You Are Never Too Old to Follow Your Dreams: A retired teacher, Dave Wheeler, is celebrating the latest achievement of a surprising music career, thanks to a partnership with local singer April Shipton. Dave, 72 from Peterborough and April, 27 of Malvern, have just released their fourth track since collaborating and forming an unlikely friendship last year.
The new single, ‘I Am Safe’, marks a significant step in Dave’s journey as an amateur songwriter, as it was co-authored by internationally recognised Christian musician, Philippa Hanna, best known for her viral cover of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’ and singles regularly appearing on Radio2.
The energetic pop song, which launched on 2nd August, is a melodic celebration of courage in the face of adversity and certainly packs a punch. After its release, Dave was touched to receive a heartfelt message of encouragement from Philippa Hanna, who is also one of his personal heroes and a key influencer in his songwriting journey. Calling the track “great work”, Philippa wrote: “Congratulations on pursuing your vision and making a splash as a songwriter. I’m sure you’re inspiring lots of people to pursue their dreams too.”
Dave’s skill at writing catchy, inspiring music is apparent in each of his four published songs, but success didn’t come immediately. In fact, it took 55 years before Dave heard his music played on the airwaves. “I started to write songs when I was 16, hugely influenced by The Beatles and their meteoric rise from nowhere to superstardom,” Dave explains, “I remember thinking, these guys have had no musical training. How come they can write these brilliant songs? It was an incentive to try!”
April, who’s single ‘Journey On’ reached #9 in the UK Independent Christian Chart back in October 2018, describes how a conversation with Philippa Hanna was the catalyst for Dave’s unforeseen success, “They spoke online, and she encouraged him in his songwriting and suggested he approach a recording studio that could help him develop his sound and give his music some quality production. It was through the Resound Media studio that Dave and I linked up, and we sort of accidentally became great friends!”
Despite their age gap, April and Dave’s music has been met with resounding acclaim; from radio play on regional and national stations, to streams and views on social media which have reached 20,000 on last year’s ‘Journey On’ music video.
They have also appeared live together; ‘I Am Safe’ was first performed earlier this year when the duo visited Peterborough Prison to share their encouraging music and stories with the prisoners.
‘I Am Safe’ is available for download for 99p from www.aprilshipton.co.uk. All proceeds support April’s mission to spread hope through encouraging music and her story of mental health recovery.
April’s music can be found in Lyttleton Well bookshop in Great Malvern, and online via Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play and others. She encourages anybody interested to follow her journey on www.facebook.com/AprilShiptonUK.
