Aberdeen-based charities Community Food Intiatives North East (CFINE) and Station House Media Unit (SHMU) are set to release the music video I Am The Song on Wednesday 14th May, as part of a joint campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week.
The music video is the result of a creative collaboration between SHMU’s Foundation Apprenticeship in Creative & Digital Media and the CFINE Community Music Project. Pupils from Alford and Aboyne Academies contributed to the filming and editing as part of their FA Media coursework at SHMU, a community organisation for video and radio production.
The CFINE Community Music Project helps to make music creation accessible to everyone, regardless of background or experience. A collaborative song created by project participants, I Am The Song is an adaptation of a song written by Boo Hewerdine for Luminate Scotland.
The video will be available for streaming on YouTube on 14th May, launched as part of Mental Health Awareness week to highlight the role the arts have in supporting mental health and wellbeing. CFINE’s Community Growing team provides support for community garden projects as hubs for engagement and mental health improvement. By integrating creative elements with community green spaces CFINE were able to engage communities in sharing their lived experience through songwriting.
When CFINE were awarded the funding from Aberdeen City Council to deliver this project, they decided to organise songwriting workshops in three community gardens across Aberdeen - Earth & Worms, the SNUG and Tullos Community Garden. The song and accompanying video amplify the sense of community that the garden projects provide, where project participants drew inspiration for their songwriting.
The project previously released their EP Growing With The Garden on Friday 25th April 2025, which includes I Am The Song, alongside three other songs composed by participants.
Rebecca Dunn, CFINE Community Growing Development worker said: “The recorded songs and music video can act as bridges to further connect community members with the green spaces. Highlighting the gardens in creative ways can increase visibility and engagement, encouraging more people to participate and benefit from these communal areas. Collaborating with organisations like SHMU, who share our values, creates more opportunities for resource-sharing, innovation, and community resilience. I’m excited the resulting materials are in the world for others to enjoy”
During workshops, people spoke about their memories, and their experiences of community gardens in Aberdeen. These different perspectives helped to shape the new verses for I Am The Song which is about hope. As one of the project participants puts it “No matter what’s going on, there’s hope. Every day has its own story.” Project participants shared that the project contributed to feelings of safety, belonging and helped them to find their creative voice. The participants' vocals create an uplifting choir-like sound, joined by Patrick Grey on piano, John Montgomery on guitar, with additional instrumentation from sound engineer Andy Philip, who recorded and mixed the EP at Musical Vision.
Another track on the EP, The Change, was inspired by visits to the Earth & Worms Community Garden and encapsulates the group’s vision of a better future. A participant shared: “I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of something truly special […] the relationships formed, and experiences, will remain priceless forever”. This sentiment sums up the EP - from I Am The Song to We Are the Living Memory, inspired by loved ones who live on in our memories. The song reflects on memories of a grandmother in a foreign country who grew a prolific garden and brings it into the present seeing a young boy literally growing with the garden - inspired by a boy who has been involved in the SNUG Community Garden from a very young age and every year he blooms and grows in confidence and ability, alongside the garden.
I Am The Song music video will be available to stream from Wednesday 14th May.