Imagine There's a Recording Studio: The Lennon Bus Stops at Bocconi
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Imagine There's a Recording Studio: The Lennon Bus Stops at Bocconi

YESTERDAY A BAND COULD PRODUCE A SONG IN IT AND TODAY BOCCONI STUDENTS CAN TOUR THE BIGGEST RECORDING STUDIO ON WHEELS AT ITS FIRST ITALIAN STOP AND UNDERSTAND HOW A HIGHLY SPECIALIZED PRODUCTION PROCESS WORKS

“What kind of bass distortion do you want?”, asks the engineer. “I want it to be crunchy”, says Davide Felletti, grabbing a Gibson instrument. Davide is a bass player and a Management student. No lessons today though. He’s going to create a new song with his rock band Baudelaire’s Conspiracy and he’s going to do it not far from Bocconi classrooms since one of the world’s biggest recording studios on wheels is parked in Piazza Sraffa. On board, Davide’s brother Giacomo is testing his snare drum and their bandmate Mattia Binaghi is looking for a cello sound on a Roland keyboard. Trumpet player Matt Price is rehearsing his part in an adjacent studio, writing down the notes he’s going to play. Three sound engineers take care of the sound using the Logic Pro X software.
 
Due to the success of their performance at Rock The Campus last September, the Baudelaire’s Conspiracy were selected by a Bocconi committee to board the Lennon Educational Tour Bus, at its first stop in Italy. The side of the bus sports a reproduction of an iconic John Lennon self portrait. The Beatle drew it in 1968, the year he tightened his relationship with his soon to be wife Yoko Ono. Thirty years later, she gave thumbs up to the nonprofit activities of the bus. “This is precisely the kind of project John would have loved”, she said. Launched in 1998 by the New York musician Brian Rothschild, the mobile studio provides secondary school, college and university students with a free hands-on experience in recording and broadcasting. There are two buses, actually, one in the US, one in Europe. “This is a creative lab”, Rothschild says while touring the facility. “Bocconi shapes the leaders of the world to come. They’ll be better leaders if they experience the positive power of creativity”.
 
The bus features high-end musical instruments, all provided by sponsors, two professional studios, a room where videos in chroma key are shot. The Black Eyed Peas used the bus to record Let’s Get It Started which sold more than 3 million copies in the US alone and won a Grammy Award back in 2005. Yesterday, Davide’s band had the chance to produce a new song and shoot a video in HD using cutting-edge equipment worth more than 2 million dollars. “We found a different sound on the Lennon Bus. We would have stayed on board for three days”. Today, October 29, every Bocconi student can tour the facility.
 
A visit to the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus helps to understand that music is not just glamour or stardom. “The entertainment industry has its own production disciplines. It’s an important and dynamic part of the economy”, says Paola Dubini, Director of the Bachelor of Economics for the Arts, Culture and Communication (CLEACC). “Visiting the bus, students have the chance to observe a highly specialized production process. It’s an important learning opportunity for CLEACC students and for anyone studying economics”.

by Claudio Todesco

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