\u201cWe worked with them from start to finish. Starting with just ideas and words that encapsulate the album,\u201d Criswell said. \u201cAll the way through all of the edits, and we\u2019d meet every week. It was a very new process.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The students also worked with Philadelphia metro-based companies Mainfactor<\/a> and Studio 4 Vinyl<\/a> to release and press the vinyl records. Junior Hayden Clark said one of the challenging parts of the project was \u201ckeeping tabs on all these people and all these things that need to get done.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \u201c[There are] so many moving parts to it and being like, \u2018OK, here\u2019s our vision, here\u2019s our album,\u2019\u201d Clark said. \u201cHow are we going to get this heard? What the press release needs to look like, then how do we get this vinyl on sale, how is that going to look? Do we want t-shirts?\u201d\n<\/p>\n On top of all of that, the students also had to pass the class. The grade wasn\u2019t based on things like record sales, but rather the work and effort they put into the course.\n<\/p>\n \u201cFor our group especially, that has been a big focus of \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to use this experience to learn as many new skills as possible, talk to as many new people, make new connections,\u2019\u201d Risch said. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019ve done just that.\u201d The legacy of Billy Jackson and how students connected with his family<\/p>\n Jackson, the project\u2019s original producer, passed away in 2016. He is credited with helping shape the Philadelphia sound that emerged from more than 200 gold and platinum albums<\/a> recorded at Sigma Sound.\n<\/p>\n But the students were able to connect with Jackson\u2019s daughters, Kelly Majid and Kia Jackson, who gave the students insight into their father\u2019s work.\n<\/p>\n \u201cEven though we didn\u2019t get to directly speak to anyone, we still got this amazing piece of history and have been really connected to other members,\u201d Criswell said.\n<\/p>\n For Clark, the biggest takeaway from the project was being able to present the album to Jackson\u2019s children and to \u201cshine a light on his music.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey really just want their father to be remembered,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s been 10 years since he passed, and they didn\u2019t feel that he really got the right coverage or credit for everything he\u2019s done. When they came and visited us just a couple months ago, they were almost in tears just about what we\u2019ve been able to do with their father\u2019s work and how we can remember him and speak on his work and his music.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cClean Up Your Mind\u201d is available now on all streaming platforms alongside T-shirts<\/a> and tote bags<\/a> featuring elements of the album art.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hands-on learning experience behind releasing an album While the music is one aspect of a release, students also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8055,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-224477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-drexel-university","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/drexel-sigma-sound-cs-062126-04-1024x683.jpg\")
Students in Drexel University\u2019s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design got to have a hands-on experience with the thousands of analog recordings preserved within the Sigma Sound Studios Collection. (Cory Sharber\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n