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February 4, 2010

Teen hits his groove in music contest

By Sylvia Rosen

BEVERLY — In a couple of years, you could be listening to the radio and find yourself bobbing your head to a song produced by Adam Levine.

Levine, 18, recently won first place at the inaugural Together Producer Competition with his track "Pep Pep."

The competition was part of Together Boston's effort to reach out to youths in communities surrounding the Boston area. Five judges received more than 60 tracks and had three weeks to choose the winner.

"His track sounded really professional and didn't sound technical," said Jamie Michalski, DJ, producer and competition manager. "He has a very good ear for sound structure."

According to Michalski, the judges were looking for tracks in the electronic genre that people could dance to. "Anything you can sit back and think, 'That's interesting.'"

Levine said he has been interested in techno since he was 11 and got more familiar with the genre through the music video game "Dance Dance Revolution." He taught himself how to make music with tutorials he found on the Internet. Levine typically makes music in the house and trance genre.

"I DJ a lot at school dances and yacht clubs, and that is the type of music that my friends and I like to listen to," he explained.

Levine created "Pep Pep" last year and spent about 20 hours working on it.

"I don't have ideas going into songs. The song develops as I make it," he said.

Levine is a senior at Waring High School in Beverly. When looking at colleges, he is considering a major in audio engineering.

The Together New England Electronic Music Festival has been going on since December. It is a series of competitions and festivals encouraging youths from a variety of music genres to show their talents. Together is a collective of New England area promoters, DJs and artists who want to build a community where everyone can "dance to a different beat."

Levine joked that the day he found out he won the producer competition, Michalski invited him to a club in Cambridge to play his music.

"I couldn't go because it was a 21-plus club. But Jamie played it and said it got a great response," he said.

As the first-place winner, Levine's "Pep Pep" will be featured on the official Together Boston promotional compilation CD among tracks by other Boston-based artists. Levine and the two runners-up will get sponsors from Puma, DJ Deals, Music Studio Direct and other Together sponsors. The top three winners will also have their tracks posted on the Together Boston Web site.

Levine does not know what the "prize package" will be but will receive it at a special VIP event on Feb. 8 at the club Rise in Boston. Levine posts his music online at binmakermusic.com.

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