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Issue #79

Weekly Newsletter

by L. Swift and Jeff McQ

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Student Successes


When RRFC gets you learning on the job, not only do you learn from the pros, you also have the opportunity to expand your skills in ways you might not have imagined! Read below about a vocalist who enrolled in the Recording Connection to expand her skills into audio engineering and production, and wound up getting engineering credits on a label rock recording and doing vocals for a documentary soundtrack!

Student Successes
 

Recording Connection apprentice Lindsey Kappa: expanding her musical reach

   
RC apprentice Lindsey Kappa

RC apprentice Lindsey Kappa

From an early age, Lindsey Kappa knew she wanted a career in music, especially as a singer. By her early teens, she was writing and performing her own songs, learning to play a variety of instruments, and was seriously pursuing a music career. But even as a teenager, she was smart enough to start hedging her bets.   “I knew when I was 14 that being a musician wasn’t always a guarantee,” she says. “So I ended up going to a concert for my cousin’s band, and after the show he recommended, ‘Hey, why don’t you check out sound while you start trying to pursue your music career?’…It was something that I thought not only sounded awesome, but it was a way for me to still keep music in my life and doing it for living, both at the same time, getting the bills paid.”   So after graduating high school, instead of majoring in music in college, Lindsey majored in audio engineering, earning an associate’s degree at an audio school in Minneapolis, MN where she lived. But even before finishing, she knew her classroom education wasn’t enough.   “I knew I wanted some more experience, I wanted to advance my abilities,” says Lindsey, “so I did some research and found Recording Connection. At the time I was told that my mother and I would be moving to Texas for her job, so I started making arrangements from Minnesota to Texas. And on my last day of school, I got my diploma in an office, didn’t go to the graduation ceremony. Just got all my stuff and pretty much drove from Minnesota to Texas.”  
Band Courtesy Tier, Chris "Frenchie" Smith with dog Agnes and Lindsey Kappa

Band Courtesy Tier, Chris “Frenchie” Smith
with dog Agnes and Lindsey Kappa

Lindsey’s move brought her to Austin, Texas, the “Live Music Capital of the World,” where the Recording Connection has several mentor studios. Lindsey was ultimately placed as an apprentice with Chris “Frenchie” Smith at The Bubble Recording Studio. Lindsey recalls that she clicked with her mentor immediately.   “I went to the studio, and I met with Frenchie,” she says. “Even on the phone I knew that were we a good match, because I don’t know, just something about his attitude and his behavior just really makes you feel [like] ‘Okay, these things are going to get done, you know this is awesome.’”   From the beginning of her apprenticeship, Lindsey saw the difference between learning on-the-job and her formal schooling experience. “With this school, what I enjoy is that it is one-on-one,” she says. “I actually get more hands on experience…There is no like, ‘Okay, let’s crack open the books and turn to page 32, let’s read through that.’ And it’s super flexible because you are not only on your time, but you are also on your mentor’s time, so when you guys get together it’s because it works for both of you.”   Since starting at The Bubble, Lindsey has jumped in with both feet, not only learning the ropes but even earning engineering credits, as well. “Recently, Scorpion Child recorded at the studio,” says Lindsey, “and Sean actually gave me the tom tracks for all the songs…once the product was finished, I handed them off to Sean to put in the session, and that ended up giving me an engineering credit, which was pretty awesome.”  
Scorpion Child and Chris "Frenchie" Smith, center.

Scorpion Child and
Chris “Frenchie” Smith, center.

It turns out that Lindsey’s vocal abilities have come in handy, as well, when one of the engineers invited her to sing on a track for a documentary soundtrack he was working on. “[He] asked me if I could provide some vocals,” she says, “and we did one track, and he loved my vocals very much and he ended up showing the client who is in charge of the project, and they loved my vocals as well. So there are going to have me sing on pretty much on the entire piece.”   As Lindsey works through her apprenticeship at The Bubble, it’s apparent that adding audio production skills to her musical abilities has helped her grow as a music professional. “My confidence with music has definitely been boosted,” she says. “Of course, there are times where I am a little shy, especially when I am around people who have way more experience than me, but Chris has definitely helped me with that. He helps me make the right decisions and he just taught me. He’s definitely prepared me for situations that require me to say yes or no.”   As for the future, Lindsey hasn’t lost focus on her dream of being an artist in music—she’s just expanded her reach. “Singing is my huge passion,” she says. “Out of everything singing is my top…The biggest thing that I want out of music, just in the music industry in general… I would love to not only sing professionally but being able to go out there and say, ‘Hey, I can engineer my own stuff, you know.’ I can not only make my own stuff and perform my own stuff but actually do the behind-the-scenes for it as well.”   Lindsey’s advice to other apprentices? “The most important thing about this program is don’t just take what you are handed,” she says, “because this is an experience that not every person can get, and you want to make the most of it…For me, I have pretty much just immersed myself into things because I feel like if you don’t throw yourself in there, then you are not going to really learn anything.”    

