Author: Emma Lodes
During certain hours of the day, a small, discrete room in the basement of Booth Hall labeled “Room 105” explodes with sound. Open the door, and bass beats reverberate off thick sound proofed walls, speakers and mics clutter corners and a massive monitor displays tracks laid down by Occidental student musicians. Welcome to Occidental’s fresh student-run recording studio, property of RAWRecords, a student organization revived this year, whose leaders have big visions.
RAWRecords (RAWR) provides an opportunity for students to record their music. The club’s goal is to give student musicians the chance to record their work and promote it in the community, collaborate with other musicians, and be a part of creating a dynamic music scene on campus. Although RAWR has qualities of a record label, it is not technically one. “You could say it’s a hybrid between a record label and a student organization,” Asa Welch (freshman), one of the founders of the club, said. “Its a tool that people can have access to. We’re there to allow people to record.”
RAWR will give students access to professional grade recording equipment as well as the chance to work with students who have expertise in operating it. The club is led by Welch, John Henry (sophomore) and Scott Williams (sophomore).
So far, the new studio has been occupied primarily by sophomores Alex Fitzhugh and Jordan Whaley. The pair are up-and-coming rappers, and are grateful for new recording space. ”We used to have our own recording equipment and we recorded in our rooms, but this place is way more official,” Fitzhugh said. ”It’s a lot better then telling your roommates to be quiet when they’re trying to play video games.”
Fitzhugh and Whaley see RAWR as having a lot of potential. ”I think it’s crazy where RAWR can go because we can expand to where full bands can be in here,” Whaley said. “It’s got a professional feel.”
RAWR’s leadership team has aspirations beyond recording Occidental artists. They want to promote artists within the Occidental community and beyond, and facilitate collaboration and networking among students. “We are trying to create a community of musicians at Occidental and an awareness of other artists,” Henry said. “We also want to host and organize events pertaining to music,” Welch said. “In the future we’d love to have musicians be featured on campus for shows and events where students can show their music.”
Future shows hosted by RAWR would feature student artists, as KOXY and the Programming Board already play the role of bringing outside artists to campus. “It’s not only for Oxy students to hear music but also give musicians a chance to be acknowledged for the work they do. I think there’s a lot of work that goes unnoticed,” Henry said. ”There is a lot of talent on this campus. A lot,” Welch said.
The club is not brand new; it’s been around for two years. Ryan Bartecki (senior), Mike Ursu (senior), Eleanor McQuistion (transferred out), and Redd Barua-Norton (senior) founded RAWR at the end of 2010, after discovering that student musicians had no means to record their work on campus. “When we got to Oxy we immediately noticed a wealth of incredible musical talent. We individually set out in search of the school’s music studio only to find that it was not open to all students,” Norton-Barua said. “Our love of music brought us together with the goal of creating a space for Oxy students to record their music whenever they wanted to.”
Unfortunately, RAWR’s founders lost momentum quickly, due to absent leaders and an inadequate recording space. “The semester after the club was founded all of the founding members, except for myself, were either abroad or had transferred out of Oxy. Because of my other commitments I was unable to do anything but simply keep the club afloat,” Barua-Norton said.
The original recording studio was also too small; it could not facilitate anything more than single track recording and production. ”Their room was the size of a broom closet and they couldn’t record more than one artist at once,” Henry said. The project was further undermined when Johnson Hall, the building that held RAWR’s already inadequate studio, went under construction. This year, RAWR has its own larger studio in the basement of Booth Music Hall. “We are recording under way better conditions, which I’m thankful for,” Henry said.
The reborn RAWR will not just benefit from a superior recording studio; the new leadership team is coming in with a bigger vision for the project. “To Redd and Ryan it was more of a personal project. We want to have people be able to use it on a more regular basis,” Henry said.
The new leaders of RAWR envision a more organized system with a regimented schedule. But first, they are creating a solid foundation for the club. Step one is recruiting sound engineers; once they train a few more, they can set up an official schedule and start recording. “That’s the last real step to becoming operational,” Henry said. “Not all of the musicians know how to use the equipment.”
The club has been sending out emails and notifications on Root, and are creating a spreadsheet of Occidental musicians to organize recording times, writing sessions, and future events. They hope to be recording regularly by the end of the semester.
RAWR is pushing forward with energy, enthusiasm, and opportunity for potential musicians, sound engineers; even managers and producers. “I see it as a student service, and an opportunity for jobs for aspiring sound engineers and musicians,” Henry said. “I see it as a chance to develop so many skills for people, in management, promotion, production…I think what it can do for Oxy given time and work and help can be tremendous,”
“So get involved,” Welch added.
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