Hawaii has long been a celebrated cultural destination renowned for its enduring local identity and unique melting pot of musical sensibilities. As its artistic prominence has grown in stature globally, the need for modern audio production infrastructure to support Hawaii’s present and future musical talent has never been more pressing.
Seeing the opportunity to create a new creative and educational hub for this growing musical community, audio engineer and educator Sam Fong of Hawaii’s Washington Middle School sought out the services of global architectural acoustic consulting and media systems engineering firm WSDG to create Line Studio at WMS, a new, world-class recording studio and audio education complex that is already making waves with aspiring and professional musicians across the island chain.
A community-focused musical vision
Washington Middle School, a Title-1 classified Public School where at least half of its students live below the poverty line, has distinguished itself through its dedicated team of educators driven to provide better opportunities for their students. As the only school in Hawaii providing students with pro audio training, the staff of WMS was well-equipped to plant the seeds of what would become Line Studio. Fong and WMS Principal Michael Harano were eager to explore the educational and cultural implications of a professional-grade facility.
“We truly want to elevate the quality of life for our students and present them with opportunities that broaden their own vision of what their lives can become,” said Fong. “The concept for Line Studio was to create a real recording studio that would have value for both our students and for the local musicians of Hawaii. Both sides of that equation were very important to us.”
“On the one hand with students, we could offer them a real opportunity to develop their minds and skillsets when it comes to audio and music that would be applicable whether they choose to work here or on the mainland. We also knew that by opening the studio up to public projects, we could enrich the culture for local musicians by providing opportunities that might not have existed before for them also in terms of recording and production.”
This community-focused approach was very much at the center of the concept for Fong and his colleagues. Citing Hawaii’s close-knit local culture and rich musical heritage, he felt compelled to ‘dream big’ in what at first, seemed like an impossible project. “Music is deeply rooted in Hawaiian culture and people are proud of it,” he says. “However it has always been difficult to make a living doing it here and we’ve lacked some critical infrastructure to support our musicians. We really wanted to make a difference for the community when dreaming up Line Studio.”
“Fortunately for us, that dream met reality the moment we approached John Storyk and WSDG.”
