37. The RPM Challenge

My family's Poo Poo Platters journey

Hi friends,

Last week, the list of online creative challenges I posted included one that is close to my heart. In February of 2007, I asked my two sons, ages 7 and 9 at the time, if they’d like to participate in the RPM Challenge. They were both in the earliest stages of learning to play music. My older son was learning guitar and piano and my younger son the drums. They both liked to sing, and my older son’s guitar teacher had been fostering a love of composition and songwriting in their lessons. They both enthusiastically agreed and their band, The Poo Poo Platters, was born.

In the first year I engineered their recording from beginning to end. They wrote and performed the music. We continued this project every February for ten years. As the years went by, the boys learned more and more about recording and production. Over time, I did less and less, and they took over all aspects of the project, until in year ten, I was only allowed to press the start and stop button on the recording during each take. It was a family effort, and the recordings document my sons’ musical development over that decade. Here are three samples to give you an idea:

Rocket Man, from their first album in 2007. Not the Elton John song, but an original they composed. It was featured in a story on the RPM Challenge on NPR’s All Things Considered that winter. We made this music video that February, during the Valentine’s Day blizzard. I was so new to recording, that I didn’t really know what I was doing, which is why you can barely hear the bass line in the opening:

The next video was recorded two years later in 2009 as part of their RPM Challenge project. You can see and hear their growth and development, both as musicians and people:

Soon they would add a bass player to the group. In 2013 they were doing most of the work and I was just along for the ride. Their song “Edge” was made into a music video filmed and directed by one of their high school friends. It’s really great and again shows significant growth in every aspect:

My older son went to Boston’s Berklee College of Music and my younger son attended University of the Arts in Philadelphia. They both continue to make music. I have recordings - full albums - from all ten years of the RPM Challenge. A beautiful documentation of their childhood. I encourage parents to find a way to document their children’s artistic growth, in any way possible. I’ll cherish these recordings for the rest of my life.

Making music can be a family affair, as can making art. Dance and sing together.

Be creative.

—Russ