While students spend their college years at FAU, the idea of a record label on campus might never pop into a student’s mind. For students interested in getting involved into the realms of the music industry, the label offers ways to gain hands on experience.

“The goal behind Hoot/Wisdom Recordings is to provide practical real world experience in the production, marketing of sound recording,” said Alejandro Sanchez, faculty advisor of Hoot/Wisdom Records.  

Students at FAU that are a part of the commercial music major are required to work at the record label for three semesters through the commercial music forum class. After they are done with the required amount of semesters, they are free to continue working with the label if they so chose to.

“Most of the people that are on the board of Hoot Wisdom right now have already completed their three semester requirement,” Sanchez said. “They’re actually doing this because they believe in Hoot Wisdom, not because it’s just a mandate for the class.”

The label is open to all students of FAU, no matter the major or area of concentration of the student. Students can contact the label on their website to submit recordings to them.

“One of the things we’re always doing every semester is trying to get the student body to get to know us more,” Sanchez said. “ The best way to do that is through maintaining some [highly] visible events on campus.”

Another way the label has been getting students through word of mouth on campus and in the surrounding areas. Sam Miller, president of Hoot Wisdom, said that he would walk around the Breezeway or throughout campus and spot students playing music.

“I’ll walk up to them and say did you know about Hoot Wisdom, and we’ve gotten artists that way,” Miller said. “I’ve gotten DM’s on Instagram like hey could you tell me more about [Hoot Wisdom] , and then people get interested.”

Kasi Roberts, director of publicity of Hoot Wisdom, agreed that word of mouth helps a lot in getting the label more exposure.

“All the friends that I’ve met at FAU, they just know somebody that knows somebody,” Roberts said. “It’s just cool to be able to get the word out and help people be part of it.”

At Hoot Wisdom Records, artists are given a single song agreement. The artist is given a student team: sound engineer and producers, along with people gaining experience in marketing and promotion. The idea is to produce and record a song but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

“It is complicated because we’re dealing with humans,” Sanchez said. “People have egos and busy schedules, students sometimes aren’t the most organized.”

Part of Sanchez’s role as faculty advisor is to keep everybody honest and do the damage control when things don’t flow correctly. It’s a learning process for students to go through the damage control process so they can learn.

A former student of Hoot Wisdom was an artist manager for a group that was on the label. On the day of the group’s EP release, they broke up. Sanchez talked to the student about the situation and it became a learning experience for them. That student went on to later become an A&R, artists and repertoire for Atlantic Records. A&R’s are the people at a record label who find new artists and sign them to the label.

“How nice it was to be able to screw up,” Sanchez said. “Things happen in an environment in which you have the ability to correct [a situation] and you’re not going to get fired, in that type of scenario.”

While being a part of Hoot Wisdom Records exciting things can pop up, just ask Miller and Roberts. 

Miller said that the most exciting was when the history department came to Michael Zager, director of the commercial music program, about creating a concert for a Sullivan Memorial. They asked Zager to create a band for a performance with the theme of Woodstock.

“I was part of [Hoot Wisdom] and that’s how they found me,” Miller said. “I was able to bring some of my family into it and friends on stage with me and we put on this big show.” 

For Roberts, the most exciting moment at the label was being able to be a judge and take part in Atlantic Idol. 

“It was just a really awesome experience being able to put ourselves out there and seeing all this new talent,” Roberts said. “Seeing all these opportunities that we had to work with other people.”

Students can contact the label on their website to submit recordings to them.

Natalia Ribeiro is a News Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet her @nataliar_99