FAU's Record Label Hoot/Wisdom Recordings Is Hunting for Talent

FAU's in-house, DIY record label, Hoot/Wisdom Recordings, is looking for new artists to include in the label's fourth installment of their "CompOWLation" series. As before, the casting call extends to FAU and Palm Beach State College students and alumni, as well as FAU faculty and staff.

See also:

- FAU's Hoot/Wisdom Recordings: "The Future of the Music Industry"

The label will consider applications from solo acts and groups (at least one member of which meets the school affiliation requirement). Initial submissions will be submitted on the web and can include originals or covers though, in keeping with the label's mission, those who make the cut will be required to record original material only.

Housed within FAU's Music Department, Hoot/Wisdom is under the ultimate direction of music industry veteran Michael Zager, Director of the school's Commercial Music Program. Faculty supervisor of participating students is chief label audio engineer Alejandro Sánchez-Samper.

This year's will be the fourth CompOWLation album, and they hope to building on previous successes, according to Matt Smith, president of Hoot/Wisdom and 21-year-old commercial music major. He spoke to New Times from West Hollywood, where he was visiting with Alex Kinsey, of the duo Alex & Sierra, who debuted on CompOWLation Vol. 2, won the national television competition The X Factor, and are now under contract with Columbia Records.

"The compilation is a three-semester cycle," Smith said. "One to give the artists time to record their demos and for us to make the selections. Another for the winners to record with us -- these are people, students especially, who can't spend eight hours a day pounding out an album. The last semester is the release and promotion -- we work through the whole commercial process."

The compilation will include 13 cuts, Smith said, each of them by one artist or group working with one of 13 teams of Commercial Music Program students. "It's not genre-specific," Smith said. "We've had EDM, hip-hop, indie, singer-songwriters." Each student team has its particular taste, he said,"but we want each team to give a listen to all the submissions."

And if someone should hit it big? "We own the recording but not the song," Smith said. "And any sales income goes to a scholarship fund."

Hoot/Wisdom is here. Applications for CompOWLation 4 here. Submission deadline is Friday, March 21, at midnight. For more information contact Matt Smith at [email protected] or call the Hoot/Wisdom office at 561-297-4304.

Fire Ant -- an invasive species, tinged bright red, with an annoying, sometimes-fatal sting -- covers politics, activism, the environment and culture in Palm Beach County and elsewhere. Got feedback or a tip? Contact [email protected].

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