How a Minneapolis collective is helping the next generation of musicians

No click track, no recording, just one instrument at a time. Just an idea about getting a room full of experienced musicians together and bringing the artist's songs to life. 

"The talent pool in this town is very deep, It's incredible," said Kill Room Producer Kevin Bowe. 

The idea behind the Kill Room Crew, a Minneapolis-based collective hoping to bring the energy and chemistry of old-school recording sessions. 

Artists send the crew a phone recording of an original song and its lyrics. The musicians learn the material ahead of time and when the artist walks into the studio – the entire group is ready to play. 

From there, they work on different versions until the artist is happy with the result. 

"When an artist comes in here and at the end of our session goes, I never knew I could sound that good. That's what makes me go, wow," said Bowe.

The idea began during a studio session involving Bowe and drummer Noah Levy. After deciding to turn off the click track, the idea came to them.

Why wasn't Minneapolis doing more recording this way?

"I was saying, I want to be in a recording room with people more. It's how we came up," said Levy.

They pointed to legendary studio collectives such as the Wrecking Crew, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the Funk Brothers, as inspirations for building something similar in Minneapolis. 

The result is the Kill Room Crew, a rotating group of three drummers, three bassists, three guitarists and three keyboard players, alongside additional vocalists and other musicians. 

The collective of musicians brings an impressive list of recording credits. 

Its members have worked with musicians like Prince, Etta James, Ed Sheeran, Kesha, Bon Iver, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Slash, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Backstreet Boys, Aretha Franklin and Luther Vandross. Just a small portion of the dozens of credits.

Unlike many modern recording sessions, where musicians rely heavily on digital tools to perfect timing – the Kill Room Crew wants to capture the magic when everyone is in the room together. 

The crew recently invited 13-year-old Wisconsin singer and songwriter Marlee Paine for her first professional recording session. She sent Bowe the original song, with the lyrics over the phone.

"I've never been in a studio, I've never done any studio stuff before. So it was really neat because it sounds a lot different from outdoor performances," said Marlee Paine. 

Paine began singing at a young age and hasn't stopped since. Over the last two summers she has done over 100 gigs but has never put together a professional song. 

Tommy Barbarella, who played keyboard for Prince's New Power Generation band, said some of the most memorable moments from recording involved playing live with Prince in studio. 

"We recorded live all those records with him in the room, same way we just did," said Barbarella. 

The musicians say they are there to serve the artist and support their vision of what the song should be. The Kill Room Crew hopes to bring this experience to more musicians across the city.

"We're looking for anyone, at any point in their career," said Bowe.

You can find more information and requests about the Kill Room Crew here.