Almost 14 years ago Gosnells resident Maurice Archenoul created his own arrangements for traditional transportation songs mainly for performing in his band.
A while later some of Mr Archenoul’s fellow musician’s recommended him to register the arrangment with APRA AMCOS a company, which helps music creators, get paid for their work.
Mr Archenoul did this and thought no more about it until the company tracked him down a few weeks ago and told him he had $8000 in outstanding royalties owed to him.
“I was very surprised when I got the call,” he said.
“After I realised it wasn’t a scam I’ve decided to unearth a few more of my earlier projects and do some more arrangements.”
Mr Archenoul will receive the money some time next month and said music was in his blood but it was his time serving in the British navy in the 1960s when he discovered it.
“I served for 12 years as an aircraft technician,” he said.
“When I joined the Royal Navy at 15 years of age we were restricted to two nights out a week so I passed the time in the training camp learning guitar and trumpet.
“Within six months I joined the navy brass band as a second horn player.”
Mr Archenoul is retired now but music is still very much part of his life.
He is a member of the well known and successful Southern Cross Bush Band and plays a number of instruments including the five-string banjo, piano accordion and mandolin.
He said he would continue to sing and play instruments until the day he dropped.
Australian Performing Rights Association Amcos writer services representative Matt Cannings was the person who found Mr Archenoul.
“The money owing to him came to our attention when we noticed the song was not registered with us but had been widely published as sheet music,” he said.
“When this happens we flag the song writer in our system which we call an 888 and attempt to track them down.”
Mr Cannings said it was quite difficult locating Mr Archenoul as he was not very active on social media.
“Through some creative Googling we managed to find his Facebook profile and there was a real estate listing which contained his mobile phone number,” he said.
“After he realised it wasn’t a scam it felt fantastic that we had found him and he understood the value of his song.”
If you perform or write your own songs you can find out more information about APRA AMCOS at apraamcos.com.au
