On Air Now
The Capital Weekender with Meg McHugh 10pm - 1am
23 January 2020, 10:59
The studio in Las Vegas aims to give young people better access to music.
As if we didn’t already love him enough already, Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie has opened a music studio aimed at giving young people better opportunities in music.
Located in Henderson, Las Vegas and not far from where Brendon grew up, the studio is called ‘Notes For Notes’ and plans to give young people access to musical learning and experimentation opportunities they may not have had otherwise.
READ MORE: Idina Menzel praises Panic! At The Disco's version of 'Into the Unknown'
"I can tell you right now, if I had these tools at your age, the band would have taken off when I was 12. You’re probably going to get a sped-up version of what I got,” Brendon explains.
Notes For Notes describes itself as a “non-profit organization that designs, equips, and staffs after-school recording studios inside Boys & Girls Clubs offering youth the opportunity to explore, create, and record music for free.”
Neighborhood of Good® with Panic! At The Disco | Episode 4 | State Farm® Original Series
“N4N Studios are packed with professional instruments – guitars, basses, drums, keyboards/synths – and equipment – DJ gear, digital music workstations – and full recording facilities. Beyond providing access to equipment and resources, we educate youth about careers both on the stage and behind the scenes.”
The studio comes with musical equipment worth around $10,000 (£7,650) and he first revealed the news that he was working on the project back in November 2018 in a video where he was reunited with his former music teacher.
“This is not far from where I grew up, so this is a special neighbourhood. It’s all coming round. I get to pay it forward in the way it was paid to me as a child,” he said in the clip.
It’s not the first time Brendon has got involved in charitable causes. In 2018, he launched his ‘Highest Hopes Foundation’ - an organisation aiming to address issues of discrimination or abuse on "the basis of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation + gender identity”.
He also previously donated $1 million to GLSEN (pronounced "glisten"), the leading education organisation in America for working to create safe and inclusive for LGBTQ youth.