The Power of Music

It is quiet in the engineering room of Hans Christian’s Studio 330 as 10 children stand opposite the soundproof glass in the recording room, looking on their animated conductor before the first take of their new song. The Boys and Girls Club of Sturgeon Bay took an afternoon to contribute vocals to a song which they hope will bring attention to the benefits of the club in the Door County community.

“It’s giving me goosebumps,” said Boys & Girls Club of Door County CPO Julie Davis as her hands held her cheeks while staring at the children leaning toward the microphone. Davis has watched the organization grow to serve more than 50 percent of the students in the district in the past three years. With this performance, the club hopes to draw regional and potentially national attention.

The club recorded the song at the recording studio of Hans Christian, world-renowned cello artist, in Sturgeon Bay. The studio features state of the art recording equipment providing a product with radio-worthy quality.

The song featured musicians from around the peninsula to build the backbone while the club provided vocals on the chorus. Tom Jordan and his son Andrew wrote the song before approaching Grammy-nominee and Sturgeon Bay resident pat mAcdonald to help in the writing process. Jordan has worked on developing original songs for several nonprofits as an advertising executive in Milwaukee.

After recording the vocals, guitars and drums, they brought the Boys and Girls Club in to finish the song.

The children filed into the studio on a windy afternoon and goggled at the dashboard of lights, knobs and switches that would be used to record their voices. Christian gathered the group in a semi-circle around him and played the track they would sing on.

Let’s hear it for the boys

Let’s hear it for the girls

Make the choice to lend your voice

And you can change the world

The chorus continued and with each repeat, another kid became a little more confident as they began to sing along. Some were louder on the front lines while others stood in the back and mumbled with a shy gaze around the room. “Each of them has their own little story that they bring to these experiences,” said Jordan. Their behaviors in an activity as novel as recording an original song are still shaded with the variety of their individual backgrounds.

As the song faded out, Christian asked the children what they heard. Through softened expressions, they waited for an explanation, like a student who doesn’t know what the teacher wants to hear. “Lend your voice. That means you speak up,” said Christian. “We can change the world. The world doesn’t have to be a bad place. We are going to hear it from you today,” he opened his arms inviting the group to understand him. “You are going to sing it for all the boys and girls around the world.”

The children shuffled with excitement into the recording room where they huddled around the microphone. Some fought toward the front while others contented themselves to the back of the group. The kids looked on as Christian animated what they would be doing. With an “all quiet” in the recording room, Christian played the track and the kids began to sing.

The Boys and Girls Club exposes kids to activities and life skills that many children don’t have the opportunity to explore at a young age. From mentoring programs to providing healthy snacks, the club impacts the students just as much as it impacts the community.

“This is important internally as much as it is externally as far as making the kids feel good,” said Jordan. Despite their mission to serve “especially those who need us most,” the club aims to reach all Door County youth regardless of the circumstances they face. They hope that unique activities like studio recording will engage more than those already involved in the program.

The soundproof glass muted their voices to the onlookers standing in the engineering room. Although quiet, the melody could be understood by watching Christian’s swinging hand movements conducting the children through the song. After a few takes, the group moved back into the engineering room to listen back on what they had just done.

Their excitement was evident in the immediacy with which they heard their voices played back over a professionally recorded song. “That’s me! I can hear myself!” declared several children. The repeating chorus faded out as many called for Christian to play the song again. Instead, Christian broke the children into small groups to record again, hoping to get a variety of takes with which to choose from.

As a group of three headed back into the recording room, the kids sat down and looked at the controls. A boy’s father stood with his son, pointing out each of the guitars hanging on the wall around the room and explaining how they are different. Two girls debate on what is cooler: trumpet or guitar?

What began as a nervous session with a group of shy kids turned into something that resembled, according to the few musicians in the room, a real recording session. There was a group of people looking to create music together to achieve a goal that they all participated in.

After a few more small-group vocalists and repeated choruses, the kids’ job was complete. Christian will now incorporate the new vocal tracking to the recorded song before disseminating it to the Boys and Girls Club. The club in turn will reach out to regional and national media outlets, starting with Green Bay, to gain momentum on what they hope will be a powerful message delivered in a creative way.