Aaron Hutchinson and Michal Wagner of the KDYS Live Band Project.
DEEP in the heart of the KDYS building on Denny Street, behind a locked door, in what may very well once have been a broom cupboard is a cluttered room.
It’s edges are lined with drums, gituars, keyboards, amps, mics, cables and boxes of precussion instruments. Behind a little window looking in the the room is the control centre for a recording studio.
This is the nerve center of the KDYS Live Band Project – a project that aims to provide a practise space to Tralee’s musically inclined teens.
From its inception to Februrary of this year, it had been under the leadership of Tralee musician John Buggy. While the live gigs put on by the project have ended, John has passed the torch on to Aaron Hutchinson and Michal Wagner, of the band Chapter 2 to continue the Wednesday sessions.
“We’re trying to get more kids involved in playing music, and to start bands,” says Michal, who, like Aaron, is originally from Offaly. “We want to bring the music back to the people and bring it back to life. If we can’t keep the numbers up, the studio and the jam room will be closed down and no one wants that.”
Aaron said that the LBP is all about “facilitiating young people who are into music but don’t necessarily have a place to go or friends that share the same interests. It’s our job to give them a space to explore that area of creativity.”
The LBP meets every Wednesday from 4pm to 6pm in the KDYS, Denny Street, Tralee, so if you’re interested check it out.
Tom should really get credit for starting the LBP originally.