Assistant Director of Off-Campus Study, Heather Browne, has brought a variety of acts to record their music at Shove Chapel. Photos courtesy of Heather Browne. Above: Jeremy Quentin of Small Houses records in Shove Chapel. Right: In 2011, the Lumineers visited Shove Chapel and recorded their hit single “Ho Hey” for the first time.
Few Colorado College students know that ever since 2011, some of the most popular indie and folk bands have recorded sessions right in the middle of Shove Chapel. Heather Browne, the Assistant Director of Off-Campus Study, has been quietly coordinating high quality recordings in Shove Chapel called the Shove Chapel Sessions.
Browne doesn’t make a big deal of the events, she simply reserves the chapel and does the sessions. Many trek to Denver or Red Rocks to see their favorite bands, not knowing that a lot of them have recorded right here on campus.
Acts that have appeared include: The Head and The Heart, The Lumineers (who did their first recording of “Ho Hey” in Shove), Phox, Dawes, and many others. Browne caught many of these acts before they became famous and some even after they became famous. In addition to some of the larger acts, she also has local bands do sessions as well. After the sessions, Heather has had some of the acts perform in house or other locations nearby CC.
Browne doesn’t gain monetarily from the sessions but does the sessions because she thoroughly enjoys the music and hanging out with the acts. She calls the sessions “humanizing” because they stand in contrast to the impersonal process of going into a recording studio, playing the tracks and then leaving. Browne encourages the acts to take advantage of the intimate space provided by Shove and do alternative versions of their songs. Each session is about four songs long and has three tracks of original material and one cover track.
She often cooks Cuban black beans for the musicians and has them stay over at her house. “[The] sessions are a reward for caring about music and for caring about the artists,” said Browne. She has all of the sessions posted on her blog Fuel Friends. The site has audio of the performances, written impressions of the musicians, and often video of the sessions, which are made by Colorado Springs resident Kevin Ihle.
The idea for the sessions was a collaboration between Heather and local musician Conor Bourgal of “The Changing Colors,” who handles the recording side of the sessions with his brother Ian. When Browne first started the Shove Chapel sessions there was only one other location-based recording session blog called Bloqtheque, which showcases French performers.
In recent years the number of similar location based recording sessions has increased exponentially. Browne is winding down the sessions because each one takes a tremendous amount of work. Sometimes labels will try to give her a difficult time over the sessions because she posts the music for free on her blog. All in all, Browne says, “It’s been a lot of fun.” Despite the challenges, she does intend to do more sessions in the future.
You can find all the sessions on fuelfriendsblog.com.