How to Make a Mix-Tape
How to Make a Mix-Tape
In a world of drag-and-drop, one Factory Obscura artist gathered some of the best music minds in OKC for a sweet retro collab.
“And then it just popped into my head,” says Factory Obscura Mix-Tape lead box office agent and stepmom frontwoman Lindsey Cox. (Isn’t that how most cool things start?)
“What if we made a physical mixtape of the Oklahoma City music scene?”
The indie rocker’s mind had been recently blown contemplating the vibrancy and diversity of OKC’s music scene. She wanted to find a way for more bands of more genres to collaborate in a way that benefited everyone: the fans, the bands, the arts, the city.
So she went to work.
Factory’s Obscura’s Mix-Tape experience consists of six immersive spaces inspired by the feelings that a retro audio autobiography would convey: joy, angst, love, melancholy, hope, and wonder. Lindsey’s idea was to find six bands, assign each one to a space, and have them write an original song inspired by that space.
“I made a list of local bands I’m really excited about, that I wanted to work with, and that I knew would be reliable,” she says. “I thought about their genre and style and tried to assign each one to a room that I thought fit them.”
She texted them. They said “heck yes.” What happened next is collaborative history.
The bands – Jarvix (feat. Elecktra), stepmom, Jabee & L.T.Z., LCG and the X, Bad Jokes, and Audio Book Club – had just six weeks to write and record the songs.They started by spending time alone in their assigned space after hours. They hung out, made notes, brainstormed, and even composed live in the space.
“The idea was ‘what do we feel in this moment, sitting in this room,’” says Lindsey, whose own band stepmom was one of the six. “It was a little difficult! We were on a time crunch, and we wanted it to be really good. It definitely put pressure on myself as a songwriter. But it was a cool experiment to see what we could come up with within the time constraints and sticking to a theme.”
When it came time to record, Lindsey hit up Tyler Garcia at 33rd Street Studio for producing, mixing and mastering. “He lit up when I told him the idea,” she says. And when he sent her a preview of all the mixes, she was blown away.
But nothing Lindsey knew about distributing music in a drag-and-drop-Spotify-playlist-Bandcamp-download world would help her with the next step.
“I had no idea what you needed to create a cassette tape,” she laughs. Greg Terry at 46RPM was happy to step in and even donate his services to the project (what??). And Mix-Tape Vol. 1 was born.
So how did it end?
Mix-Tape Vol. 1 launched on February 14, 2020, at Factory Obscura’s first annual V-Day bash, where four of the six bands performed their original songs live on the Wonder Stage inside the Mix-Tape experience.
The bands played to a sold-out crowd. Factory Obscura’s limited-edition, collaborative beer from Prairie Artisan Ales was flowing. The Mix-Tape Vol. 1 cassettes were flying into hands. “It was surreal,” she says.
The moral of the story
“Factory Obscura wants our team to dream big, and we are always trying to say ‘yes’ to big ideas whether they come from inside or outside of our team,” says Tammy Greenman, Factory Obscura co-founder and director of strategic creativity. “This collaboration is a perfect example of what this organization is all about.”
“Sometimes it’s good to put constraints on art because it forces you to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do,” says Lindsey. In addition to having to write within a theme and within a deadline, this is the first song that Lindsey’s band stepmom had ever written together. “It opened the door to that process and allowed us to brainstorm. We’ll definitely do it again.”
Secondly, she says, “Don’t be afraid to think big.” Big things take hard work, tight organization, and wide-open collaboration. “As long as you break it down, set deadlines, set goals, and make sure all the pieces are in place, it’s totally attainable.” And totally worth it.
Mix-Tape Vol. 1 cassette tapes are available in our Mix-Tape online store. Each one includes a code for a digital download, along with access to a super-cool short film by Kyle Van Osdol of all the bands performing their songs in the Mix-Tape experience. 100% of the profits of every sale go straight to the bands.
Factory Obscura presents MIX-TAPE Vol. 1. A collaborative musical and visual album inspired by the "MIX-TAPE" experience. Each cassette purchase includes access to the full 23 minute visual album, which will have its world premiere at Deadcenter Film Festival 2020!