Vinny's a one-man garage band as self isolation inspires Corby 'Lockdown' single

A Corby man who has been medically shielding at home has written, produced and released his first ever single which he hopes will catch the imagination of the public and become a must-have track.

Being a member of a vulnerable group, Vinny Hanratty, who lives with Crohn's disease and colitis, has been in lockdown since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and with time on his hands challenged himself to be creative.

As his wife Anne and daughter Becca have been working from their Danesholme home and he wanted to keep out of their way but busy too, he decided to record a song that he had been humming to himself.

Vinny, 52, said: "I had a song in my head and I wanted to do something with it. My wife and daughter were working in the dining room and I was in the garden, so I set about recording it.

"I had not a clue how to do it. I didn't think there would be any way of doing it during lockdown but my daughter helped me with GarageBand."

From his initial chorus idea, Vinny used the GarageBand digital music recording service to lay down tracks starting with the drums and then adding the other instruments finishing with his singing.

He said: "I did some research online and tried to work out a winning formula to find a magical way of writing a song.

"I've got a half decent voice so I added the vocals by plugging a microphone into the laptop. Then I moved all the parts of the song around until it sounded how I wanted it to.

"I thought that's quite catchy. I managed to get my wife and daughter to sing backing vocals to finish it off and said I'm going to release it as a single."

After searching for music publishers, he signed up to Spinnup - a digital music distribution service owned by Universal Music Group.

He said: "It was accepted on a music publishing website but I had to create the art work - that was really challenging but my daughter helped me and I persevered.

"With Spinnup the song will be distributed through iTunes, Spotify YouTube Music and Google Play and it is commercially available."

Vinny has had to produce artwork and make a video to go with the track, recruiting members of his family and friends at their regular Friday night online social.

He said: "I'm very proud of myself but it's taken a surprising amount of effort. I wanted to create something for people in the family to remember. Something to mark the moment and to get people to sing along.

"I’ve never released a single before or recorded one. It's a catchy little tune and I'm quite chuffed with it."

Vinny hopes to raise money for four charities close to his heart - Crohn's and Colitis UK, Lakelands Hospice, NHS Charities and Family Support Link.

The finished track can be downloaded here

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