The halls of Toledo School for the Arts are filled with budding singers and songwriters, many of whom are already recording and releasing their musical works onto streaming sites.
And this gave TSA audio engineering and business instructor Lucas Madrazo an idea called Spinning Pig Records, a homegrown record company that specializes in preserving TSA musical output on sweet-sounding, high-quality vinyl.
“Spinning Pig Records is an idea I’ve had for the last few years,” said Madrazo. “I started to see a lot of student songwriters and we started recording a lot of individual material and sometimes the students would put their stuff out on streaming platforms. So, I said ‘There’s something going on here. There’s all this great original music being recorded by the students, so our idea was ‘How do we facilitate an official release of all this great music.”
Madrazo has been recording music for TSA students for the last three-and-a-half years. In that time, he recorded many talented young people to the point where there was a large music catalog. Thus, Spinning Pig Records was born and the first release of the label, titled The Appold Sessions Vol. 1, will be released on May 2 at a listening party at TSA.
One of the students on the 10-track record album is 17-year old Matthew Flick, a junior at TSA who sometimes goes by the name ‘Benicio.’ Flick’s song, called “Anything” was co-written with his schoolmate and friend Maya Harris-Reeder.
“(‘Anything’) is really about how much our friendship means to each other,” said Flick. “Anything was really about how we would do anything for each other. The genre is a mix of neo-soul and electronic jazz.”
The Appold Sessions Vol. 1 is named after the studio at TSA, which is the Pat Appold Recording Studio, named after the matriarch of the Appold family, which owns the Maumee Bay Brewing Company. All the songs on the album have been written by TSA students over the past three years.
“All the music on the album varies,” said Madrazo. “We have everything from indie folk to hi-hop to neo-soul, even an ambient/electronic track. Everything is student based, right on down to the album cover and the logo for the record label. It was all produced by students.”
Toledo School for the Arts Director of Development Dave Gierke praised Spinning Pig Records and the students who made it a reality.
“I think Spinning Pig Records adds value to what we do because it makes the music tangible,” said Gierke. “A piece of vinyl isn’t just downloaded, it’s an investment. It’s another source of content that we can get our hands on.”
The record release party will include a listening session of The Appold Sessions Vol. 1 as well as live performances by some of the TSA students who are on the album.
“It should be a really great kickoff for the label,” said Madrazo. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s real exciting thing to see these songs going out into the world in a bigger way.”
The listening party for The Appold Sessions Vol. 1 will be held Friday, May 2 at 5 p.m. At Toledo School for the Arts (333 14th St.) For more information, visit ts4arts.org.
