‘Real music by real musicians’: New recording studio in Vandalia Tower aims to build sustainable music careers for youth of color

Jared Kaufman, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

At OMG Studios, a high-end digital recording and production space that opened this month in Vandalia Tower, owner Monique Linder is working to open the door for the next generation of local musicians.

She means that literally.

The doors to the engineering control room at OMG Studios are salvaged from Flyte Tyme, the now-demolished recording studio where producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis hosted some of the biggest names in funk and R&B in the late 1980s and 90s.

Along with Prince and André Cymone, the duo helped define the “Minneapolis sound” — a musical tradition that should remain alive and relevant here, said Linder, a longtime talent agent and booking manager. She founded OMG Media Solutions in 2014; it’s the parent company of the new studio.

“It’s real music, by real musicians,” Linder said. “Raw talent. We’re carrying on that legacy in OMG Studios.”

At OMG Studios, Linder has created a multimedia production space to help both high-profile and emerging clients, particularly musicians and filmmakers of color, to “take their production to the next level,” she said.

The recording and livestreaming studio includes equipment like an UnFairchild compressor and the Apogee Symphony Desktop audio interface, and it shares space with KZMO-HD, a media distribution platform also owned by OMG Media Solutions. The company also produces a variety of documentaries and community programming, so the Vandalia space includes a small film set for shooting interviews and editing video.

But the biggest names to work at OMG Studios may very well be those we don’t know of yet.

Teaching the next generation

Some years ago, Linder attended a Stevie Wonder concert.

Most of his backing band consisted of young performers, she noticed. To her, this felt refreshingly unusual, given what she perceives as a significant “knowledge gap” between legendary artists and young musicians.

To address this gap, she launched the Innovation Lab Project, which is now permanently housed at OMG Studios. The lab is a 10-week paid program to help youth develop skills to launch themselves into sustainable, stable careers in the music industry.

That doesn’t mean releasing a song that goes viral, Linder said.

Linder is concerned by the trend of young rappers creating heavily sampled songs on their computers and uploading them to TikTok and SoundCloud, she said. When aspiring musicians see these rappers shoot to internet stardom, Linder said, they don’t realize how much of viral success comes down to sheer luck — nor do they understand that one massively streamed song often doesn’t translate into career-long economic stability.

If young people want a life in the music industry, Linder said, they need to learn foundational skills. What youth of color need, she said, is economic stability. Not luck.

“This is my way of saying, you can’t take those shortcuts,” she said. “The legends in music, they rehearsed. They practiced. They put in the work. You’re not going to get around that.”

Part of the Innovation Lab’s curriculum includes hands-on lessons from working musicians like Cymone and local band Nunnabove, who teach participants the nitty-gritty of the recording industry.

“We want them to know the traps, so they don’t fall in,” Linder said. “I want to make it real for them, because a lot of what they‘re seeing on social media is fake.”

Each applicant to the Innovation Lab goes through an interview process; if they’re accepted, they receive a backpack kit worth about $1500, Linder said. The kit contains a laptop with Pro Tools audio editing suite, a drum machine, and other equipment. The program is free, and participants receive an hourly stipend to lessen the financial burden on their families and offset the potential of reduced job wages from time spent in the studio.

Getting OMG to St. Paul

Opening OMG Studios at Vandalia Tower has been in the works for several years.

Linder signed the initial contract in early 2020 and has been steadily building out the space since then, she said. Previously, her company operated out of a small space in Minneapolis’s North Loop neighborhood.

At Vandalia, she’s worked closely with architects and sound engineers, of course — and also state and federal historic preservation authorities, since the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever dealt with the federal government, but you don’t get to just call them and push them along,” Linder joked.

In 2021, Linder received $200,000 in city financing from the Neighborhood Sales Tax Revitalization, or STAR, Program. This award, plus support from City Council member Mitra Jalali — “just a dynamo in the community,” Linder said — was crucial toward bringing OMG Studios to St. Paul, Linder said.

Much of OMG Media Solutions’ work, including how youth can be involved in the Innovation Lab, is driven by partnerships, Linder said.

The company works closely with a variety of nonprofit sponsors and community conveners including the Minnesota Humanities Center, the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation and Ujaama Place. These partner organizations also provide the bulk of applicants for the Innovation Lab, she said.

Since 2016, OMG Media Solutions has also partnered with the Minnesota State Fair to bring more culturally relevant music and performers to the fair’s stages, including the Grandstand.

And finally, on Feb. 1, OMG Studios formally opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Jalali, Mayor Melvin Carter, local actor Thomasina Petrus, Nunnabove and other performers — and those famous doors.

“When artists walk through those doors, they’re going to feel the inspiration and the energy that came out of Flyte Tyme when they were open,” Linder said.

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