A 2015 gym class at St. Raphael Academy first brought DaLaun Andrade and Connor Finelli together. But it was their shared passion for hip-hop that solidified a friendship and spawned a business venture.
After five years of creating beats, recording tracks, performing and even dropping an album – Andrade as the rapper and Finelli as producer – the pair recently opened a Pawtucket recording studio known as Blue Wave Poetics.
The idea for the studio came out of their experiences. After years of recording tracks in makeshift spaces – such as Andrade’s basement and the Providence College dorm room of a fellow artist – they paid to use another studio’s equipment and space. But through a technology glitch, they lost the hours of tape they recorded. So, they slowly accrued more equipment, and set out to create a space where other community artists could record, mix or master tracks at an affordable $20-per-hour rate.
Since opening on Main Street in June, they’ve booked over 50 clients representing music genres from gospel to rock and, of course, hip-hop.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.