In 2019, Josh MacGregor, also known as Josh Mac in the pop industry, was in his final year of completing a Bachelor of Musical Arts at Ara Institute of Canterbury, majoring in singing and song writing.
For his capstone project, Josh planned to create a song writing portfolio. This consisted of writing as many songs as he could and collaborating with other artists and producers in the process. He would then put his favourite songs on a professional collection.
To ensure the success of the project and to achieve a professional end product, Josh applied to the Ara Foundation for financial support. He received a grant that helped cover the cost of flights, allowing him to work with artists and producers throughout the country, album art and production – mastering and mixing of the songs.
Josh said from the get-go he worked hard on the project and didn’t feel like he was studying as he loved it so much. He went to Auckland three times throughout the year. On the first two trips he wrote numerous songs with various artists and producers and he finished the songs on the final trip. Josh said the project has been a fantastic success and that he is super happy with how it turned out.
“I released the collection of nine songs on Spotify and other streaming platforms. One of the songs plays on mainstream radio, which also has a music video that plays on TV and the rest of the songs play on various radio channels.”
Josh says without the help of the grant he wouldn’t have written the songs that ended up on the professional collection.
“I didn’t have any support from labels or managers, apart from the money from the Ara Foundation, so it went well.” While Covid-19 has put a hold on his future plans, Josh intends to move to LA sometime in 2020 to further pursue his music career.