Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Spy Hop: Making Music, Changing Lives
Spy Hop/Open Mic
Script / final
Intro:
Think for a moment about high school…and the intensity of that time in life. The thrill of making new friends…the heartbreaks. The struggle of trying to “figure it all out.” An arts organization in Salt Lake City is harnessing the power of music to help teens do just that…by setting their personal narratives to lyrics and a beat. Their program is called “Open Mic”… it’s free…and it’s available to any teen who walks through the door of a place called Spy Hop. The Western Folklife Center’s Taki Telonidis has the story.
-------------
SOUND: (SpyHop_16@:18) Kids Hey…hello…greetings/// Matt: hey anybody feel like singing.
TAKI: The Open Mic program is held each Friday afternoon…and on this day the place is crammed with kids who’ve come in to work on songs. Some arrive in groups…others alone. Some pull out dog-eared notepads and work on lyrics…
SOUND: SpyHop_18@ :50 boy & girl singing & writing
TAKI: While others sit down at computers and create beats for their songs.
SOUND: bit of beat SpyHop_10@ 5:10
TAKI: Spy Hop gets its name from something whales and dolphins do. A Spy Hop is that lurch they make out of the water for a second or two…to get their bearings and figure out where they’re going. And it’s a fitting name for an organization dedicated to helping kids find their way. Spy Hop’s motto is “empowering youth through multi-media” and they offer classes on documentary film making, graphic and web design…in addition to audio recording and music production. These formal classes cost money…but Open Mic is free…and there’s no obligation to come back on a regular basis. Just show up, record, and walk away with your CD.
CD#2- I See The Beauty (top) Life is a …there is much to see…not the way I choose to be..
ACT: (TT_Mateus@ 8:40) They all had so much talent…and it was very raw. And you could take that and focus it a little bit.
TAKI: That’s Matt Mateus…programs director at Spy Hop. He started Open Mic 6 years ago.
ACT: (TT_Mateus@8:40) You see these kids with so much potential, and somebody hasn't given them the direction to say hey let's try it this way, or let's help them figure out what they’re trying to say.
TAKI: Part of doing that says Mateus…is setting boundaries..because when you simply fling open the doors to anybody…
ACT: (TT_Mateus@ 12:0)) A lot of stuff comes thru that’s really inappropriate. Whether it’s homophobic, or ultraviolent, or misogynistic is probably the biggest one…it takes a lot of education to even let these young musicians know that’s what they’re doing.
TAKI: Another thing Open Mic insists on is that kids write music from personal experience…not from what they see and hear on TV. But sometimes that experience can be harsh.
MUSIC: Glass / opening guitar strumming
ACT: (TT_Mateus@ 18:44) MM- There’s a really amazing songwriter Joel..he’s in a wheelchair & he was in an accident when he was really young and it paralyzed him. And he came in and we recorded him singing & playing..and he has some really goofy songs about cultural characters…he has this song about Julia Roberts that’s hilarious…and about how he’s a geek and he has this geeky band. And then out of nowhere he says he’s got one more song…can I play this song? And it’s called Glass.
MUSIC: Glass verse 1- “My parents broke up, and me and my friends broke up, and then I woke up in a hospital bed.”
ACT: (TT_Mateus@ 20:00) MM- He tells his story about the car accident that he got into, and the situation with his parents and how they got divorced. It was just amazing.
MUSIC: Glass, chorus 1- “I don’t mean to complain, I will accept this pain. But I miss climbing trees..and not knowing of birds & bees. Glass…”
ACT: (TT_Mateus@ 19:43) MM- We were all crying in the studio. It happens all the time, it’s horrible. It’s like we’re trying to be cool and be mentors and be tough and I’m in tears listening to this song.
TAKI: Mateus has been moved by many of the stories kids have brought through SpyHop’s doors. Not long after Open Mic started…he noticed it was attracting kids who were different from the students who attended the formal classes.
