Boredom Fighters brings music production, experimentation to Snowmass visitors

On a cloudy Saturday, March 15, visitors wandering nearby the Snowmass Base Village ice rink were pulled into The Collective Snowmass’ main room for musical experimentation.

There were keyboards, drum pads, microphones, and other instruments and noisemakers in the room. Some of this professional-grade music production equipment many people would never get the experience to play with. 

And play they did. 

Visitors to the Snowmass Collective helped produce a song for the Boredom Fighters, the nonprofit that provides the music production equipment, that was published on SoundCloud the following day. The track, titled “Snow-Fi,” is a mix of noises found and created around the ski resort that day. 

“We had these teenagers kind of rush at us with skis and then record the crunchy sound that you hear when people stop quickly on the snow,” said Amy Jones, operations and marketing manager at The Collective. “And then they take that and they created a custom Snowmass beat.” 

From the brush of a ski jacket to the snap of skis as they are put together into a ski rack, all of it was mixed to make a cohesive piece of music with the help of Snowmass visitors. 

“For these sessions, it’s a collaborative studio session,” Tyler Manning, co-founder of Boredom Fighters, said of their presence in Snowmass. “So we’ll start by getting a beat going with what we’ve got at (The Collective).

“We’re taping the whole time, so when people find that magic moment and really tap in, we can capture it.”

Boredom Fighters is a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to bringing music education and production to underserved youth around the country, with a focus on schools that lack music programs. They also bring the experience they provide for underserved kids to the masses at experiences like the one on Saturday, March 22, so visitors of all ages can try their hands at music production using tools and instruments that are hard to come by. 

They have been able to bring music education experiences to over 10,500 kids in 650 workshops across 130 school districts across the country.

The Boredom Fighters will be back at The Collective Snowmass between 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, and Saturday, March 29.