On March 4th, Catie and Adele presented an original song during the Assembly. The song was titled “I’m Driving”, and has been uploaded to Soundcloud and Ximalaya. Through their presentation, listeners gained insight to the efforts they both put into the song.

The idea of making an original song popped up when Catie performed a part of her original melody during music class. After hearing it, Adele was inspired and decided to write the rest of the melody with Catie. During winter break, they scheduled meetings to compose the track and vocals for the song. To show the audience a bit about the process of production, Adele showed pictures of her recording the melody played on the piano, and using professional music apps to input other sound effects into the song. The process was a very long and difficult one — they had to alter every sound effect in order to fit the song. Luckily, these efforts all paid off as the final product was a successful and beautiful piece.

When the song was played during the Assembly, almost everyone became quiet and paid great attention to it. Many gasped at how professionally the track was produced, and how beautiful their voices were. The choruses were breathtaking, the beats sounded just right, and the sound effect of cars sprinkled here and there was an amazing addition. Moreover, the lyrics for “I’m Driving”, in response to the line “Who’s gonna drive you home tonight” from another breakup song, were also very creative. When the song ended, a teacher was so fascinated that he went up to them and asked exactly where to find the song so he can listen to it again. Loud applause was also given to them, celebrating their success.

Apart from sharing the song, though, another idea that Adele and Catie had was to try to convey the notion of finding your community. Surprisingly, Adele and Catie actually didn’t really know each other before this collaboration. It is important to work with people who share the same passion as you, and, in the process, you will learn and create beautiful things.

(Written by Shannon Xiao Pictures by Adele, Catie Supervised by Menglei Wang)