By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
The halls of Cape Elizabeth High School are dark and silent on a Sunday afternoon, but from room 201, comes music.
Clustered around microphones and a music stand placed at the center of a computer lab, juniors David Riker and Brandon Meagher along with senior Dave Furman hunch over their guitars. Playing rhythm, Riker taps his sneaker on the floor to keep the trio in time. From his position atop an amplifier, Furman holds down the bass line, while Meagher launches into his solo.
But then something needs tweaking and Meagher goes to the computer operating the software that is transforming their jam session into multi-track recordings.
 “You can do whatever you want,” says Meagher. “It’s amazing. I sing and I’m not good at all so sometimes my voice is off pitch, so you can transform it and make it sound better.”
With Apple’s Logic Pro and Garage Band software, the students and their faculty advisor, Rachel Guthrie, have transformed the school’s “Mac Lab” into a mini-recording studio, where the CEHS digital music club meets each week.
The group is currently seeking an adult volunteer to share their knowledge or interest in the music and recording industry and to assist with activities like field trips and grant writing.
     Guthrie, a technology instructor, says the program started two years ago with just one student who was looking for “a way to connect at school.” He devoted all of his time outside of school to music, so Guthrie did some grant writing and was able to obtain mixing software through the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation for a small group of students, who began meeting after school.
     Toward the end of the school year, Guthrie began to worry.
     “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this boy’s going to graduate. What am I going to do with this equipment?” she says.
Guthrie says she began “cultivating” students. In its second year, the group consisted of several students who were interested in jazz music. They wanted to progress with their sessions so Guthrie wrote another grant and was able to bring in microphones and a digital preamplifier. The students began recording their sessions and played events such as school dances.
 This year’s musicians could be compared to Martin Sexton – who could be described as a folk and blues artist – Guthrie says. Later this month, the group will go to a professional recording studio, “The Studio” in Portland, to record a song. Guthrie says the group plans to produce a CD by the end of the year.
Meagher started playing drums in the first grade. He is the group’s songwriter and a self-taught guitarist as of two years ago. When he’s unsure of a chord, he looks to Riker, who has been playing guitar for three years.
“I’m kind of like rhythm guitar and I do some improvising on some of the songs,” Riker says of his role in the sessions, from his seat at the microphones.
Meagher plays back a song recorded live in the lab and explains the drum track was added last. Guthrie says the Logic software does for music what Photoshop does for photographs. Each track can be manipulated on its own so if someone misses a beat or if someone wasn’t playing loud enough, the software allows them to make the necessary changes.
Furman, who plays guitar and saxophone in the school band in addition to playing the bass guitar, says as a group, they don’t always know what they’re going to do at each session. At a recent Sunday afternoon session, Maine musician Putnam Smith dropped in to hear the group play. Guthrie invited Smith to the club after seeing him play a guitar, piano, mandolin and banjo at a recent concert.
“This is great,” Smith says of the club. “I wish they had stuff like this when I was in high school.”
Smith talks microphone placement and recording techniques with the guys and mans the controls while they take the song from the top.
“In the end, usually the best recordings are the ones that just feel good,” Smith says.
The trio works through the two verses Meagher wrote earlier in the day. Then they gather around his notebook to brainstorm more lyrics. The song begins, “8:30 in the morning and I think/think I might fall back asleep...”– no doubt a slice of reality for most high school students.
“It doesn’t really have to make sense, does it?” Meagher asks of his fellow musicians.
After putting more words on paper, they go back to the microphone and speak in chords and then take it from the top.
Thouse interested in volunteering with the CEHS digital music club, should contact Gail Schmader at the Pond Cove Media Center at 799-7339 ext. 344 or email gail_schmader@cape.k12.me.us.