The Other Side of Science is all about bringing science to you in a bit of a different way. Tristan and I have been thinking of some non-traditional ways of exciting you about science and for some reason, we chose music.

I had this big idea that I could write a song about science and make it work. Challenge accepted! Little did I know though that my musical abilities were worse than Rebecca Black’s. I enjoy the odd karaoke (slash I’m obsessed with karaoke) and I’ve been in high school musicals before, but this was entirely different.

Then I came across this wordpress blog: Letters to Sir David. It’s a blog that compiles a series of thankful letters to Sir David Attenborough, someone who no doubt, many of us would like to meet. I’m one of those people and Sir David’s documentaries are so so good. He brings this child-like curiosity to his programs that we can all relate to, transcending the science genre.

So it was decided, I would write a song about Sir David Attenborough! Who knew it would be so difficult? The lyrics came first, and then the melody. Then the lyrics didn’t work with the melody, so I changed the lyrics. Then I changed the melody again. Then I realised the lyrics lacked flow, so I changed them again. Then I wrote a few piano chords to the melody. I practised maybe a handful of times and thought, “Yeah this is easy, I can totally do this”. I called Tristan up to record it.

Turns out recording and filming a tune isn’t so easy. We found an empty lecture theatre to record it in. I sang it in segments, but each time, the melody or key I was singing in seemed to change for some reason (autotune where are you?). Then nerves came, and the realisation that I had to some how incorporate emotion into my singing.

But once all the singing was done, we realised we didn’t have the means to record any instrumental (probably because I kept changing key halfway through the song).  So instead, we would be all deep and emotional and go a capella.

So here it is: two scientists’ attempts at going from zero to hero in the music department. Be kind, we’re only human.