ACT: (TT_Mateus@5:55)MM- We saw a lot of tougher kids come in. ///13:57 Refugees, and kids that have been in gangs…or foster care. Their parents are in jail or on drugs…and their stories are amazing.
ACT: (JJohnson05@ 21:45) They call me Jeremy J Johnson..AKA Native Son..when I get up on the mic that’s what they call me.
TAKI: Jeremy’s 22 now, but was in high school when he first discovered Open Mic. He was born on the Navajo reservation…and proudly wears a medallion with an Indian chief over his baggy T-shirt. Jeremy left the reservation years ago…and after a stint in New Mexico…moved to Salt Lake to live with his aunt.
ACT: (JJohnson01@ 21:18) JJ- She had 5 kids…5 kids a single mother…3 of those 5 kids there was 3 different dads and none of those dads even helped. Auntie got pregnant again..aaahhhgg…dude didn’t even help her..six kids from age 12 down. We were just living really poor…baby sitting all the time…never had time to hang out with friends…gotta cook. I was just stuck.
TAKI: Jeremy was always into music…he’d work out lyrics and rhymes at night when he had a little time to himself. Then one Friday afternoon, a buddy told him about Open Mic.
ACT: (JJohnson01@ 25:18) JJ- He was making it sound like the bomb..there’s turntables, mad MC’s they got a recording studio..they got everything. And I was like dang..let’s go..I wanna go.
MUSIC: Relax Your Mind- I gotta a lot of things changing in my life…
ACT: (JJohnson05@ 2:35) JJ- The first time I wrote that song..I wanted to show the world. I wanted to show everybody I came in contact with..I even tried playing it over the phone to people. I was just so motivated…I was just like YES!
MUSIC: Relax My Mind @:55 end with ‘recording confessions whem the mic is on. ‘
ACT: (JJohnson05@ 7:55) JJ- I love writin’ music cuz it makes me think about the situation a little bit more. It’s not just being mad, and hittin’ walls and running out the door. Now it was just like being mad and I had to dissect it…I had to dissect it all the way down ///7:08 Like you know how people scream into pillows and everything. Well screamin’ in the mic was my thing.
TAKI: And it became his thing week after week…month after month. . Sometimes his songs were lighthearted ...he wrote a song about Scooby Doo… and sometimes they were deadly serious.
MUSIC: Only for the Wise- I see a lot of kids taking drugs…
ACT: (JJohnson05@ 36:30) JJ- That song is called Only4TheWise, and I made that song because I went to a party with a friend, and he was all taking prescription drugs that he stole from his mom. And he died right in my arms. Foaming from the mouth…next thing you know that foam got bloody. And I was drunk…and we’re not supposed to be drinking. All these things goin’ through my head, and I’m like ‘don’t die on me!’ Called the ambulance..they got there and pronounced him dead right there..And I was just blown away.
MUSIC: Only for the Wise@ 2:02 Let me make this make this perfectly..when my Homey passed on…
ACT: (JJohnson05@ 41:00) JJ- God must have been looking upon me, cuz once I made that song and I pushed it out on my mix tape…I had 2 cousins call me and saying ‘yo that song saved my life. Just what you said & they even said my lyrics…and they’re like..that song stopped me from taking drugs. Cuz she’s like you made it and I know you. That’s what kinda music I want.
TAKI: Jeremy’s story is a testament to the power of Open Mic. With help from Matt Mateus Jeremy received a scholarship to attend the formal audio recording classes at Spy Hop. And for the past year he’s run a program similar to Open Mic at the local Boys and Girls Club… helping the next generation find their voice..and put it to music.
MUSIC: Instrumental music
ACT: (JJohnson05@ 28:08) JJ- Spyhop..what can I say about it? ///31:10 They gave me love, they gave me passion, they gave me compassion. They gave me sanity. Spy Hop basically saved my life and my perspective about life.
MUSIC: Instrumental ends
TAKI: For NPR News, I’m TT in Salt Lake City.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prod Credit: Our story was produced by Hal Cannon of the Western Folklife Center.
Funding Credit: R Harold Burton Foundation
