VOODIS
A creative collective
Voodis is a collective for artists to create art through improvisation and collaboration. We aim to show the world a new way of creating and that everyone deserves a way to express their creativity.
We create art that is an expression of our lives, ideas and identities. We do this in many different art forms: from music to fashion to film, photography and studio art.
Voodis was founded by pianist/creative director Jonah Trudeau and bassist/producer Liam Phillips in 2020. Check out our last album Sound of the Record here. Check out our website here.
TRIFECTA (2020)
K.I.D.$. (2019)
CREATING A JAZZ ALBUM
I have always loved to create. I love to be able to call something my own and share my experience and process with other people. I feel my second album, “K.I.D.$.” is my biggest accomplishment thus far and the work I am most proud of.
“K.I.D.$.” includes five songs, features seven youth musicians and can be found on all major streaming services including iTunes and Spotify: https://soundcloud.com/user-552391622/sets/kid
Creating this album took a lot of creativity, problem-solving, perseverance and drive. I spent about five months total on it and I released it spring 2019. Here is the process broken down:
I chose which songs I wanted to record, coordinated the instrumentation and decided who I wanted to play those instruments. I chose students/peers from Austin high schools to play cello, drums, saxophone, trumpet, vocals and bass.
I scheduled practice times, arranged the pieces, and began transcriptions and mastery for each song on piano. I set up weekly rehearsals according to our school schedules, decided what I wanted the album name to be, and who I wanted to use as a music distributor.
Finding a place to record was extremely difficult. I had many studios and back up locations fall through, and had a hard time finding a place that I could afford. I reached out to several musicians for mentoring and finally found a contact who would help me record for an extremely reasonable rate.
I then figured out my overall budget for distribution, recording, marketing and miscellaneous costs. The recording studio was by far the most expensive part of my project (I borrowed $200 from my dad). I negotiated the rate and I ended up only being able to reserve it for a day. This limited time made it very stressful.
Next, I coordinated a day to record with all the musicians. When the day arrived, I arranged the food situation for the band members as well as equipment, transportation and many other details. We successfully recorded our five songs from 8 AM to 7 PM that day. It was amazing that we were able to accomplish this, but I also learned a lot. This was not something I ever wanted to try again; it’s much better to have more time to record and to not feel so rushed.
After all the music was recorded, I sent it to Drew Womack, a local musician and mentor and then went to his home studio to mix it and learn about the process and discuss my artistic choices. I enjoyed the collaboration and mentorship during this stage as it gave me a lot of freedom for creative expression and how I wanted the music to sound.
I hired a talented high school friend to design the album cover (he’s now at the Rhode Island School of Design) and worked with him on my vision.
I obtained the rights to distribute the music, and started the painstakingly long process with CD Baby to work through all the informational errors. I had to solve issues concerning rights to the music and navigate the process without any support or guidance.
Once everything was successfully uploaded, I set an album release date and began working on publicity. This involved a photo shoot, updating social media and streaming services, creating an advertisement and planning a social media campaign to run through my friends’ and families’ channels. The promotional campaign led up to the release, with a last final push on the release date 4/2019.