It’s afternoon in downtown Roanoke, Virginia, and junior and high school students are leaving school for the day. However, there are a few students that are forgoing the typical after-school activities of basketball and TV-watching and engaging in something a little unexpected for the average 13-year old: recording and mixing an album in an actual studio.

That’s the concept that drives the Downtown Music Lab, a non-profit, after-school music and recording studio for students in grades 6-12. With five studio rooms for attendees to write, record, and rehearse in, the DML is a creative hub for young and aspiring singers, rappers, bands, and musicians to learn hands-on just what it takes to create and complete a record in the studio. It’s the type of opportunity that Executive Director and Full Sail Recording Arts grad Charlie Hamill yearned for as an aspiring musician growing up.

“I’ve always been a very question-oriented guy, and when I was young there was always recording equipment all over the house,” he recalls. “That’s why I went to Full Sail, and that’s the very reason that I jumped on board here at the Music Lab, so that I could answer questions from kids who don’t understand power amps, mixers, or guitars. When I was young, people who worked in music schools kind of treated most people in general like they didn’t have the time. There’s definitely no secret society here; when you join up to be a member, there’s nothing that we won’t teach you about music and technology.”

While the annual student fee is a reasonable $125, scholarships are available for students and no one is turned away based on their ability to pay. The DML’s philanthropic slant is largely dependent upon grants and donations. “As executive director for a nonprofit, after-school music program, I spend a lot of time working on making sure that we have money,” Charlie says. “Running a studio business in a small town is hard; adding the nonprofit element adds to that difficulty. The goal is to always spend more time teaching the students and less time writing grants.”

After graduating Full Sail and working in a variety of studio environments, Charlie was attracted to the Downtown Music Lab’s unique role in the industry and in the world of education.

“Giving studio time to kids is a lot more fun than begging poor adults to pay for it!” he laughs. “When I first signed on, I thought there was no way that I was going to be dealing with all these children and giving them this equipment. It sounded like a disaster to me! What I found out real quickly is that students come here, fill out a pretty lengthy application with their parents, pay their fee, and then they feel like they’re a part of something that’s pretty important, and they don’t want to blow it.”

A listen to the DLM’s Myspace page reveals that the lineup of musicians that pass through the doors is pretty diverse. From punk and hip-hop to singer/songwriters and pop artists, students are given free reign to pursue any direction that they’d like, regardless of how much experience they may have coming into the program. And when he’s not handling the administrative duties for the building, Charlie puts his years of studio experience to use by helping students in that pursuit.

“I’ve got full-time staff members who teach the kids lessons on their instruments, show [them] how to work equipment, helping them record,” he says. “I jump into the studio to help them in whatever they need, whether it’s mixing songs or showing them the settings on a guitar amp.

“Almost everybody here has been really good and mature and thrilled to be able to be here. Throughout the course of the year we have classes that we teach that are very similar to Full Sail’s, whether it’s recording for a couple of weeks, a guitar-and-amp series, or classes in computer technology,” Charlie says. “The kids look forward to these classes, and other opportunities like our annual CD and our live performances.”

Students have gotten the chance to perform with acts like the Sugarhill Gang, Tower of Power, and the Harlem Gospel Choir thanks to the DML’s live series, which offers students approximately 15 different chances during the year to play music outside of the school in front of large audiences – an opportunity that many adult bands, quite frankly, rarely get.

“When I was in high school, I never got to open for Tower of Power in front of 800 people!” Charlie exclaims. “It’s almost more rewarding to see the parents’ elation because I know the kids are digging it, but you can tell that the parents feel like one of the things that they’re doing for their children is definitely working, and that it’s something extraordinary. We all definitely know we’re onto something here, and it’s a very rewarding feeling.”

For more information about the Downtown Music Lab, including finding out about donating to the organization, visit www.downtownmusiclab.com.