Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Even Antarctica

RPM Challenge offers no prizes, but they throw a participants party!
RPM Challenge offers no prizes, but they throw a participants party!

Tim Mudd gets up at 4:30 every morning and begins writing music in his University Heights home studio. Mick Van Dyck of North Park carves blocks of recording time out of his work days. Chris Carnelian lives in University Heights and sequesters himself “in my second bedroom with my equipment. And some movies.” Alastair Kilpatrick of Clairemont (by way of Edinburgh, Scotland) has no songwriting regimen but admits that the temptation to “fill whatever remaining time with a long ambient piece” grows stronger toward the end of the month.

Why? Because the RPM (Record Production Month) Challenge is on during the month of February. Now in its tenth year, the challenge of the Challenge is to write and record ten songs (or 35 minutes) of new and original material in 28 days. This year, over 1000 bands and singer/songwriters have committed; more than a few of them are San Diegans. Karen Marzloff, 47, cofounded the Challenge in Portsmouth, NH a decade ago.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“We threw out the challenge to our local community here in February, when there’s five feet of snow outside.” That was in 2006. “The second year, we opened it up to the rest of the world. We had people signing up from all seven continents. Even Antarctica. Someone on base there sent us an entry.” Heavy metal, she recalls. “The idea is to make this a fun place for creativity that’s not a contest or a battle of the bands. It’s free for musicians to participate.” Marzloff says that RPM itself is funded through sponsorships and donations.

The RPM Challenge is like a contest, she explains, albeit one with no winners or prizes. The rules are strict: writing and recording can only be done in the month of February. No prerecorded songs are allowed, and all material must be previously unreleased. Have any of the entrants taken their completed albums on to greater success? “We try hard not to prioritize that,” Marzloff says, “but, I know of an off-Broadway show that came out of an entry,” and she says that more than one band has been formed post Challenge.

Van Dyck, 33, hopes to make his ten songs the touring foundation of his new prog-metal band. Kilpatrick, 29, claims to have finished an album a year for each of the eight years he’s entered. “It’s a great motivation to actually work on something new.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pacific Beach – car thief's paradise

Take photos of your automobile and license plate
Next Article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
RPM Challenge offers no prizes, but they throw a participants party!
RPM Challenge offers no prizes, but they throw a participants party!

Tim Mudd gets up at 4:30 every morning and begins writing music in his University Heights home studio. Mick Van Dyck of North Park carves blocks of recording time out of his work days. Chris Carnelian lives in University Heights and sequesters himself “in my second bedroom with my equipment. And some movies.” Alastair Kilpatrick of Clairemont (by way of Edinburgh, Scotland) has no songwriting regimen but admits that the temptation to “fill whatever remaining time with a long ambient piece” grows stronger toward the end of the month.

Why? Because the RPM (Record Production Month) Challenge is on during the month of February. Now in its tenth year, the challenge of the Challenge is to write and record ten songs (or 35 minutes) of new and original material in 28 days. This year, over 1000 bands and singer/songwriters have committed; more than a few of them are San Diegans. Karen Marzloff, 47, cofounded the Challenge in Portsmouth, NH a decade ago.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“We threw out the challenge to our local community here in February, when there’s five feet of snow outside.” That was in 2006. “The second year, we opened it up to the rest of the world. We had people signing up from all seven continents. Even Antarctica. Someone on base there sent us an entry.” Heavy metal, she recalls. “The idea is to make this a fun place for creativity that’s not a contest or a battle of the bands. It’s free for musicians to participate.” Marzloff says that RPM itself is funded through sponsorships and donations.

The RPM Challenge is like a contest, she explains, albeit one with no winners or prizes. The rules are strict: writing and recording can only be done in the month of February. No prerecorded songs are allowed, and all material must be previously unreleased. Have any of the entrants taken their completed albums on to greater success? “We try hard not to prioritize that,” Marzloff says, “but, I know of an off-Broadway show that came out of an entry,” and she says that more than one band has been formed post Challenge.

Van Dyck, 33, hopes to make his ten songs the touring foundation of his new prog-metal band. Kilpatrick, 29, claims to have finished an album a year for each of the eight years he’s entered. “It’s a great motivation to actually work on something new.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tyler Farr, Blue Water Film Festival, Mustache Bash

Events March 21-March 23, 2024
Next Article

Mid-range fleet scoring bluefin limits off Ensenada

Rockfish to open at all depths April 1st (no foolin’)
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.