{image1}You may frequent the place for your groceries or for a fab sandwich, but did you realize that Koppa's, 1940 N. Farwell Ave., is also home to a recording studio?
The co-owner and manager of the store, Ken Koppa, built the studio nearly a decade ago, and a number of area musicians have worked there and a few local CDs were recorded there.
"Ken built it in 1996, because I moved out of the space in the Milwaukee Antique Center that we used to 'jam' in," says his brother Michael Koppa. "It's a small space with enough room for six people to play without bumping into each other more than a couple times. A drum kit, a few amps, a PA, a small mixing board and it's sound-proofed pretty well. The recording equipment, along with the mics, is pretty portable, so it's not always there. No one in the band really works at the store anymore, and Ken and Pete let us use the space for free. They've been really cool about it, and we buy them a six-pack just about every week."
The latest project recorded at the studio is the work of Michael Koppa, Kevin Koch and Glenn Maloney, aka Sylvania Lark.
The disc, "Is Our Children Learning?" is out now with a lovely letterpress booklet and contains a mix of original songs and covers like "Fever" (Peggy Lee's version seems to be the influence) and Cowboy Junkies' "Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)."
Mike Koppa says it all started out informally.
"This band is the direct result of a lot of years of improvisational jams with the occasional cover song, once a week, with a variety of players, in the basement studio at Koppa's," he says. "In September 2002, Kevin, Glenn and I formed a trio to rehearse weekly with the intention of publishing a full-length CD, comprised of songs I had written and a cover or two. We started with five songs, and added three along the way."
For the moment, Koppa says, Sylvania Lark isn't really a band, but that may change.
"Some day, we may play a gig," he says. "In fact, we are planning on it to close a show of my collages in the Memorial Union at UW-Madison in October, and if we do, we will try to schedule one in Milwaukee and Chicago as well. We are preparing ourselves for it by thinking of it more like a performance than a gig. The band does not exist as a band. It is a complex art project."
"Is Our Children Learning?" is actually just the latest output from Koppa's Mello-Crisp Records, which has more than a half-dozen discs in its catalog. He also runs Heavy Duty Press, which has published three letterpress-printed books and a number of broadsides.
"All of the people who have played in the basement of the store eventually start thinking that it would be fun to publish our own music," Koppa says. "In fact, Ken's old band, The Quintels, recorded a five-song EP down there, but it was never really published. I guess they've got one up on us in the mystique category!
"We played a lot of aimless jams down there, and we were all growing up, getting married, having kids, etc. Then there was a lull. Guys couldn't make it for one reason or another, and it started to peter out. At that time I figured it was time to put something regular together with a few guys who could commit. I had the urge to publish my songs for a while. Maybe since I was a little kid, maybe since I started writing songs in about 1993."
Koppa's got a lot of irons in the fire these days. He says Sylvania Lark is prepping to record an EP called "California," and wants to begin rehearsing for an eventual onstage debut. He's collaborating with Chicago arts writer Dan Wang on a history of the studio and the Heavy Duty Press will soon publish a book of bird poems by Wisconsin cowboy poet Paul Zarzynski, illustrated by Tom Stack.
Clearly, although started informally, Koppa takes a serious approach to his music, literature and, certainly, artwork. For proof, one needs only to look at the CD booklets.
"Packaging is a big thing for me," Koppa says. "I love it. I like making it, and I think it really serves as the preface, or the introduction, or the 'how-do-you-do?' for the music. Packaging says something about the band. It's like the band's agent in print. We're pretty sure that our packaging pretty well matches how we feel and felt about this project.
"It's sort of serious, it's sort of classy, it's sort of whimsical and silly, at the same time that it seems like excellent craftsmanship, it's really kind of sloppy in some respects. It's asking to be taken seriously without being too serious about it."
The Web site for Heavy Duty Press and Mello-Crisp Records is
ticon.net/~mvkoppa.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
