it is graduation season and our next
guests are ready to hit the ground
running as they enter in a career making
music that's right they are from the
Detroit Institute of music education
also known as diam Detroit and joining
us are the founder of the school and
President Kevin Nixon and co-founder and
director Sarah Clayman thank you guys so
much for being here thanks for having us
yeah it's been a little over a year year
and a half since we sat and chatted for
a podcast that you can listen to right
now and it was all about the Detroit
music scene and what dime does what does
dime do well it's it's like finishing
school it's again to the music industry
so it's a kind of place where you can
find out all the stuff that people don't
know about the industry and you can
train and then you can get into the
industry without necessarily going to LA
Nashville or New York staying in Detroit
that's right I think a lot of people go
into the music business half-hearted
haphazardly they don't know what to
expect but you guys were founded in 2014
so what kind of impact do you feel like
you've made in the city in the last four
years one of the great things about
owning your own business Sarah and I
owned I'm with a our friend Charlie
Rothstein is that you can choose how you
integrate into the community so using
music in a place like Detroit you know
every Church is full of the most amazing
music so we feel like we're the downtown
destination for everybody in Detroit to
come and do a music ad I'm so getting a
music degree from time how is that
different than if you were to go to a
college or university or something like
that yes what we do at diam is we really
train young people for the music
industry so a lot of students will come
and think they want to be the next
signed artist and maybe realize they're
19 singers in the class that are better
than themselves
and that's okay and so we teach music
industry studies for every student so
they learn about the jobs that are
available in the music industry that
Kevin and I learn about throughout our
whole careers in the music industry
it's an incredible industry and there
are so many jobs available and it's
about education is about employability
and getting young people into jobs and
we feel very passionately that that's
our role here and that's our role for
our students and already we have a
graduating class last year we have this
year's graduation and
about 75 80 percent of the students are
already working full-time in the music
industry and that's our role yeah
everybody thinks oh oh I'm a star I'm
the front man or whatever there's studio
musicians backup singers writers or
recording tax engineers I mean there's a
whole many level levels too yeah and
their life side of the music industry is
bigger than the recorded side mm-hm
so many jobs in live music that people
never get to find out about yeah all
right so you established a record label
within Detroit called dime original 1265
recording mm-hmm alright volume four is
coming up next yeah that's very
impressive what'd ya expect well the
great thing about these albums is they
make a snapshot of what's going on
musically in Detroit at that time and
you know the students like Lex is a good
example she's on this year's out in fact
I think she's been on three of the
album's she's over there waving it yeah
but they get an opportunity to speak and
be heard and you know for a lot of
people in Detroit Metro Detroit that can
be a problem yeah so this gives young
people a chance to really say what they
want to say yeah and I think it's really
important that young people and parents
are questioning the value of music a
value of education and college education
right now and you know we recognize that
if young people and families invest in
themselves an opportunity to come out of
that and we're really excited to
announce today that MSU Denver and dimed
have released 70,000 dollars worth of
scholarships for the next academic year
so we really encourage anyone that feels
like they want a career in music to
contact us thank you both for being here
today I know we're all eager to hear one
of your students perform and they're
always all good yeah I'm really excited
for our next student and guest yep so
let's see what these students could do
here is a graduating senior I'll exists
with her song the one
[Music]
I think we met on a weekday you had to
smell their to China way left with no
seven digits in your own way and let not
my attraction but now think about you
every day I can help build away
[Music]
jam and jam and jam and on the weekend
tomorrow
[Music]
oh yeah what'd she think he think no
cause we know
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
stay away welcome thank you I couldn't
even keep still while the song was
adjacent Al exists thank you so much for
being with us so talk to us about how
dime Detroit has enhanced your music
career yeah it really has made me into
the artist that I am just being around
my classmates who are here are two of
them are graduating with me and just
being around the teachers who are
professionals and in the industry that
shaped me to be the artist that I am
today what's next next next I plan on
putting on an EP and that's really what
I'm working on right now and my sound
and perfecting Who I am as an artist
finding your voice sir yeah alright
actually sounded great thank you thank
you it's a process and a journey kind of
like life did you give an inspiration
for the song I sure did I wrote this
song on my 21st birthday last year and
so I bought some wine the moment and I
wrote it about a crush that I had so
just like let's just do incredible at 21
years old she can do something I know I
heard her name check Marvin Gaye and the
lyrics you were awesome thank you so
much job your students so if you want to
learn more information about the Detroit
Institute of music education summer
courses and camps how to apply for fall
enrollment just go to their website dime
- detroit.com