Corby guitarist takes on songwriting charity challenge with five fundraising tracks

A Corby metal musician has taken on an daily songwriting challenge to raise money for his company's in-house charity to boost fundraising for dementia research.

Joe Coy, a retail assistant at Corby Iceland's Food Warehouse in Phoenix Parkway, took on the challenge to write five songs in five days but with only 60 minutes to complete each track.

Giving himself an hour from sitting down to finishing a track, 21-year-old Joe created and recorded five original tracks in five different styles and in return he is asking for donations to Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation.

The idea to create five mini musical masterpieces came to Joe after a store-wide appeal for colleagues to raise money for The Lady Walker Fund for Dementia - set up by Iceland founder Sir Malcolm Walker in memory of his wife

Lead guitarist Joe said: "I wanted to use my skill set and instead of running, which I’m not good at, I thought I would play to my strengths to raise money for the dementia charity.

"I was initially going to do seven songs in seven days but decided to do five in five giving myself an hour to write each one. I can't stop thinking about music all the time."

After programming a rhythm track on his home recording studio using Logic Pro X, Joe grabbed his guitar and chose different music genres.

He said: "The first day I wanted to write a cheesy 80s-inspired Bon Jovi style track called Under the Moonlight. Day two was Only Thing, an emotional pop ballad pop song. Metal songs don't pop songs and wrote a James Bay-inspired song - One Thing. The third funk track, Move and Grove, is inspired by Earth Wind and Fire meets Kool and the Gang. Funk isn't too far out of my comfort zone and I was pretty impressed.

"On day four I ended up going back to a rock vibe but I ran out of time and it ended up as an instrumental to produce Walking on Air. It had started out as a country."

Joe hopes his final track, The Road, will be seen as a magnum opus and he will use it for his solo work. He is looking forward to returning to live gigs with his band Caliburn.

Under The Moonlight, One Thing, Move n' Groove, Walking On Air, The Road are available on Joe's Under The Moonlight EP. Click here to download from bandcamp.

To donate to Joe's musical fundraiser pop into the store at Unit 1, Peel Retail Park, Phoenix Park Way, Corby or click here to donate to the Iceland Food Charitable Foundation.

Iceland Foods founder Sir Malcolm Walker's wife Rhianydd, who died in January this year from early onset Alzheimer's, came up with the name of the business in 1970. She was one of its very first employees, and later motivated Iceland's successful fundraising efforts for dementia research.

Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation has raised more than £30m since its inception and has a long history of supporting dementia research and the organisations caring for those with dementia.