Producer, engineer and songwriter Christopher Tyng wants to pay it forward by recording your music... free of charge. Tyng is now accepting applications for his Grow Music Project, an initiative created to give back to the music community.
Essentially, the project’s concept is a simple one: Tyng and his recording studio team will choose five artists/bands per quarter out of thousands of online submissions, and record each chosen band's most promising song. And while tracking one song in your basement may only take three or four tries, as Tyng explains, this pre- and post-production package is far more in-depth. “A lot of people save up enough money to book a studio for a weekend and try to record 10 songs. Sometimes that works great. What we’re trying to do is give people the opportunity to take three [full] days—off the ‘clock’—to focus on what they think is their best song. It gives them the freedom to not try to get as much done as possible.”
So what’s the catch; what’s in it for Tyng and company? “We don't have an agenda in their song in any way,” explains the producer. “There’s no hidden ‘time share’ offer here. Our whole goal is to give these musicians the opportunity to come in and do something really cool then give them all the tools that we can: masters, instrumental versions, etc.”
Tyng understands that it takes more than just hard work to make it in today's ever-changing industry. “I was playing with my own band for a few years and thought, ‘god these bands [I’m touring with] are awesome,” he continues. “Even these bands who really had a strong sense of who they were as an artist were still scraping to get their music to that next level.” Since Tyng’s career launched from both hard work and opportunity... he now wants to create that opportunity for someone else.
You see, when Tyng was first becoming interested in the music industry, he was attending college in New York. At that time, he and some friends submitted for BMI’s Pete Carpenter Fellowship—a film/TV scoring contest that would award one entrant with a three-month fellowship in Los Angeles to work under the wings of some of Hollywood’s finest songwriters/composers. One of those composers was Basil Poledouris (Conan the Barbarian, RoboCop, The Hunt for Red October). Tyng hadn’t heard of BMI nor did he realize that winning the fellowship would prove to be a major career accelerator.
“Basil really adopted me and became like my West Coast dad,” proclaims Tyng. “He took me under his wing and taught me an enormous amount and threw a lot of opportunity my way... and never did he say, ‘Hey, I want half.’ [I’ve] been really fortunate and now it’s our turn to be part of that circle and do something that creates some positive energy in a business that’s sometimes a little lacking.”
Since that time, Tyng has worked as a songwriter, producer and composer at his Santa Barbara, CA studio (just two hours northwest of Los Angeles)—recent works have included Suits and Rescue Me.
His competition will accommodate winning artists/bands for the weekend at the Southern California studio, however travel arrangements will need to be covered by the musicians. Along with a free song (which will be pre-produced, mixed and mastered for radio, film and online use), the Grow Music Project will provide a production video for the musician(s) to showcase how the entire process came to fruition. First round submission deadline is May 1st.
Visit http://growmusicproject.com
By Andy Mesecher
