Hampden Academy students get trained in music industry

By Emily Burnham
BDN Staff

The training that young musicians receive in high school is invaluable. It sets them up for a lifetime of music, whether it’s in a professional setting, as a hobby or simply as a fan. Beyond performance, however, the ins and outs of being a musician sometimes get lost, or don’t get taught at all. How many people learn in high school how to record an album, produce it, distribute it and publicize it?

That’s where Hampden Academy music teacher Pat Michaud comes in. Michaud offers a music technology class, showing students the basics of the business of music, from songwriting and recording to booking and promoting concerts.

“What we want to do is teach the kids about all the other things that go into being a musician besides the strictly performance-based aspect of it,” said Michaud. “In high school, you don’t learn how to work in a recording studio or send out press releases, usually. That’s what we’re doing here.”

The end result of the past four months of work is an original album, titled “Play It Forward,” featuring the musical talents of 12 Hampden Academy musicians. Michaud’s students in the music technology class took that music and learned how to record at Main Street Music Studios in Bangor, produce the album and distribute it, and then put on a concert for their friends and family. The “Play It Forward” CD release party will be 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, at Hampden Academy.

“We were all blank slates, definitely. I didn’t know anything about Pro Tools,” said James Gilmore, a sophomore, referring to the industry standard recording software. “I didn’t know anything about microphones or running a PA. We all had a ton to learn.”

Andrew Clifford and Brad O’Brian, recording engineers at Main Street Music Studios, offered their facility at a reduced rate to the class, who spent five sessions recording the eight-song album.

“I didn’t know how fast everything was going to move,” said Gilmore. “You think from reading about it that bands spend weeks and weeks in the studio, but we did it really quickly. We all learned quickly.”

Clifford, a drummer and longtime audio engineer, was surprised at the level of professionalism of the students and their eagerness to learn.

“I was really surprised at how fast everyone picked everything up,” said Clifford. “They were all very prepared to come in and get focused and learn. They were very good musicians, too. We always want to support education in the area and get involved in the community. I never had anything like this when I was in high school, but if we did, I would have been the first one to sign up for it.”

The album features an array of musical genres, from Jimmy Sargent’s hip-hop track “Take the World,” to the folk rock of Samantha Utrecht’s song “Fly.” Beyond Goodbye, a band composed of Hampden Academy students, contributes the pop-punk infused song “Congratulations, You’re Not a Winner,” and Emily Guillow’s two songs, “Faster and Faster” and “Time,” showcase her lyrics and vocal delivery. Vocalist Christin Casavant and pianist Tim Coston’s song “Autumn’s Butterfly” fuses classical and rock music, and Lucas Holmes’ singing is featured in the song “Untitled,” featuring his singing.

At least some of the students in Michaud’s class have taken what they have learned so far and turned it into future school and career ambitions.

“I originally wanted to go to college and become a music teacher, but after this class, I think I’d like to major in audio engineering,” said Amy Cirrinone, a junior. “It was really fun to be in the studio. I think it’s something I’d like to pursue.”

Taylor Slamons-Spencer, also a junior, enjoyed the opportunity to learn something new.

“I think we’re really lucky because I don’t think a lot of other high schools get to learn this kind of thing,” he said. “I know a lot more now about things like where to put a microphone when you’re recording, and how to mix tracks and stuff like that. We’re lucky to have this early exposure to this technology.”

The “Play It Forward” CD release party will be 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, at Hampden Academy. Admission is $6, or $5 if you bring a nonperishable food item. The album will be on sale at the event for $6.99. All proceeds from admission and CD sales will benefit the Hampden Food Cupboard.

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By Robin Clifford Wood
Special to the NEWS

Editor’s Note: Conversations with Maine is a new weekly column that will appear in the Bangor Daily News. The state of Maine is peopled with multigenerational natives and newcomers, young and old, influenced in one way or another by mountains, lakes, fields, forest, sea and coast. We are solid, down-to-earth workers, entrepreneurs, inventors, wanderers, artists of boundless imagination, thinkers, doers, loners and leaders. A lot of us are many of these things all at once. As a writer, I consider the people of Maine to be a treasure trove of stories that, pieced together, will create a mosaic that tells the tale of the state of Maine.

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Ever since the age of 1, when his enthusiastic drumming with spoons broke one of his mother’s plates, Andrew Clifford has been someone who crosses the boundaries of expectation. President and owner of Bangor’s Main Street Music Studios, Clifford loves music, lives music, but more than that, he aspires to carry central Maine across the threshold of a new musical movement.

“The movement” is a multi-faceted, dynamic integration of musical education, performance and production in this age of digital media. After spending an hour with him in his studio, I am convinced that Clifford is the kind of inexhaustible young innovator that could make it happen.

As an entrenched member of the old pre-digital musical movement, I tried not to miss a beat with this professional drummer, teacher, engineer, producer, DJ and — young father? Yes, that was one of the myriad stereotype-altering facts of Clifford’s life.

On the stage, in his hip clothes and dark glasses, he gives off the aura of cool star appeal. Behind the glasses is a kind face, a highly approachable young man, a natural with children who flock to his studio for drum lessons.

