David Cassidy on the Web
Recording studio rocks, rolls at festival
May 21, 1999
www.lasvegassun.com
Corey Solomon's dreams came true in the back of a bus Thursday.
The 42-year-old Las Vegas songwriter won the opportunity to make a high-tech, professional demo tape of one of his songs inside the John Lennon bus, a mobile recording studio on display at the EAT'M festival until Sunday.
Solomon's day job is selling real estate, but his passion is writing songs. He's been doing it for about 30 years, he said. That's what drew him to The Mirage resort for EAT'M, an annual conference featuring panel discussions about the music business and showcases up-and-coming songwriters and musicians.
Conference participants on Wednesday signed up for a drawing in which the winner received a free, two-hour recording session in the Lennon bus. Solomon said he was floored when he got the call Thursday morning that said he'd won.
He stepped through the doors of the bus at straight-up 3 o'clock, flushed, breathless and ready to court destiny.
"I am totally stoked. I'm thrilled," Solomon said -- about a dozen times.
His hands shook a little as he switched off the cell phone and beeper that connected him with reality and slung an electric guitar over his shoulder. Two hours later, he would emerge with a recording of his song that undoubtedly sounded better than the one tucked away in his briefcase.
"I've never recorded before, except for this one where I set the recorder on the dresser and played into the mike -- you know, where you have to hold the guitar back because it's louder than your voice," Solomon told producer Guy Marshall.
Can't play the guitar well enough to record the song? Marshall will do it. Can't sing harmony? Marshall will do it. Need to punch up those lyrics a little? Marshall can do that, too. Helping artists be the best they can be is his job.
"We'll spend two hours tracking the best thing you have," Marshall told Solomon. "I want you to be sweating with passion. This can be a life-altering experience for you."
The mobile studio was created for the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which honors top amatuer songwriters in 12 categories each year, said John Rothschild, executive director of the bus.
The contest is well advertised in music industry magazines, but Rothschild wanted something unusual and three-dimensional to get the attention of even more people.
The rolling recording studio was his idea.
"I wanted something you could actually see and touch," Rothschild said.
The bus typically hits the road from January through August, visiting high schools and colleges across the country and making appearances at music festivals, Rothschild said.
The school visits allow budding songwriters to learn how a recording studio works, see the options it provides and encourages them to push their creativity, he said.
They get to make recordings -- even those who haven't sung or played an instrument before -- and take the recordings with them. And it's all free.
At festivals, the bus provides established artists the opportunity to work together just for fun.
At midnight Thursday, Cirile and his crew set microphones in the parking lot of The Mirage to record Las Vegas residents and visitors singing, "Message to the World."
The song, written by Las Vegas residents and celebrities David and Sue Cassidy, is being recorded in cities throughout the country for a CD that will be sold to raise money for children in war-torn Kosovo.
