Peter Burditt
Contributing Writer
If you’re one of those folks who belts out the lyrics of your favorite songs and records yourself while doing so, you can now stop annoying your roommate and have much better recording quality thanks to Sewanee’s new recording studio. On February 17, the music department had a cold open for its recording studio in room 203B of Guerry, in which a large part of both the Sewanee and the surrounding community attended. To say the least, it was a hit!
The birth of the studio owes thanks to many people, though Professor Jason Rosenberg and a donation from a Sewanee parent were the main sources. Other helpful players in the studio’s development were two musicians from the band Sheryll’s Lips, Ian Atwater (C’23) and Jojo Fogarty (C‘23), as well as the dean’s office. In regards to logistics, in order to utilize this new resource, all one does is fill out a request form and get it approved by the studio employees and manager. It doesn’t have to be music, either. Students can record the sampling of an audio book, a monologue, a podcast, or really anything that requires a crystal clear and professional recording.
Professor Rosenberg is excited about working with the community and “getting to have interactions and collaborations with not just Sewanee students, faculty and staff; but also the larger community as a whole,” he said. Fogarty agrees, as he says a common problem at Sewanee has been that “there are students at this school who play music, but they don’t know how to connect with other [music playing] students outside of a classical academic setting.” He and others hope that this studio will both attract and create musically minded students.
They hope to further develop student bands, as well as the return of alumni bands to record in the studio. Given the fact that Sewanee has produced bands such as Sheryll’s Lips, Easy Honey, and A Boy Named Banjo, Atwater hopes “those big bands that come on on weekends, including the alumni bands, will come through and come to the recording studio,” said Atwater. Rosenberg also believes that having this studio “will make [the university] attract more popular bands and create more student bands.”
Besides the influx of student bands, Rosenberg, Atwater and Fogarty believe the sky’s the limit when it comes to future developments regarding the studio. Many ideas have been thrown around including new equipment and overall just the betterment of the space as a whole. One idea that seems very intriguing is that of a potential musical archive; in which all musical performances at Sewanee would be recorded and cataloged for future listeners. Additionally, and stated priorly, this will hopefully drive future students to merely create their own content whether it be an album or a podcast.
The implementation of this music studio will be a great asset to Sewanee given that music is such an integral and crucial part of our culture. Rosenberg, Atwater, Fogarty, as well as the larger community committed to the sprouting of this terrific space hope to see everyone who is interested participate in order to keep the nature of the studio thriving and developing.
Studio Email/Request Form:
I have written many song lyrics. I am looking for a musician interested in putting my lyrics to music to create a new song. If you are interested in collaboration on new songs please contact me.