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This Issue 02/22/2007

Also in this issue

• Oscar preview
• Crowd's eye view
• Daytripper: Vintage 'r' US
• A "Touch" of Success
• Dispatches
• Viva Brasil

After turning on the equipment, Josh starts recording, working the controls as Sean sings into a microphone. He records in a tiny space enclosed by old mattresses, used to insulate the sound. By then, Hall has joined us; he sprawls out on one of the couches, giving Sean feedback and suggesting different harmonies. Sean listens and tests his suggestions. "You know better. You're The Entertainer," he says. Hall is as flashy and outgoing as Sean is quiet and modest.

"I can't stop," Sean says. "There are people, you know? That's the fuel. It's all about creating something that other people are passionate about and sharing with them."

"Touch" is a beat-heavy track about "going crazy all alone" and needing a girl's touch.

After recording enough material, Sean sits down at the computer and starts sequencing the different tracks. Cedric has already left for the night. Josh retreats to the couch and begins an elaborate sketch of a triangular Rubens Tube, a long tube with a series of small flames controlled by sound, for the music video. His vision was for each tube to pump out colored gasses to the beat of the music. "No one has ever used a Rubens Tube in a music video before. I want to be the first."

His vision for the video is a guy and a girl dancing and drawing close to each other, trying to touch hands, but never quite making it. They plan to shoot the video in the spring and feature both Outta Kontrol, Temple's premier hip-hop dance group, and Penn's Strictly Funk. They've already chosen a few Philly locations, and Josh is working on building a set depicting the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute so that he can set the walls on fire. "I'm experimenting with a pyrotechnic right now on PVC tubes."

In the studio, J. Dunny takes over for Sean and sequences the track in a few minutes. Sean sighs. "He's so much better at this stuff than I am. He makes it sound all professional."

Dunny plays the seamless final mix through the main speakers - "Touch" as it will be heard by the public. Sean's face lights up. Glowing, he trots around the room and pumps his fist in the air. "This guy's a genius!" The gold chain peeking out from his shirt hints at the performer behind the Wharton student.

At 10:45 p.m., Sean is still glimmering with excitement; no jacket, sleeves pushed up, hair tousled. For his gig at 8th Street Lounge, he wants to mix four songs together, splicing together clips of beats. "I just want to be cool. I don't want it to be corny." Josh calls out from his couch of lazy doodling: "You said it was okay to be corny." Indignant, Sean shoots back: "No I didn't! I said the music video could be corny!" Josh just laughs.