This article explores ways in which compositional methods can respond to and articulate the specificity of localness, interrogating ideas of place, identity, collaboration and the local through an examination of the methods used by professional Birmingham composers to open out aspects of their compositional approach to the wider community. I share my findings from for-Wards, an ambitious public music project: an artistic collaboration between myself, ten professional Birmingham composers, nine music organisations and residents from Birmingham to create a musical ode to the city. Non-conventional compositional approaches became instrumental in the development of this innovative project, documenting the experience of the local within an ambitious citywide collaboration. The article considers the for-Wards project's background, notions of the hyperlocal, the artistic team, ideas relating to authorship, the compositional framework and collaborative challenges. The article considers the collaborative compositional methods employed by the for-Wards composers to examine the local, including local histories and their playful variants, field recordings, environmental vocalisations and the visualisation of the local.