In a recording studio on the main floor of the Music/Theater Building, students in Mason Noise are wrapping up production on a full-length studio album and getting ready to begin mastering the tracks.
Mason Noise has full run of the studio, complete with mixing board and sound booth, to record and produce the album “The Uglies,” created by Michelle Pepino. The senior English major from Virginia Beach records under the name The Gem Fragments, which she said conveys the notion that it’s a collaborative project.
Mason Noise selects a student music artist each semester and then records, mixes, engineers, produces and distributes a full-length album. Pepino was chosen from about 10 applicants who submitted cover letters and demo recordings to a student executive board, said Thomas Routon, student co-founder and president of Mason Noise.
About 30 Mason students are involved with the project. The recording company, made up mostly of music technology majors, is arranged into teams. Some work as producers—scheduling recording sessions, working with talent and guiding the creative process behind the project, he said. Others work as sound engineers—mixing songs and recording tracks. And a Mason Noise art department, also comprising students, was formed to design the album’s cover art.
Pepino wrote all the songs for the album over the span of about five years. Turning her work over to the Mason Noise crew was a big step for her because she really doesn’t share much of her inner thoughts with others, Pepino said.
“Each song is about fear, love and uncertainty,” she said. “They are about people who have struggled in their own lives. But it’s also about the things people continue to work on so they aren’t ugly anymore.”
As a new artist, Pepino said she didn’t find the album-making process stressful, but it is more work than she thought it would be. She plays acoustic guitar, but her album will feature background instrumentation from a string quartet, guitarists, a drummer and a pianist who volunteered to work on the project.
This is the second student album created by Mason Noise, and the more experienced students mentor newer ones. Mason Noise first produced the debut self-titled album “Marijke” for indie pop singer Marijke Boers, a music student at Mason. The album is available for free on CDBaby.com.
It’s nice to see students come into the recording studio and use the skills they’ve learned in their music technology classes to work on the projects, said Jesse Guessford, director of Mason’s music technology program and a professor of music technology and composition.
“We’re trying to create a culture where there are positions students aspire for,” Guessford said.