Recording studio, audio training, bands and DJs - Aurora, Illinois

The Guild: Guitar Pull

We were tugging a lot more than guitars last night as pianists, cellists and poets flocked in alongside the usual 6- (and yes, Dan Becker, 7-) string axe players for last night's Guild meeting. The local talent had this Aurora recording studio resounding with enthusiasm and some great insights into the creative journey. Life's better when we know each other - and what better way to get there than with music?

Here's the lowdown on who played what - if you missed it, you missed out. Click the performers' names to find their website, if they've got one. Click here for the photo album. And mark your calendars now for our next meeting, at 7:30pm October 27.

Mandy and Ryan Bibza and Priscilla Dean - "Rescue"

Phil Seeley and Sharon Slaughter -- "Maybe Someday"

Iggy Mwela with Brent Brown - "My Dishonorable Discharge"

Brent Brown - "Untitled Love Song"

Dan Becker - "She Knows Where I've Been"

Quentin and Aerie Dover - "Tattered Daydream"

Andrea Goforth - "Living in Your Bedroom"

Jason Glover - "There are Bricks"

Man Draws Guitar Fish, Rests on Laurels

This is clearly the greatest single thing that I have ever drawn - the hack artist's equivalent, surely, to what landing on the moon must have meant to Neil Armstrong. But I can't retire - I've got to host this month's Guild meeting, which I'm thrilled to note will be our second-ever guitar pull!

Not sure what a guitar pull is? This axe-shaped fish - or "Fishtar," as I've dubbed him - should be more than ample to communicate the plan. You "pull" your guitar over to Backthird Audio, just like pulling on a fishing line. Then you play a song you wrote, or just something you love, and revel in the joyous noise as other local musicians to the same. We get to know each other, and we get to share the music we're passionate about. Life gets grand for another month.

If you're not the guitar-pulling type, your favorite Aurora recording studio has guitars to share - and a grand piano, to boot. You can even sit and listen. The main thing is to get here.

when:   7:30pm Monday, June 23 (music starts at 8:30)
where: Backthird Audio (map)                   
who:   artists, producers, promoters and anyone else who "does" music
what: eating, drinking,  talking
but especially: playing!

If you'd like to share a song with us, here are the rules:

1. Be informal. We're a group of musicians workshopping songs. We're not a recital, a concert, or even an open mic.

2. Be informative. We'd love to hear briefly - BRIEFLY - about where this song came from and why you're sharing it.

3. Be inelectric. Yes, we mean "acoustic" - no amps, no syths, and nothing that goes "wah." But if it's acoustic and you can get it here, you're welcome to play it.

4. Be quick! Let me know asap if you intend to share a song. We can only fit so many tunes in one night, so this is first-come, first-served.

See you Monday!

IN THE STUDIO: Art is People

Last Friday we helped launch the Aurora Artwalk - the first major push by a group of us who believe in the community we live and work in, and who want to see its creatives come together to make this place a more engaging, inspiring, amusing, surprising, challenging, loving and ultimately beautiful place to live. We're doing that - for starters - by throwing a bunch of cool art on our walls, booking a few great bands and inviting a couple hundred friends down.

It was a smashing success.

Eight venues participated, but this humble Aurora recording studio was happy to play host to scuptor Soterios Gardiakos and painter Stephen Signa, as well as bands So Elated and Rebel Rouser - who handily took home the night's "best performer" prize, a novelty-sized check good for a real-life $300.

I'll let you read the details elsewhere, but for photos taken at this studio, view the album here.

FROM BENJIE: Come Together (7pm Sept 12)

What’s your context?

That’s the question I asked at the first meeting of the Guild, back in January. The idea was that music – like all art – is born in a social context. It’s made by certain people, for certain people in a certain time and place. Some songs are for the battlefield; others are for bars. But it’s all meant for somewhere. Every genre has its roots in a certain time and place, among a certain people. And in that sense, all music is folk music.

So – who are your folks?

If you’re like me, there’s a tension in that question. I spend all day with the world at my fingertips. I download photographs from other continents and e-mail hundreds of people at once. But it’s people I’m close enough to touch I’ve got the greatest chance of really knowing. I want to share myself with the same people I’m already sharing food and air and sidewalks with.

Which means, I guess, they ought to hear my music.

My community is downtown Aurora. There’s a group of us here who believe in being local, who believe in the community we live in, and who believe in the power of art to connect people and make life more rich and full. That’s why we’re pushing the Aurora ArtWalk, which I hope you’ve heard about by now. A week from Friday, we’ll turn one intersection into a hub for craziness and creativity. I’m hosting two rock bands, a painter and a sculptor. There’s a poet at the optician’s down the street. Other folks are giving free dance lessons, reading children’s books and playing with electricity. There’s even a cash prize for the crowd favorites.

If you’re within range, join us on September 12 from 7 to 10pm. Be part of us. Be local. Offer to perform for us next time. We’re hoping this will be an amazing night. We’re hoping to have fun – but also to inspire far greater things. Because the best thing would be to become the context we all need. The best thing would be to live somewhere that can be a birthplace for more songs and pictures. The best thing would be to make folk music, and to be each other’s folks.