As winners of the Valley Vibes Music Competition were being called out applause echoed throughout the Tathra Surf Life Saving Club, but when the winning band was announced, the crowd went ballistic.
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The band dubbed Minimum Wage featured five band members including lead singers Amber Bright and Alexis Gill, bass guitar play and singer Harry Haggar and Evan Williamson and Finn Stone who took it in turns to play guitar and drums for their songs.
The band members said the community support and their success at the competition wasn't the only things they were happy about that day, as they shared their excitement about performing two original songs, one of which was played for the first time during the soundcheck of the event.
![Meet the winning band of the Valley Vibes Music Competition - Minimum Wage. Left to right: Amber Bright, Alexis Gill, Finn Stone, Evan Williamson and Harry Haggar. Picture by Amandine Ahrens Meet the winning band of the Valley Vibes Music Competition - Minimum Wage. Left to right: Amber Bright, Alexis Gill, Finn Stone, Evan Williamson and Harry Haggar. Picture by Amandine Ahrens](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/117044565/086c3162-f41b-4ec1-b288-2a9649a7dbda.JPG/r0_0_4032_2589_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Amber said they hadn't been able to meet up in person to practise in the week leading up to the final round, due to her being away in the Gold Coast - but this didn't stop them from creating a new original song.
"We actually had two songs that we'd never performed together until today and we wrote the second original over the phone," she said.
Amber said she'd come up with an idea for another song during her trip to the Gold Coast, and had sent a recording of it to Alexis who then added to it by writing up the second half of the song and collaborated with the rest of the band to put the song together.
"We played it for the first time this morning at soundcheck and it was pretty fun to see how it went and the song flowed really well," Amber said.
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"Seeing the crowd feedback is so important because it fills you with so much confidence and it gives you that happiness," she said.
"It's rewarding to see people love the songs you play, especially if you've written them," she said.
![Meet Minimum Wage band members - Left to right: Evan Williamson, Finn Stone, Harry Haggar and in front Amber Bright and Alexis Gill. Picture by Amandine Ahrens Meet Minimum Wage band members - Left to right: Evan Williamson, Finn Stone, Harry Haggar and in front Amber Bright and Alexis Gill. Picture by Amandine Ahrens](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/117044565/daacad15-975e-4eb7-a43e-04ac85eeb08b.jpg/r0_0_3921_3024_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Alexis said they had all been pretty nervous at the previous two Valley Vibes Music Competition heats but after lots of practise they felt ready for the final round.
Evan agreed with Alexis and said they'd been practising for the competition for an entire school term.
He said it had all started after one of their teachers at Bega High School recognised the their talent and signed the band up for the competition.
"It was unexpected but it turned out to be a great opportunity and we used every music lesson to work on it," he said.
"It was good because we got stuff done really fast and efficiently and by the end of it we were getting together every lunchtime to practise and work on songs."
Finn said he had really enjoyed the song-writing parts of their rehearsals and meet ups.
"Playing originals that I had co-written with the band was something I really enjoyed," he said.
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Finn, Evan and Harry were also part of another band called Guitarama, that performed at the competition that day.
"It was a very odd experience playing with Guitarama, getting off the stage and feeling the adrenaline and pressure when we finished and realising 'oh I've got to go back again'," Finn said.
"It was completely different music styles too, one was Spanish Jazz and the other Indie Surf Rock."
Looking back at the competition overall Harry said it had been an "amazing" opportunity for them.
"It's really great exposure, especially for local young bands who struggle to get their name out there," he said.
Harry said he was grateful that the prize they'd won, meant they could play a 30-minute set on Sam's Caravan stage at Wanderer this year.
"I think it's really cool that council has put this together for young local bands to play at a nationally renowned music festival," he said.
Alexis said they were looking forward to perform at Wanderer and hoped it would give them exposure which would help them in their musical journeys outside of school.