Students gather weekly to have a hands on learning experience with music
Late in the evening when campus is growing quiet, electronic music rings through Morton Hall.
Members of the Ohio University Electronic Music Collective gather together Thursdays at 9 p.m. in Morton 237. The group listens, produces and discusses music.
The group began in early 2010 and has since progressed into a learning environment for newcomers and artists familiar with the music, Sam Simpson, a 2014 alumnus and co-founder of the group, said.
“We got a room in Baker (Center) for our first meeting and we all just sat around a table in chairs,” Simpson, who continues to participate in the club, said. “We had a mixer hooked up to a computer, and we we’re DJing one at a time. That’s all the meeting was.”
Since then, president Joshua Smith said the club has developed into an interactive learning environment that also includes organizing events where members of the group can play. Frequently at the meeting, Smith said the group looks at tutorials, watch documentaries about electronic music and discuss new music groups members have made and found.
When a new student comes to club, Smith said he begins by asking what the student is interested in doing and shows him or her the basics.
“We can’t teach them everything during the meeting, so a lot of it is just setting them up so they can learn by themselves in their free time,” Smith, a senior studying philosophy, said.
Blake Wilimitis, a junior studying audio production and treasurer of the club, said the meetings might only have two or more people attend, but regardless, everyone can bounce ideas off of one another.
“You learn a lot. You get some creative ideas, and nobody stays the same,” Wilimitis said. “Whether you’re an artist, producer or anything like that, you’re always learning something new.”
The Electronic Music Collective is a mix of people coming together who wanted to do something with electronic music, but Wilimitis said it goes beyond EDM and the culture surrounding it.
“It’s not just this EDM thing,” he said. “We have a separate club for that. We’re more of the hands on, interactive, one-on-one teaching — whatever you want to know more about within music.”
Before the group began, Simpson said there were a lot of people playing music in their dorm rooms without sharing it with anyone.
“When we created this club, we had a whole bunch of people like that come together,” Simpson said. “You can show someone else the music you're doing … and they’re like ‘Dude, that’s awesome. What if you try this?’ ”
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Simpson said that, for him, electronic music is about creation, and he wants to be able to share that with others — which the club allows him to do.
“When you can create something that’s your favorite thing to listen to and you just listen to it over and over again, that’s the greatest,” he said. “Being able to do that and helping someone else to achieve that is an awesome thing.”
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