A star is born... maybe
Backstreet Boy goes to Main Street to help launch music wannabes
Source: www.courier-journal.com
Behind every gold record is a tinny spool of tape that contains an
artist's first attempt to record a real song.
It's the ultimate "lost cut" -- and Kevin Richardson of the
Backstreet Boys hopes his will stay lost forever.
"It was recorded in the basement of some guy's house in Danville for,
like, a hundred bucks," said Richardson, a Kentucky native who was 13
at the time. "He had no equipment and a piano that was out of tune.
It was horrible. I mean horrible."
A young artist's first demo needn't be a disaster, Richardson said,
nor his first record contract or music publishing deal. Yet all too
many gifted naifs plunge into the pitfalls that await anyone who
dreams of breaking into the music industry.
Predictable but avoidable, those pitfalls can be evaded with a little
basic education. Richardson and former rapper Keith McGuffey are
ready to provide it.
The boyhood friends, both 31, are partners in a new venture they hope
will make Louisville a minimecca for aspiring singers, songwriters,
producers and engineers.
Scheduled to open Aug. 1, The Music Workshop will offer seminars that
teach music-biz basics in a way that shows wannabes how to boost
their chances of becoming the next 50 Cent, P. Diddy or Avril
Lavigne.
"We're not making any promises," said McGuffey, who collaborated with
Richardson on the Danville demo. "What we are going to do is educate
you and give you the tools required to take your talent to the next
level."
There will be three four-week seminars, each costing about $500,
McGuffey said. Recording Industry 101, and Music Publishing and
Songwriting are 12-hour seminars (weekly sessions of about three
hours apiece). Pro Tools 101 is a 24- to 30-hour seminar on how to
operate the predominant software program for digital audio
engineering.
At the end of each seminar, every participant will have a personal
consultation "about where they are and what they need to do to get
where they want to be," said McGuffey, who will handle most of the
consultations and all of The Music Workshop's day-to-day operations.
"Our target audience is anyone in this state and surrounding states
who is interested in the music industry," Richardson said. "You'll
learn everything from how to make a demo, to how to shop a demo, to
how to read a contract, to how to negotiate a contract, to what music
publishing is, what production companies are, what points are � all
the business-side things that a young artist can get lost in."
Richardson knew little about the biz when he got his big break. He
didn't need to. The Backstreet Boys were managed by the husband-and-
wife team who handled New Kids on the Block.
McGuffey, however, was involved in most every detail of his career.
He learned on the job, as do most new artists. But McGuffey's
friendship with Richardson opened a door that most wannabes have to
break down on their own.
"That's where these seminars can be a huge help," McGuffey said. "You
can't just make a demo, send it to a record company and expect
somebody to listen to it. You have to go about it in a certain way."
"You can move to New York, L.A. or Nashville and try to learn the
hard way," Richardson said, "but the music industry is full of sharks
and dead ends. I wish there was somebody who could have showed us the
ropes back when. But there was nothing like this in Kentucky 10 or 15
years ago, and there's nothing now. Well, not until right now."
Opening The Music Workshop marks a homecoming of sorts for Richardson
and McGuffey.
The two met in 1985 when McGuffey, a Danville native, attended a
summer camp that Richardson's father ran for the Episcopal Church in
Daniel Boone National Forest near Beattyville, Ky. The boys
discovered their mutual love of music after a contemporary Christian
rock concert at the camp one day.
"They had a keyboard called a Yamaha DX7," Richardson said. "I'd
never seen one except on MTV. Me and Keith both ran up there and
asked the guy if we could look at it.
"Keith starts playing Van Halen's `Jump,' and I was like, `Wow! You
know that, too?' and I joined right in. We became real good friends
and eventually started writing music together."
McGuffey graduated from Danville High School in 1990, then enlisted
in the Navy.
After graduating from Estill County High in 1989, Richardson moved to
Orlando, where he spent three years acting, singing and masquerading
as Disney characters before hooking up with the Backstreet Boys in
1993.
In 1995, after inviting Richardson's cousin, Brian Littrell of
Lexington, to join, the Boys shipped to Europe to earn their bones
abroad. McGuffey went, too, working first as a security guard and
later as Trey D, whose raps and rhymes landed him a deal with a
German record company.
"I did pretty well over there, but back home, well, it just wasn't a
good time to be a white rapper," said McGuffey, who opened for the
Backstreet Boys at Freedom Hall in 1998. "This was pre-Eminem, of
course, and with all the backlash from Vanilla Ice, it was hard for a
white rapper to get any credibility."
In 1998, after charting a string of top 20 hits in Europe, the
Backstreet Boys went supernova with the single "Everybody
(Backstreet's Back)," which reached No. 4 in the United States.
During the next four years, girls screamed , critics sneered and the
Backstreet Boys soared. With three platinum albums and a succession
of sold-out concerts, the quintet made fans and dollars by the
millions.
They carved a bit of a legacy for themselves as well. According to
VH1 surveys, the Backstreet Boys rank among America's 50 greatest
teen idols, and their song "I Want It That Way" is one of the top 100
tunes of the past 25 years.
After eight grueling years of touring, recording and generally living
la vida loca, the Backstreet Boys decided last year to go on
indefinite hiatus. Richardson was based in Los Angeles; McGuffey was
living in Boston. But when he told Richardson about his idea for The
Music Workshop, there was no doubt that it would be based in
Kentucky.
"This is our home," McGuffey said. "We see this as an opportunity to
shine a spotlight on the area."
Having grown up in central and eastern Kentucky, the friends were
partial to Lexington, but after weighing the pros and cons, they
agreed that Louisville was "in a class by itself," said McGuffey, who
likes Louisville's proximity to other mid-sized metropolises, its
international airport and its thriving cultural scene.
Their decision to set up shop downtown, in the Meyer Building at 624
W. Main St., was purposeful, too.
"Downtown belongs to the whole community, and it's easy to get to
from any part of town," McGuffey said. "We were afraid that if we set
up in the Highlands or something that people would regard it as an
East End thing. It's not."
It's not just a Louisville thing or a pop/rap/hip-hop thing, either.
The Music Workshop is open to anybody from any place and any musical
genre.
All you need is some talent, a dream and, oh yeah, about $500.
Realizing that the tuition might be beyond the means of some gifted
kids -- like the pair who made that awful demo in Danville -- The
Music Workshop plans to give scholarships to a select number of
uncommonly talented high school students.
"There's a lot of talent here in Kentucky -- a lot of talent,"
Richardson said. "We just want to cultivate the talent and help
people achieve their dreams. Because if an old redneck like me can
make it, anybody can. Believe me on that."