COMPTON — Something more than food will be served up at the local Salvation Army. Known for its soup kitchen by those who use it, it is now preparing to serve up rhymes out of its newly constructed recording studio.

The studio was the brainchild of former Capt. Martin Ross, who oversaw the facility for seven years before moving to another location less than a month ago.

“The idea came about from reaching out to kids,” Ross said. “Not everyone does sports, but in our community we have a lot of kids that play sports or they play music. Everyone is listening to music. Compton has so much talent and potential. It’s also a hip-hop maker.

“We thought this would be a great way to get kids … into the hip-hop culture and provide them a safe place and take music back to the way it used to be, where you could play [songs] for your mom, play it for your grandmother or any common person on the street who wants to hear your talent.”

“We don’t want to put people down, we want to lift people up. And this is what we are trying to do with the studio,” he added. “We figure if you can get into the hearts and minds of kids by earning the right to speak, then we can steer them into other directions like music education. We want them to apply these skills to economics, to business.”

Unsure how to get the project off the ground, Ross reached out to a contact he met while engaging in a program aimed at cleaning up Compton. That contact happened to be the cousin of Steve Wimberly, who is currently the music director of the recording studio at the Salvation Army. Wimberly once owned a number of recording studios in Hollywood until a year ago when he decided to quit the business.

Ross’ plan was just to visit Wimberly’s studio, located on Highland and Fountain avenues, to get an idea of what their studio should look like and what equipment would be needed. But the relationship did not go much further until last September when Wimberly contacted Ross looking to sell and donate some of his equipment.

“I started doing a lot of that jerk music for real quick money,” Wimberly said. “I started listening to the lyrics and I couldn’t do it anymore. This isn’t why I started doing music. The lyrics are bad, man. The beats might be cool and get you going but as a grown man with children … I have to be the best dad I can be. What kind of person would I be putting this music out and [having] them get a hold of it. When I saw the effect that it had on my son at 8 years old … I just saw how easily it captivated these kids. Then I was recording this girl about 17. I couldn’t believe the stuff that was coming out of her mouth. I could see her whole future. I quit. It got dark for me. I felt real convicted.”

Seizing the opportunity, Ross offered Wimberly a job — though he could not pay him — to oversee the music aspect of their operations once the studio was structured. Wimberly now gets paid through a one-year internship with AmeriCorps’ engineering division.

When he showed up in February, the studio “was still a skeleton,” Wimberly said. With a healthy grant from the Mustard Seed Foundation, a faith-based organization, they were able to purchase equipment and building materials. And an old mixing board was donated by a citizen.

Still they did not have enough to hire a crew to construct it. With Wimberly’s knowledge — as well as those who knew a lot about handiwork — volunteers and those needing to complete community service put the studio together themselves. And on June 15, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to mark its opening.

According to Wimberly, there is already a waiting list of about 20 people. The studio will be open once their final piece of equipment is received, a Digi 003, Pro Tools recording system.

Thus far, the studio has a vocal room with a microphone and a mic stand, as well as a control or engineering room with a mixing board and a highly equipped laptop.

At least one song has made its way out of the studio so far. The first person to step foot in the booth and record was Carmen Ross, Ross’ daughter. It is a Christian song that does not trail behind more traditional gospel songs, rather it comes off with a more modern pop/R&B edge. The 17-year-old teen, whose target audience is youth and young adults, wanted to send a message; that it is “not about fame or fortune, it’s about G.O.D.,” say her lyrics.

Wimberly created the beat and produced the song, while Carmen and her father wrote the lyrics.

“It feels really good,” Carmen Ross said. “I feel blessed that I was given the opportunity to be the first to record in there and create music for God. It has been a long time coming, building the studio and getting everything together.
“Music is such a tool. It speaks to people, it changes people. Whenever I hear a really good song, whether it’s the melody or the riff or the words put together, I can get excited with the song and feel encouraged. It can help you through the good times, whether they are good or bad.”

Wimberly thought the studio would just peak the interest of teenagers and young adults, but he has found people in their 50s or older reaching out to get session times. Churches have also been inquisitive.

For this, the studio will be all-inclusive, open to people of all ages and ethnicities.

There will always be at least two adults present in the studio to provide oversight and assure that music with the wrong message does not make its way out of the studio. While Wimberly will be one person supervising, others will likely be faith-based leaders or members.

The local Salvation Army, which has a chapel on its premises, wants to present a clean image. Cursing is not allowed on the grounds, though an occasional youth may toss a profanity out now and again. Nor are youth’s pants allowed to sag.

“We will allow any type of music as long as it’s clean,” said Wimberly. “We have to stand for something. It will have to meet someone’s approval. It has to be clean, neutral music. We don’t want to promote drugs, violence and sex because the whole element that comes with that is different. But we welcome people to come in.”

For those not seeking to make music, hands will be on deck to teach them how to engineer and structure a song so that they leave with a skill set, Wimberly said.

One of the helpers at the studio will be Compton resident Steven Russell, a member of the 1990s R&B group, Troop. Since then Russell has been songwriting and producing for talents in the music industry such as Mario, B2K, Chris Brown, Tyrese, Omarion and Frankie J.

Russell is expected to do some recording of his own and help behind the scenes when possible.

In addition, he wants “mainly to endorse the studio and possibly bring some positive attention from other known acts there,” he said. “I think it’s one of the most positive things that can go on because so many kids love music on so many different levels. It makes their dreams tangible. It doesn’t seem so far-fetched when you can go somewhere and record something and hear yourself. It is a great motivator.”

Future plans will be to turn a spacious room in front of the current studio into one that can be used to play and record live instruments, that will later be used to produce beats and act as a backdrop to artists’ lyrics.

The vocal room, which Wimberly hopes to expand, “will be large enough that you can get with the local churches, rent it to them and they could put their choirs inside there,” he said. “We could then record the choirs and they could use that to fundraise. They can pay us a nominal fee to use the studio and in return maybe complete a Christmas project. They leave with a product, then they can take their product and sell it to their church members.”

Fees have yet to be decided, but according to Wimberly they will be roughly between $10 to $12.50 per hour. Recording hours are expected to be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Once the live studio room is complete, fees for that section may be higher, though still reasonable.