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Announcement

We’re proud to announce another world-class recording studio has joined the Recording Connection Mentor Family—Record Plant in Hollywood, CA!

  Record Plant needs no introduction but just to remind you, the artists who’ve worked, recorded and/or jammed there include: Michael Jackson, Rolling Stones, Diddy, Justin Timberlake, Paul and John (from a little band called The Beatles), Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kayne West, Katy Perry, Frank Ocean, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Black Eyed Peas, Madonna, John Legend, Prince, Nine Inch Nails.  
Patrizio Moi

Welcome, new RC mentor Patrizio Moi!

Mentor, Producer, Songwriter and Arranger, Patrizio Moi was born in Cagliari (Italy) and studied at Academy of Music G. Martini in Bologna from 1992-2000. At 18 he won the prestigious ‘Note For Note’ International Music Jazz Contest for composers with his song “Artichaut mon aimé”.   Patrizio Moi can train Recording Connection students in Pro Tools, Ableton or Logic.   Patrizio Moi has written and produced:   “Quando Una Stella Muore”, by Giorgia (Platinum Certification, #1 Pop Chart, #1 on iTunes, #1 on Italian Radio Charts,
“Set the Mood” by David Jordan (#4 on UK Billboard Charts, co-produced with legendary producer Trevor Horn)
“Replay” and “Hold Me” by Meghan Trainor and Raffaella Carrá (#32 Billboard Charts)
  Patrizio also writes songs for Universal, Sony Music, Warner, EMI, BBC Television and RAI Television, in United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.    

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Apprentices in Action
Tim Barry

Tim Barry

A member of hip-hop duo The Hashassins, Recording Connection apprentice Tim Barry recently brought in one of his own tracks to mentor Doug Wallace at Studio 128 Recording. Getting to mix down one of his own tracks was a great learning experience for Tim who says, “I took so much out of it and, since then, I’ve seen my mixing skills progress at a high rate.”   
Austin House and mentor Kevin McCarthy at Cityview Recording

Austin House and mentor Kevin McCarthy at Cityview Recording

Recording Connection apprentice Austin House (Salem, OR) recently got an insider’s view into what really goes on between artist and producer during a pre-production meeting between mentor Kevin McCarthy and a hip-hop artist, where they discussed everything from sounds and production styles to workflow, breakdown and cost. Austin says, “It was cool to see Kevin work as a businessman as well as a music engineer.”    Film Connection apprentice Keith L. Huff just directed his first short film For Sale By Owner. Thanks to a strange weather system moving into the Louisville area, Keith’s crew saw it all during their 3-day-shoot! In preparation for the project, Keith says, “I read film books, watched making of documentaries and worked other short films. With all that experience, nothing prepares you for making a film because each experience is different and each film has its unique problems. Being able to adapt and make it work is key for being a good director.” Sounds like a valuable lesson indeed!   [gmedia id=12]   

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Mentor News
As the co-founder and director of LEAPframe in Cincinnati, OH, Film Connection mentor Brandon Faris has more than a decade of professional film experience, first getting an education in audio production, then transitioning into film. Today, LEAPframe is a premiere production company handling everything from music videos and corporate videos to documentary projects and more. Brandon recently sat down with RRFC to talk about how he got his start in the business, why he decided to become a mentor, and the importance of making the most of every opportunity.      RRFC: How did you get started in the film business?  
Brandon Faris

