Community on centre stage

AN artist is giving musicians the chance to perform in public at fortnightly sessions in a local cafe.

Lauren Keighery, also known by her artist name Paper_Cranes, is from Melton, but is running open mic sessions at Bacchus Marsh’s Big Apple Cafe.

Having also performed some local gigs recently, Keighery said she enjoyed time in Moorabool, and was surprised at the open mic uptake.

“I just started running them here, we had our second open mic session at Big Apple Cafe on Saturday just passed, and we’re going to do them every two weeks,” she said.

“I run them to bring more music to the west. When I started out as a musician, how I got my gigs was attending open mics.

“That’s how I grew my networking and list of places to perform.

“The open mic sessions here have been the most popular, which surprised me, being further away from Melbourne.

“Caroline Springs has been my most popular one…but there’s about three times as many people that come to the open mics here.

“We’ve had at least 80 people come to the last two, we haven’t been able to seat everyone.”

Keighery emphasised that there was a difference between the open mic sessions and karaoke, but encouraged people to have fun with their performances too.

“It’s more for people who are established or can actually perform. In saying that, I do have people who perform with backing tracks, but they go to singing schools and perform in Melbourne,” she said.

“I’ve had so much positive feedback from attendees, everybody has a good time. I often get messages from people thanking me for running the open mic afterwards.

“A lot of people just attend to hear some music and watch the performances.

“To anyone who’s in two minds about taking part, I always have a couple of performers put their hand up each time who’ve never performed before.

“If you’re a bit nervous, you’re not alone…it’s not as scary as you think. The support and love from everyone is beautiful.

“It doesn’t really matter how skilled you are, everyone always cheers and claps, it’s a supportive environment.”

For more information message Paper_Cranes on Facebook.