Like most great ideas, the RPM Challenge is simple: Write, record and complete an album in the year’s shortest, dreariest month. Begun locally in New Hampshire three years ago, the Challenge became a worldwide phenomenon with little forethought from its founders.
“We just thought it would be a fun thing to do,” says Dave Karlotski, publisher of The Wire, the Portsmouth, N.H., weekly that hatched the Challenge in 2006. “We threw it out to area musicians and said, ‘Set aside whatever’s stopping you from working on your music, have fun doing it, don’t worry about it being your next big album, just do something you love and get it done.’ ”
The Challenge was originally conceived to energize the Portsmouth music community in an era when creative batteries are understandably low. Karlotski, former Music Editor John Nolan, Managing Editor Karen Marzloff and other Wire staffers brainstormed the Challenge and created an accessible Web site (www.rpmchallenge.com). The first year easily met their expectations.
“We’re not a huge town and we thought we’d get maybe 10 or 20 bands to sign up from our region,” Karlotski says. “We were blown away because over 220 groups signed up and over 165 turned in CDs. It was such an encouraging community music event, we thought we’d open it up to the wider world.”
By 2007, word had spread virally around the globe (the vast majority of people hear about the Challenge by word of mouth, although the Challenge staff send out press releases annually) and the RPM Challenge was accepted by participants worldwide.
“We had more than 2,000 groups from all seven continents who signed up,” he says. “It was great to see what began as a local community thing also have an appeal to the broader world.”
A number of Cincinnati-area musicians have taken up the Challenge. Former Cincinnati residents kirk & wendy (no upper case or surnames, thank you), who record as another cultural landslide and x-$ (ex-bucks), did their Challenges the last two years and are planning for this year. They are enthusiastic backers of the concept, not only because of what they created but also what it subsequently inspired.
“I heard about it on NPR coming home from work,” kirk says from the couple’s current Florida digs. “I walked in the door and said, ‘We could do this.’ It was something we’d never done. You think the idea of a deadline would kill you, and when you start, it does, but it’s actually liberating. It forces you to think on the fly and just create. It gets that left brain out of the way.”
“I became a writing machine that first year,” wendy notes. “It came flying out of me. I thought, ‘Where did this come from?’ That’s what the Challenge does to you.”
Singer/songwriter Whitney Barricklow answered the Challenge call last year when she, husband Mark Szabo and guitarist George Eninger crafted a unique concept album, The Rise and Fall of an Imaginary Empire, inspired by dissatisfaction with the Bush administration.
Given last year’s success, she’s considering her sophomore Challenge submission.
“I wanted to make it all big so it’s not really about Bush, but it is,” Barricklow says, laughing. “It was a blast and we had so much fun. This was different in that I was writing a CD. My other songs are walking down the street, singing a melody and it’s, ‘Oh, I’m writing this song, I’m inspired.’ This was different because I wasn’t looking for inspiration because we’d already brainstormed it. I’m already working on my own new project, but it’s totally styled after RPM and I want to have it finished in a couple of weeks, but I might do RPM again, too.”
Singer/songwriter Patrick Ewing signed up for last year’s Challenge but never finished (typically less than 50 percent of signed-up participants actually turn in a finished project, although last year’s result was more than 800 albums). He’s currently at work on an album unrelated to the Challenge, but he’s signed up this year and will backburner his project to complete his Challenge album.
“Last year, I started on it but at the same time I hooked up with (The Hiders’) Billy Alletzhauser to do the CD that I put out,” Ewing says. “When his time became available, my focus shifted to doing the real record versus the RPM thing. But I think I have enough ideas and scraps of things that have never been recorded that I can come up with 35 minutes. It’ll probably be half acoustic, half electric, and I want to have at least one pass of the demo of all the songs by the 15th and then start polishing and throwing things out.”
One of the unique aspects of the Challenge is the Web site’s message boards, where participants talk in an open forum about problems or doubts and receive moral support as well as actual advice and assistance; there’s a player feature where posted demos get feedback. In a very real sense, the Challenge has created a globally networked local music scene.
“There’s a strong community element built into the Web site,” Karlotski says. “Musicians are always encouraging each other on the discussion boards, and we send out a lot of e-mails encouraging people. That idea of community and supporting each other really informed the project from the beginning and made it stronger in the long run.”
“Someone on the board said, ‘My vocals aren’t good. I don’t know what to do, maybe I should just speak it,’ and I said, ‘If you just let it go, sing from your heart, it’ll come out,’ ” wendy says. “A great voice doesn’t matter. I said, ‘If you haven’t listened to the Blue Aeroplanes, you need to.’ Talk about speaking and making a ‘wow’ album.”
Another interesting facet of the Challenge is the post-project listening parties at the end of March, from the official blowout in Portsmouth to the local parties that are cropping up around the country.
“We have a big party here in Portsmouth, but we encourage people to have listening parties wherever they are,” Karlotski says. “I think we had seven or eight listening parties around the country. We encourage people to get together in groups and just listen to each other’s music and network and celebrate.”
There are no prizes attached to the Challenge, no equipment, studio time or lucrative label contract dangled in front of participants to fuel their motivation. The only reward is the satisfaction of having done a complete album (10 songs or 35 minutes of music) in February’s 28 days.
That said, rewards are still possible because of participation in the Challenge.
“After we did our first one, someone heard our music and we were commissioned to do a documentary soundtrack,” kirk says. “It’s the exception to the rule, but the fact is, until you do it you don’t know what’s going to come.”
Perhaps the best incentive is just the chance to set aside the dozens of excuses that musicians typically cite when confronted with their lack of actual progress.
“You never look at music the same way after you’ve done it,” kirk says. “You find yourself saying, ‘How did I think that way in the first place?’ Before, you say, ‘I think I ought to try this or do this,’ and now it’s, ‘Sit down. Do it.’ Music becomes fun again. You’re not trying to do your masterpiece.”
“Even if you don’t finish, it’s an accomplishment because you tried,” wendy says. “We all support one another, and I think that’s one of the things I love about it so much.”
Get full details on the RPM CHALLENGE at www.rpmchallenge.com.
