Young songwriters keep it all in the family

Mamaku's Jackson Henneveld, 10, and his younger sister Elaine, 9, love nothing more than singing.
The siblings and their parents, Rick Loos and Amanda Dennis, who make up the band RAJE, took centre stage yesterday at the Children's and Family Fun Day at the Redwoods, run in conjunction with New Zealand Children's Day.
The family performed songs from their soon-to-be-released album What's On The Other Side of the Rainbow. Jackson and Elaine either wrote or helped write all of the tracks, which were recorded at the family's studio at home.
Jackson said singing in front of hundreds of children and their parents yesterday was "awesome".
"I like singing my new songs," he said.
Elaine also said she had a lot of fun singing at yesterday's event.
Mr Loos, who is a musician, said he hoped to approach people in the music industry to see if the family could get a record deal or tour.
Ms Dennis said the songs had been inspired by various events. Jackson had woken up in the middle of the night with inspiration for a song, while Elaine had been inspired to write one jumping on a trampoline.
The songs performed yesterday by Jackson and Elaine were some of their earlier work.
"The songs they are writing now are a lot more sophisticated," Ms Dennis said.
Asked what his children meant to him, Mr Loos said Jackson and Elaine "are my life. I love to see them writing songs because they are very creative".
Thousands of children and their parents took part in a range of activities during yesterday's event, including face painting, dancing, blowing bubbles, playing with Playdough, making flags, listening to stories and sitting in a fire engine.
For 10-year-old Selwyn School pupil Bailey Rangitaawa the highlight was balancing on a moving surfboard.
"If you fall off it's the other person's turn," said Bailey, who also enjoyed sitting in a fire truck.
Meanwhile, kart racing was another highlight of the day with Rotorua police area commander Inspector Bruce Horne and his 10-year-old son Fraser winning the celebrity race.
However, it was neck and neck between Mr Horne and Bay of Plenty Steamers prop Joe Savage who was pushing a kart driven by his nephew Taina Perfect, 11.
Mr Savage said it was "fair enough" that Mr Horne had won.
"I'm not the fastest prop in the world. He [Mr Horne] was just coming up behind me. He was pretty quick."
Another obstacle for Mr Savage was the fact that his shoelaces were not done up during the race - but he said that was no excuse. "He [Mr Horne] was just too fast at the end of the day," Mr Savage said.
As far as Mr Horne was concerned, he thought Mr Savage was being kind to him.
"When I went into it my goal was not to be last," Mr Horne said.
That honour went to Rotorua MP Todd McClay, who was pushing a kart driven by his son Caelen, 7.