Club-music scene goes to school in Seattle

Take a bit of the hipster geekiness of a comic-book convention, the fishbowl communal atmosphere of "The Real World" and add a bit of an energy drink that tastes like baby aspirin and you've got the strange musical phenomenon of the Red Bull Music Academy.

The world-tripping school of club-music has been happening here for the past month, with 60 musical artists — producers, DJs, musicians, vocalists — from all over the world coming to Seattle to learn from club-culture pros.

"It's like Christmastime, basically!" said Cedric Woo, a French DJ who lives in London. "Just being with people who share common interests and, like, breathing music every day."

It's less a music academy than an artists collective, with a very generous, very wealthy Santa Claus (played by Red Bull) footing the bill.

Along with bringing hipsters to Seattle, the event — which wraps up Friday — helps cement Seattle's place in the global music scene, said Kris Moon, 30, a Seattle DJ who has been serving as a local liaison ("I'm the person to call if you get lost") for the participants.

Moon said that in the past five years the Red Bull Music Academy, based in Munich, has spun its way through Rome; London; New York; São Paulo, Brazil; and Cape Town, South Africa, "and when it came time to pick another U.S. city, they picked Seattle." The city's history, particularly in grunge and hip-hop, played a part in the selection, but "it was also chosen for what was new," Moon said.

In any city, what's new is found in the club scene, and the DJs bring it on. Essentially, the academy is their school, and it stemmed from an effort to "create something for DJ culture and club culture in general," said Many Ameri, a DJ and promoter from Germany who helped found the music academy in 1997 with fellow Germans Torsten Schmidt, a music journalist, and film producer Christopher Romberg. They set out to develop a program that would offer more than the tech- and ego-strewn flurry found at traditional DJ workshops.

Red Bull Music Academy events

Find details on performers at www.redbullmusicacademy.com.

• ArRange, McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, 7 tonight.

Who: Featuring music by Oh No, Kirk DeGiorgio, Todd Simon and Underground Resistance, David Matthews, Clare Fischer, and Deodato, performed by the Northwest Sinfornia Orchestra and guests.

Tickets: Free, but must be reserved today at www.ticketmaster.com or 206-292-2787. No service charge; $5 will be donated to the Vera Project for every ticket.

• The War Room, 722 E. Pike St., Seattle; 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Cost: $7

Information: 21 and older; 206-328-7666 or www.thewarroomseattle.com

• Mantra Lounge, 210 S. Washington St., Seattle; 9 p.m. Thursday.

Cost: $5

Information: 21 and older; www.mantralounge.com

• Viceroy, 2332 Second Ave., Seattle; 9 p.m. Thursday.

Information: 21 and older; 206-956-8423 or www.viceroyseattle.com

Cost: Free

• Trinity, 111 Yesler Way, Seattle; 9 p.m. Friday.

Cost: $10

Information: 21 and older; 206-447-4140 or www.trinitynightclub.com

Teachers are working artists from club-music scenes around the world who sit on a couch and simply tell their own stories to students — also sitting on couches — without making any claims to absolute truths in such a fickle, ephemeral business.

This year's lecturers included the Roots' drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, based in Philadelphia, and Sound Signature's Theo Parrish of Detroit. Parrish spoke to a rapt audience for nearly four hours Saturday about the importance of knowing the significance of a track before cutting it up into DJ-ready samples. Local hip-hopper Anthony Ray (better known as Sir Mix-A-Lot) also taught at the academy last month.

Still, the focus here is on the studio time and the possibility for collaboration with artists from around the world. The 60 participants were whittled down from 2,000 applicants, and the DJs, producers, musicians, and singers were flown in from 33 countries (only two made the cut from the U.S., none from Washington state).

Once in Seattle, students received free hotel, meals on site, shuttle service to clubs, and even a free cellphone with $50 credit. The high-tech, two-story Belltown space where they work, constructed and painted fresh for the occasion, contains six studios, a control room that looks like it could operate a small music festival, a photo studio, kitchen and lounge for socializing. Staffers thread their way through huddles of hip young artists, all speaking English, nearly all in different accents.

"Just to have this connect to a person halfway across the globe after you leave here, it's just something that's really priceless. Like, it's gonna do wonders for Pacific Bell and Sprint and all those cats!" said Mikki Boyd, a vocalist from California.

But before it's over, Red Bull Music Academy presents ArRange, the centerpiece concert happening tonight at McCaw Hall.

Contemporary producers Oh No, Kirk DeGiorgio and Todd Simon have chosen pieces by influential arrangers David Matthews, Clare Fischer and Deodato to re-create in their own styles — and vice versa. The new creations will then be performed by the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra and a jazz-funk rhythm section. Red Bull has comped the entire event (down to the Ticketmaster fee); on top of that, $5 will be donated to the Vera Project for every ticket.

So what's in all this for the multibillion-dollar corporation? Not really brand exposure — advertisements for the events minimize the Red Bull bit and focus on the performers. Even in the Belltown studio, the company's presence is felt only through small drink coolers in each room.

In fact, it's this subtlety that reaps the biggest rewards for Red Bull. By not slapping their logo everywhere, Red Bull actually gains worldwide fans and promoters for the company.

Explained Ameri: "If you think of the respect they're getting from the scene worldwide, I mean, that's quite a substantial thing. I think there's a lot of trust they've built up."

Freelance writer Rachel Devitt reviews concerts for The Seattle Times. Contact her at: redevitt@u.washington.edu.