With the new semester underway, Monmouth University’s student-led record label is back for its seventh consecutive semester! For those who have never heard of Blue Hawk Records, the on-campus record label was founded by Monmouth students back in 2013 with the help of professor and Chair of the Music Department, Joe Rapolla. Since then, the Music Industry students of Blue Hawk Records have released an album every fall and spring semester, and most recently, their first summer album.
At the beginning of each semester, the Blue Hawk team holds auditions to decide who will be featured on that semester’s compilation. While the auditions used to be exclusive to music majors, Blue Hawk Five, released Spring 2015, opened up auditions to the entire school. The album boasted diversity with artists like Brian Perrino, a mathematics major, and Tatiana Walia, a criminal justice major.
This semester, Blue Hawk is following the same format and opening up auditions to all students and alumni of Monmouth University. After the auditions, the chosen artists will participate in discussions about the album and head to Lakehouse Recording Studio, a world-class professional studio located in Asbury Park.
Although the Blue Hawk team has consistently released great albums, the team itself is always changing. As students cycle out of the course linked with the label and graduate from Monmouth, new students take over where the previous leaders left off. Students involved with Blue Hawk gain all kinds of valuable experience in areas like A&R, marketing, recording, mastering, live show production, and working with the media.
Everyone is excited to see what Blue Hawk Records has planned for the Fall 2015 semester. If you are interested in auditioning, please email bluehawkrecords@gmail.com. They can also answer any questions you may have about the audition process or certain accompaniment and instrument needs. The auditions will be held at Woods Theatre on Monday, Sept. 28, at 7 pm. If you aren’t interested in becoming a Blue Hawk Records artist, you can still come out to the Fall 2015 album release show, which will be held on Dec. 9, 2015 (location TBD).
IMAGE TAKEN from bluehawkrecords.com
