Los Angeles based music production house, Cinema Music Group, has created a musical fundraising project. This project’s first product is an album titled Heart of Gold Volume 1 and is composed of several Neil Young covers performed by various well-known artists like Fiona Apple, Mumford & Sons, and Brandi Carlile. Proceeds from this first volume and upcoming volumes will be donated to The Bridge School, an organization bringing education to children with speech and physical impairments. With more volumes on the way, the support for this cause can only grow. To learn more about Cinema Music Group and this project, read on.

Where are you based?
We’re based in Los Angeles.

What inspired you to come together and launch Cinema Music Group?
We bumped into each other at a friend's wake and started reminiscing and sharing stories. We ran a few sessions together and Cinema Music Group started to form from that.

Congratulations on your latest project “Heart of Gold Volume 1” releasing. What inspired you to start this project? Why did you choose to have the album contain Neil Young covers in specific?
Thank you! We’re very excited! Niko’s worked with Neil for the last 30+ years so we were able to get his blessing to do this. We had been working with Chris Pierce on his last album in the studio and we loved working with him. He’s such a talented songwriter and we loved his voice. We started putting together a wish list of artists for the project and reached out to people we knew. We reached out to Chris, Draco Rosa and Sharon Van Etten and then we went into a studio and tracked their three covers all in one day!

The artists you were able to get to sing on this project are all incredible! How did you go about choosing what artists you wanted to reach out to about this project?
Everything was via word of mouth. In some cases we reached out directly to the artist. In others we called friends, managers and producers we knew. I think in a couple of cases we reached out to the guitar techs! It meant the whole project has a “family” feel to it. That's made this very special to be a part of because everybody knows everybody in some way.

For this album, each artist was able to choose what Neil Young song they wanted to cover. Do you know why some of the artists chose the songs they did?
I think they all picked the songs that resonated with them the most.

Why do you have each artist record their covers in as little takes as possible? How does the overall outcome differ from the product of letting them have as many takes as they want?
It’s not that we don’t let them, it's just that usually it's the first or second take that’s the best. These days there’s usually a lot of digital polish during the recording process and we like to try and do things the “old school” way. I think there’s a certain magic that’s present in the first few takes and we like to capture that, mistakes and all. There’s so much emotion in the vocal too and it can get lost the more times you do it. Neil likes to record the same way and I think that when you’re doing a record of Neil covers you kind of need to respect his way of doing things.

We love that this album is a benefit project meant to raise money for The Bridge School! We understand you’ve already been able to raise $100,000 with this project. What about The Bridge School spoke to you and made you want to dedicate this project to raising money for them?
The Bridge School is a cause that’s very close to Neil’s heart. It’s equally just as big a part of his legacy as the music.

You’ve teased more volumes for this project. Do you plan on using the next volumes to keep supporting The Bridge School or will you raise the money from the next volumes for different organizations?
All volumes will benefit the Bridge School. We just want to keep spreading the word and hope more people can find out about and discover the amazing work that they do there!

Are there any upcoming projects you’re working on that we should look out for?
We just finished tracking another album with Chris Pierce. He’s been writing some incredible songs. He’s very prolific. This record has so many examples of what a talented songwriter sounds like.

It’s been a rough few years, and we expect at least four more. How have you been staying positive?
Music is powerful. It has the ability to heal. We’re actually planning on making a protest record next as well. We’re in the early stages. That's our way of staying positive, doing something about it and taking action.

What is your motto in life?
Live in the present. Not in the future of the past.

To learn more about Cinema Music Group, please check out the links below:
@cinemamusicgroup
@heartofgoldtribute
www.cinemeamusicgroup.com

Cinema Music Group has a Heart of Gold