We began our musical relationship with Sydney Taylor and her mother Cheryl and father James late last year. At the time Sydney was 10 years old and had already started a long resume of accomplishments in community theater. In Nov 2007 Sydney met with representatives of Warner Brothers Records and Fahrenheit Media Group in New York. They were very impressed with her talent and suggested that she begin recording in a studio and honing her craft as a pop vocalist. After looking at studios in the metro area large and small they turned to the comfortable atmosphere and production talents of Tom DeStefano and Kevin Booth at Firedog Studios. Sydney had written song lyrics and presented them to Tom and Kevin who wrote the music and hired session musicians Ingo Marte(www.myspace.com/drummingo ) and Frank Ulatowski (www.franklovesguinness.com ) to play on the track. Tom and Kevin also performed guitar and percussion as well and her sister Brittany joining in on backup vocals. You can hear it on Sydney(myspace.com/sydneytaylor) or Firedogs (myspace.com/firedogstudios) Myspace sites. After finishing the recording Tom and Kevin organized a showcase show at Espresso Joes in Keyport NJ. were Sydney performed the song live.

Since completing the recording at the studio Sydney has auditioned for television commercials, movies, broadway productions and is working with Broadway Producer Ron Sharpe and is now managed by KRS/Dreamlife Management. She hopes to return to the studio to record more material but is currently very busy with her producer and Management teams schedule. We are very proud of Sydney and her many accomplishments and wish her the best in the future.

 

Firedog Studios has always offered training classes on engineering and recording, but recently we have extended our services to consulting and on-site customized training.  One of the first exciting endeavors of 2008 was the opportunity to teach at a local high school. 

 

James Craft the music instructor from Sayreville High School started an exciting new class during the past school year called the "Recording and Entertainment Productions Workshop".  Mr. Craft brought Tom DeStefano (owner of Firedog Studios) on board to assist with the Recording and distribution aspect of releasing a CD.

 
Tom advised on the purchase of new equipment, helped with teaching the Engineering students the basics of the recording software "Pro Tools",
and assisted with recording and mixing the songs for the project. 

 

Mr. Craft states, "Your great knowledge of recording techniques and ProTools were two of the cornerstones to our debut CD release of [Insert Title Here].  It was with great pleasure and pride that I was able to watch the students of SWMHS use their newly-learned technical skills to create new works of art.  It is the epitome of what education is about."

 

The class released a cd of songs recorded from various live events and recording sessions in May 2008.  They also organized a live concert as a
CD release party in Kennedy Park, across from the Sayreville War Memorial High School.  Check out a full article on the class and the cd release party they had at the end of the school year.
Article

To help support the class please purchase the cd contact:
james.craft@sayrevillek12.net or contact@firedogstudios.com
Interested in personalized training or our consulting services?  Contact the studio for details.