FC mentor Brandon Faris

Brandon Faris: Well I started off in audio and studied at Colombia College in Chicago. And right when I graduated, it was about 2002-ish… I’m sure as you guys know, the audio industry basically folded for about 10 years as they started to dig their way out of a hole and figure out how to make money streaming music. So in that time, I made a pivot. I moved back to Cincinnati, at the time me and my now-wife got married, and we were pregnant. And so at the time, I didn’t have a job, and we got a new computer and a video camera to capture our daughter’s birth, and voila, a filmmaker was born…. Eventually got on Current TV. At the time, they had user-created content, and I made a couple of videos and uploaded them, and they got the greenlight and so they went on air, and the next thing you know people from Current TV and San Francisco were calling me here in northern Kentucky and Cincinnati to cover some local stories, and [it] just went from there. I got on with a production company here in Cincinnati as an editor. And I’ve been doing this 10 years now. And I left that production company, and me and a partner of mine, Ryan, who’s a co-founder with me at LEAPframe, we left and started our thing called LEAPframe. And so we’ve been doing that now since 2013.   RRFC: Were you scared at all going through this process of pivoting?   Brandon: No, at least for me, it was an exercise in what works. So anytime I did anything that had to do with video, it seemed to work, and people responded well…it seemed to come naturally, so I just kept doing it. And as I did it, opportunities just kept coming. That’s what I try to instill into my apprentices now in the program. You try to prepare them and get them ready, but the one thing I constantly tell them is, “Hey, work, work, work, work, work until an opportunity comes. And when that opportunity comes, you strike and you deliver and you show up and you hit a home run. And the more opportunities you get, then the home runs you hit and the more opportunities you get, and it turns into a cycle.”   RRFC: Luck is opportunity-meets-preparation.   Brandon: Yeah, absolutely. If you’ve never been on set before, you can’t show up on set, so what’s the most important thing you could do? Find a way to get on set. And once you’ve been on set, now an opportunity pops up, somebody needs a PA. Well, [now] you can say, “Oh yeah, I’ve been on set. I’ve done these three gigs or whatever.” Maybe you worked for free or you volunteered to run coffee or whatever, but at least you’ve been on set. There’s that part of the biz. And then there’s the part of the education. People who have the education and have studied, they know what they’re doing, and they move forward.   I think what’s cool now in my perspective and now, having the opportunity to mentor is, I’m in a position to empower young people and young filmmakers who want to get into the game, and I can show them the ropes and say, “Hey, this is grip house. Here’s these guys you need to meet. Here’s the camera department. You need to meet these guys. Here’s some freelance PAs. You need to meet these guys. Here’s some producers.” I can show them the ropes.   RRFC: What kind of projects did you start doing early on?   Brandon: Early on, it was all documentary-style stuff, and I think that’s a great place for any young filmmaker to start, because with documentary, you don’t need anything. You just need a camera and just go out and point it and shoot it, and find the story and capture the raw emotion…That cinéma vérité loose style is very, very good for a beginner, because once you get into live action and stuff that’s more scripted, you need lights and you need crew and actors.   RRFC: And where has your style moved now?   Brandon: I’m always pushing towards trying to find the humanity in objects and in people and in the story. I think that comes from my documentary background but even in live action I’m always looking for that moment, whether it’s commercial or a short film, I’m looking for that moment that feels real, that feels authentic. I think when you capture that moment, when you find that moment, you know it because you’ve been there. It’s real and in real life, you’ve got to say, “Yeah, I’ve experienced that, so I know that was good because it’s real.”   RRFC: At what point did you decide that you wanted to be a mentor?  
Brandon Faris and apprentice DeAndre Mays

Brandon Faris and apprentice DeAndre Mays

Brandon: [Film Connection] reached out to me, and at first, I was a little skeptical. I’m like, “Why are you guys reaching out to me? You guys are out in L.A. You’re hobnobbing with the stars or whatnot.” But then I looked more into it and saw the program, and saw the mentoring model and I’ve had mentors in my life—I know how effective they can be…Those are connections I still have today, and connections that heavily influenced me. And so after I [was] reading up on the program and seeing that it was heavily based on a mentoring relationship, that there was a solid foundation with the school out in L.A., that they had a curriculum and that they took the students through it and worked with them via long distance, but then leaned on local mentors to show them the ropes and throw them in the trenches, then it definitely made sense to me. It was like, “Wait a second, this is a college where the schooling is the apprenticeship.”   Now we’re on our second apprentice, and he’s great. His name is DeAndre [Mays], and he’s a cool kid, man. He’s got a full-time job, he’s super responsible, but you can tell that he wants it. He gets excited about the stuff. He’s starting to invest his own resources. He just bought the new Adobe, he just got a new laptop, and he’s super stoked every time he comes in to learn something new. And he says, “What are we doing today, guys? Where are we going? What are we shooting?” He does everything we ask of him.   RRFC: Awesome. Do you guys have any projects coming out?   Brandon: Yeah, actually, we do. We’ve got a new music video dropping with Cincinnati-based rapper, Donnie Maserati, and it’s called, “I’m so Cincinnati,” and it’s really cool…DeAndre worked on this as a production assistant… we take that idea of, “I’m so Cincinnati,” and show the whole city. And so we’ve got these great vignettes of all these different people in the city and representing their hustle, right?…It turned out really good. We had a nice rooftop scene at magic hour and all that stuff so that’s pretty cool.    

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Gina Delao “Most traditional culinary schools are for-profit and proud of it. It takes two years of your life to get an Associate’s degree and the guy that has two years of experience is getting the job anyway. If your goals are to open up your own restaurant or own your own food service operation, go to school for business. Go into the culinary industry to learn how to cook.”   Chef Gina Delao, Anaheim, California Chef / Owner, FoodieLicious Events  



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