By: Sophie Barth
Aspiring musicians have many options once they decide to produce an album, but the demands of putting out a CD take their toll on student performers.
Ty Turley-Trejo released his first album in November. This religious CD, inspired by the experience of the Martin handcart company, took four months to record.
'The actual recording is painstakingly difficult,' said Turley-Trejo, media music major from Temecula, Calif. 'It's an intricate and extensive process.'
Turley-Trejo used a professional recording engineer to help him put together his CD. He recorded his piano and vocal tracks in Spanish Fork, where an engineer synced the different tracks to produce a product Turley-Trejo could be happy with.
A song the public hears from any artist is usually made up of five or six tracks synced together, said Turley-Trejo.
'That's the interesting thing with live performances,' he said. 'I think I'm a better live performer because of the emotion, but that's the job of a good engineer. They need to mix the tracks in a way that preserves the emotion.'
After the engineering process, selling CDs is not an easy endeavor - especially for a full-time student.
'Right now it's a one- man show,' Turley-Trejo said. 'It's taking a toll on me.'
Turley-Trejo's marketing strategy consists of placing his music in the BYU bookstore, playing it on LDS radio stations, selling it online (including I-Tunes), and by word-of-mouth distribution.
'Doing that with my major, church and work has proven to be difficult as I try to manage my time,' he said.
The Tengelsen's road to release followed a different course. Daniel Tengelsen, an 'acoustics major with an acoustic guitar' from Bozeman, Mont., engineered the brothers' CD himself.
The brothers recorded their CD in one of Daniel Tengelsen's professor's studio. Tengelsen said he wasn't planning on doing all the engineering himself, but his mentor demanded it.
'We needed a place to record Ben's songs, and I knew Bart ,' Tengelsen said. 'Bart is a great teacher. He wanted me to learn, and I had the opportunity not to just see, but be involved in a project from start to finish because I was the one that was doing it.'
Tengelsen said he banked on the experience of his mentor to override his own inexperience.
While the Tengelsens are using word-of-mouth to distribute their album (which feature original graphic design by Ben) before Ben Tengelsen leaves on his mission, they are also leaning on their last live Provo performance, Daniel Tengelsen said.
Randi Losen, a student from Fargo, N.D. at the Provo College of Massage Therapy, fell into recording her 'folkish' songs.
'I started recording when people asked me for a copy of music,' Losen, said. 'For me it's very laid back and not a big deal. This way, they can have a little of piece of Randi with them wherever they go.'