Young.

The iconic theatre is packed with history and will provide a unique recording environment in thecentre of the Wheatbelt for Medlen and McGlinn.