"Even when we didn't want to move
you made us budge and that's real
They don't know what we deal
I'd rather write a rhyme than rob, kill or steal
and that's just coming from the heart of a young man
thanks for providing us this AMPED program"

- Metez from AMPED Camp 2014 freestyle rapping his thank you on July 12, 2014 Central Park, Louisville (watch video clip)

Music changes lives. This summer a group of Louisville musicians, engineers, videographers, music therapists, and even chefs banded together to give our kids an opportunity to write, record, and perform their own songs. In just 4 weeks, 18 kids recorded three songs in Level Seven Recording studios. 

Their songs were honest, inspiring, and fun (you can hear them by watching the music videos on the gallery).  Meals were donated, engineers and videographers sacrificed several nights of sleep, and volunteers kept showing up to show these 18 at risk youth how much this community cared for them. 

These talented kids also did their part to make the program a success. They entered the program as strangers and left as friends, cooperating in groups through a creative process of songwriting. They served the community by volunteering to help New Legacy on a Saturday morning. Finally, they worked hard as individual artists, many without previous musical training, to gain confidence needed to perform their music in front hundreds of audience members in Central Park on July 12th.  

 In a surprise thank you speech that followed their performance, one young musician thanked AMPED for changing her life. Please help us make this program available to hundreds more young people in Louisville by contributing to this campaign...every dollar helps us make music together...and change lives. 

About AMPED:

AMPED– Academy of Music Production Education and Development is a social entrepreneurial youth music program by Level Seven Recording Studios in Louisville. 

AMPED  provides a safe environment for youth to explore their creativity through music. We provide free access to education, instruments, music therapy, technology, and performance opportunities for Louisville’s at risk youth, ages 12 – 17 years of age, both male and female to thrive through the power of music.

We are located in an ideal space in a central location in Old Louisville (1115 Garvin) that has an entire second floor available for use.  The existing space has a fully functional recording studio run by Level Seven Recording Studios, as well as the potential to expand to over a dozen private rooms, two bathrooms, a large multi-purpose room and access to a commercial kitchen. The owner of the studio, Dave Christopher is one of the founding members and Executive Director of AMPED and has agreed to provide both personal support and allow AMPED to utilize Level Seven’s resources to try to generate musician involvement and for teaching purposes for the kids. We envision trading studio/rehearsal time with local musicians for their mentorship and instructional time spent with the kids in the form of a time bank. 

On June 19^th, AMPED launched our first program with a group of 18 young people (ages 12-17) to participate in a four-week songwriting/recording program focused on music composition, recording and performance.  The program allowed these kids to write their own music and record their songs in Level Seven Recording Studios with professional engineers  who volunteered their time for the production. Huston Productions volunteered to shoot music videos for each song, that the kids directed. On July 12^th, we held a concert in Old Louisville at Central Park as an opening act for Shakespeare in the Park's Hamlet. AMPED kids performed with a live band, sold their CDs and t-shirts and hosted a BBQ  to fundraise for a second summer program. 

The summer program is only the beginning of many more positive programs that AMPED will bring to the community. Our space will allow any child to feel safe and be inspired to be creative while learning tangible business and technical skills. Our young members will become empowered through opportunities to study an instrument, discover new musical genres, schedule artists to perform at our in-studio concerts/recordings, help promote up-and-coming musicians, and fundraise for AMPED by honing sales and marketing skills to sell sponsorships to local businesses for recording sessions. Music therapy and other activities, including up cycling projects and gardening may supplement the music-intensive program with other outlets for community building and entrepreneurial training. Finally, the program will encourage its members to take ownership of the space and neighborhood through community service projects. 

We are also creating partnerships with programs such as Right Turn, Transformations, ERC, Metros’s department for safe neighborhoods and others to gain access to those at risk youth that we will be serving in our AMPED Program. We are focusing on those inner city youth that are in great need of guidance and discipline. Our goal is to serve between 100 to 150 youth in the first year and to double that number in the following year.

During a recent discussion with members of a  popular band from Louisville, we learned about a non-profit called Air Traffic Control to locate organizations like AMPED in the cities where they tour. Other touring musicians have remarked that the cities they remember the most from time spent on the road are the ones that they get a chance to work with kids. We intend to work with touring musicians passing through Louisville to earn income for operational expenses. Musicians are already excited for an experience of spending time talking to our kids and recording a special live session with them involved in the production. These sessions will be called AMPED Up! Studio Concert Series. These videos will have the potential to go viral online as these musicians continue their national or international tours. Forecastle Founder JK McKnight  connected us to Preservation Hall Jazz Band for our first “in studio” performance on June 19^th, sponsored by the Preservation Hall Foundation in New Orleans.

We appreciate your support in this venture and are excited to discuss how we can work together to help change the lives of our youth in the most positive ways. We thank New Legacy (501 (c) 3) for being our Fiscal Sponsor and housing this program in their building in 1115 Garvin Pl.  The money raised from this campaign will be used to run a second summer program for more kids and fund a program that will run throughout the upcoming school year. 

Below are some areas for how the funds will allocated: