St. Alban's youth launch their CD A-Team.
Ice Capp performs Thursday, Nov. 26 at Trane Studio on Bathurst Street during the St. Alban's Sound Studio release party for its new 15-track CD, 'A-Team'.
Photo/MANNY RODRIGUES
Youth from the St. Alban's Boys and Girls Club gathered at The Trane Studio to celebrate the release of their first independent full-length album.
The CD – titled A-Team – is a compilation of genres by artists 14 to 22 years old .
On Thursday, Nov. 26, the youth took the stage to perform tracks off their CD.
"I'm just happy that we can get together and celebrate all the hard work that we put in the studio," said Serena Nudel, the creative arts co-ordinator at St. Alban's. "All the engineers and producers and youth and the staff at St. Alban's have come a long way, especially with respect to the studio itself. All of the youth have grown so much as artists and we have really formed a creative community there."
Nudel said the idea behind the project was for youth to create music that reflected who they are.
There were about 20 youth who collaborated in some capacity to create A-Team. The young artists worked with a music producer, Fresh Kils, who created a lot of the beats featured on the CD, which featured mostly hip hop, R and B and gospel music.
Alvin Chan, who is also known as Aye Cee, 17, has been going to St. Alban's for more than a year.
"I had a great time doing [the album]," said Chan. " I met a lot of people. Plus it is always fun writing. And working with Fresh Kils was amazing."
The sound studio at St. Alban's is open every night and a professional engineer is available to assist youth in the production of their music. Workshops are also available for youth looking to learn about the studio and music business.
One of the youth artists on the CD is 18-year-old Kerry Alexander, also known as Shif-T, who started going to St. Alban's three years ago to play basketball and socialize.
"As soon as I found out that they had a studio there, I wanted to get involved. I heard about the opportunity so I just hopped on it," Shif-T said, adding that music, especially hip hop, has helped him "get everything out with no limits."
The A-Team project took about six months from start to finish and has helped the youth grow as artists.
"Aye Cee has really shown improvement as an artist in the last year," Nudel said. "He came about a year ago and immediately took every opportunity that he could."
"Shif-T has a lot of really important things to say. And he's really come a long way as a MC. I see him working really hard. And I am really impressed at how hard he works inside and outside of the studio."
St. Alban's Boy's and Girl's club services about 2,000 members a year.