Standard-Examiner staff?lbrady@standard.net?

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any bands can only dream of making a record and video of their original music in a top-drawer, all-the-trimmings studio. If they do manage such a thing, it will inevitably cost a king’s ransom.?

Roy High School’s SkaFace, this year’s winner of the Standard-Examiner Battle of the Bands, got such an opportunity scarcely a year into its music career, at no cost whatsoever. ?

The group (vocalist Kelli Kennedy, 18; trumpeter Nick Matson, 17; guitarist Garrett Jones, 17; trombonist Kyle J. Larson, 18; brothers bassist Alex Boren, 18, and tenor saxman Travis Boren, 15; and the drummer, from St. Joseph High School, Hunter Garcia, 16) won a daylong session on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. ?The band, which got high marks at the battle for both musicianship and overall showmanship, plays the fast-paced, horn-driven style of reggae known as ska.?SkaFace’s recording session took place in the bus’s mobile recording studio in the Music Village parking lot in Ogden on Wednesday. ?Under the auspices of the late Beatle’s estate, and sponsored in part by the computer company Apple, the not-for-profit mobile recording studio travels America, allowing students across the land to capture their own music.?”We travel around the country 10 months a year visiting schools and events such as Battle of the Bands, giving free hands-on audio and video production to students,” said Kevin Hoy, one of the engineer/producers who travels with the bus.?

“In a normal day for us, we visit a school and in an eight-hour day, we take a group of about eight kids and they then collaborate on a song and record it and do a video.?”This session is somewhat of a special circumstance, as it is a Battle of the Bands prize,” Hoy added. “The kids already know the song and each other, so it is a faster turnaround.” ?By noon, the band already had its song, “Little Boy From Across the Street,” in the can, and was ready to start shooting the accompanying video.?As they all relaxed for a few minutes between the end of recording and the start of shooting, Hoy asked the band members how they thought the sessions had gone.?”It was way fun,” said Matson. ?Larson added, “Yeah, it was hot.”?Hoy concurred. “These guys are good, and they were ready to go. It was a delicious process!”?

Song and session ?

The song SkaFace recorded was actually written by a previous drummer, Ian Marshall, since graduated and serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Garcia joined the band in Marshall’s stead last November.?Said Kennedy: “Our song is … about a little boy from across the street who gave us money at one point when we were rehearsing one afternoon. It is a good, happy song.”?The band laid down the tune in parts — first capturing bass, drum and guitar lines, and then adding the horns, and finally the vocals. ?”How it all went together was pretty much as I expected,” said Travis Boren.?

Added his brother Alex: “It was somehow all more legitimate than I had expected.”?Jokingly, engineer Hoy asked, “You were expecting a VW bus or something?”?

The band laughed and Larson answered, “Yeah. But look at this place. No egg-carton-foam (soundproofing) here! It’s really nice.”?With the audio done, band members were discussing with Hoy what they had in mind for