Clifford’s music production room has a large fish tank, a sofa, two computer screens glowing with the “Green Tank Productions” logo, and a vast mixing board. When Clifford told me that his 3½-year-old son often joins him at work, I remarked that it must be hard to keep him from pushing buttons and levers on the board.

“I want him to — I tell him to!” Clifford replied. He is a firm believer in exposing children to the wonders of making music as early as possible. He is particularly excited about the parent-child music lessons offered by one of the studio’s teachers and the fact that the studio hosted a class trip from Camden-Rockport Middle School.

The son of a music teacher in Newport, Clifford grew up with instrumental students in and out of his house all the time. “I’d be in the living room, and a saxophone would go by.”

Though drumming was always his favorite, Clifford loved all aspects of music. After two years studying music education and performance at the University of Maine at Augusta, he struck out on his own. In trips to New York City he learned more about the music business, taking chances, DJ-ing, drumming and production. New York connections got him jobs for TV stations and well-known artists.

In today’s digital era, music producers “make beats” for artists and performers, who integrate them with their own sounds. With his MPC 4000 (“The first piece of equipment I saved up for,” he remembered with satisfaction) Clifford can layer multiple tracks of beats and electronic instrumental sounds.

“But I don’t like quantizing [which makes rhythms perfectly uniform],” he told me. There are producers that use drum machines exclusively. Clifford’s music always includes “organic musicians,” real artists performing on real instruments, in order to give the music a more natural feel.

I wondered if electronic musical production might make human musicians obsolete, but Clifford asserts that there is more need for live musicians today than ever. “If you want to have soul in the music,” he said, “you need real people.”

It is the soul in both the music and the man that makes Clifford so appealing to real people, whether hip-hop artists in New York or 8-year-old drumming students in Bangor, Maine. His is the soul of the musical movement that Clifford and his colleagues are so excited to push forward. I had to admire the work they have done, and said so on my way out.

“This is just the beginning,” he said.

Robin Clifford Wood is a writer, musician and recent empty-nester. The state of Maine captured Wood’s imagination as a summer visitor in 1979 and became her full-time home in 2002. Feedback is always welcome through her blog about sunrise and life transitions atwww.ayearofgettingup.blogspot.com or at robin.everyday@gmail.com.

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Camden-Rockport middle-schoolers get a taste of the music business

By Kevin Miller
BDN Staf

ROCKPORT, Maine — For nearly 200 middle school students from midcoast Maine, recordings of their favorite artists may never sound the same after this year when they designed, produced and distributed their own professional-quality CD of holiday tunes.

Music teacher Allysa Anderson wanted to go beyond the traditional curriculum and rehearsals this holiday season by offering her students at Camden-Rockport Middle School a glimpse behind the scenes of the professional music world.

So for the past several months, 185 students in grades five through eight have been on a crash course in music production, touring professional studios and learning all that it takes to not only record, but also produce a CD. The project was supported by Youth Arts, a Camden-area nonprofit.

After weeks of preparations, it was show time Saturday as roughly 110 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders gathered at Camden Hills Regional High School to make the final recording. The fifth-grade choral group will record later this week.

A production crew from Main Street Music Studios in Bangor supplied the equipment and know-how.

Standing before risersful of giggling and fidgety seventh- and eighth-graders, Anderson tried to keep the group energized as they practiced the fast-paced holiday classic “Sleigh Ride.”

“You’re working very hard, and it is going to pay off,” Anderson said.

It took three full takes and a few false starts, but the group eventually got a nod from the sound engineers. And with that, the students flooded off the stage and ambled toward the doors, where they also picked up their order forms for CDs.

Proceeds from the “Simple Gifts Holiday Songs” CD will go back into the school’s music program. But Anderson said the project’s principal intent was to expose the students to the music business.

“It’s a way to enhance the curriculum, to raise the bar and raise the rigor,” said Anderson. “This has really all been inspired by the children. They are a great group of kids. They’re not only very motivated, they are also very musical.”

Several students said the project opened their eyes to how much effort goes into professional recordings.

“For us, it was a lot of work,” said Hope Orsmond, a seventh-grader from Camden.

Despite the work, most students seemed excited about being featured on a CD, which also will make a convenient holiday gift for family members, they said.

“It was fun but also really hard because it is sort of intimidating to see a microphone in front of you,” said eighth-grader Tori Arau of Rockport, who also plays a flute solo in one of the songs.

Adam Hamilton agreed the project was fun and challenging.

“I feel special because … I don’t think any other courses are doing this,” said Hamilton, whose mother, Elena, also helped organize the project.

Of course, the students’ work is not over. After Main Street Music Studios finishes mixing the recordings and produces the CDs, the students will be responsible for packaging and distributing them.

CDs will be available for $10 each from the Camden-Rockport Middle School office, at the annual Christmas-by-the-Sea celebration in Camden on Dec. 3, and at the school’s holiday concert on Dec. 14.

Camden-Rockport students get a taste of music biz, record own CD

The cover of the holiday album was created by Ellen Curtis.

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Students will gain the skills and confidence to take their guitar playing to the next level!

For more information, Email Bill or Jeremy:

Billthibodeau@mainstreetmusicstudios.com

Jeremyshirland@mainstreetmusicstudios.com