Western Information – Music recording arts grad ‘would not change a factor’

Charlie Kramers (Submitted)

On this primary day of fall convocation, Don Wright College of Music graduate Charlie Kramers is trying ahead to his future and reflecting on his time as a scholar within the music recording arts (MRA) program.

The mixed program, provided collectively via Western and Fanshawe School, noticed the classical upright bass participant deepen his long-held love for recording music and kind a keenness for jazz.

It additionally allowed him to earn his bachelor’s diploma in music, in addition to a diploma in music trade arts, which he obtained at the moment in the course of the first of six ceremonies celebrating Western’s 320^th convocation.

Trying again, “MRA was the right program for me,” Kramers stated. In spite of everything, he’s been critical about recording music because the eighth grade, when he saved cash to purchase a laptop computer and sound recording software program. By highschool, he was the go-to man for recording vocal tracks and strings for his music program entries into CBC music competitions.  

But, when he arrived at Western 5 years in the past, he deliberate to pursue a level in musical efficiency, taking part in bass as his orchestral instrument. However that was earlier than he met Brian Marshall, BMusA’20, a then upper-year MRA scholar, throughout his first days on campus, residing at Delaware Corridor. Marshall was excited to see Kramers recording music with the identical software program he was utilizing in this system.  

“We ended up recording a tune collectively proper off the bat,” Kramers stated. “He informed me about MRA and the way it will be a superb match for me.” The alternate led Kramers to use to the aggressive program on the finish of his second yr.  

He handed the audition and the interview, claiming one in all solely 10 obtainable spots.  

Kramers dove into the expertise, embracing new data and alternatives.  

“It’s so wonderful to be taught concerning the historical past of how individuals used to report music, which I’m so taken with now. I form of went in reverse, beginning on my laptop computer, working in (the software program program) Logic after which going again to utilizing massive mixers and analog compressors.”

The college additionally impressed and impressed him.

“I by no means had a foul prof at Western or at Fanshawe. Everybody pushed me to do one thing I wasn’t actually ready to do and it at all times ended up being one thing that was helpful.”~Charlie Kramers, BMus’22

One problem got here in a gaggle undertaking the place college students had been to jot down a tune, make a music video and work as a staff.

“I’m terrible at video enhancing, and I volunteered to edit the music video,” Kramers stated. He additionally co-wrote and helped produce and blend the tune, referred to as Gameboy, sung by classmates Nick Souza and Rebecca Whitford (Miufly).

Earlier this yr, Kramers gained an instrumental award from Fanshawe for his work on a canopy of These Eyes by The Guess Who. “We slowed the tune right down to half velocity, however we did the refrain actually quick,” Kramers stated. “It simply appeared to work out and I suppose they noticed I used to be placing a whole lot of effort into it.” 

The identical tenacity drove Kramers to stretch himself in 2020, when Marshall and different buddies persuaded him to submit a virtual audition for Western’s Jazz Ensemble, directed by professor and music training chair Kevin Watson. 

“I knew nothing about jazz going into it,” Kramers stated. “I at all times admired it, however I barely listened to it. It’s all chord charts. After studying sheet music and taking part in classical all my life, I had no thought what to do.” 

However with persistence and the assistance of his buddies, he obtained in. And beneath Watson’s course, he obtained higher. 

“I discovered Charlie to be a really artistic, curious and beneficiant particular person. I additionally acknowledged rapidly that he had excellent musical instincts, however that he lacked a number of the theoretical data and instrumental method required to carry out the jazz repertoire,” Watson stated. “Because the yr progressed, his work ethic turned fairly evident, as he was one of many college students whose musical expertise improved probably the most over that point.” 

Watson additionally inspired Kramers to affix a jazz combo, a small group of performers who be taught and carry out jazz requirements in a dwell recital.  

However by then, the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, bringing Kramers a problem he embraced. 

“As a result of we couldn’t do a dwell recital, we needed to report ourselves as an alternative,” Kramers stated. “It was proper up my alley. I obtained to do jazz, and I obtained to report.”  

The outcome was a complete album of the group’s items. 

“Charlie’s data of music manufacturing actually bailed us out in the course of the lockdown,” Watson stated. “All of us relied on his music manufacturing experience to assist craft these recordings. I used to be fairly happy with the outcomes and I’m excited to see how Charlie’s profession develops sooner or later.” 

Suzi Jacuzzi: Nathan Nykor, Eran Foster, Charlie Kramers, Roisin Miland

Kramers is at present exploring alternatives in sound design and post-production – one other curiosity he found via this system. 

He’s additionally busy singing and taking part in guitar in Suzie Jacuzzi, a band he shaped with buddies he met all through his time learning within the College of Music: Nathan Nykor, MMus’21, Roisin Miland, BMus’21, and Eran Foster, BMus’22.  

In a style they describe as “funky synth indie-pop,” the band has written six authentic songs, which they play at dwell gigs and hope to someday report ─ using skills Kramers honed in a program he beloved. 

“Even with the ups and downs of COVID, all the pieces labored out precisely the way it ought to have,” he stated. “I wouldn’t change a factor.”