Our Story — Future Youth Records

Our Story

There has never been another record label like it. There has never been a label dedicated to helping youth harness the power of music to advocate for issues such as climate change, human rights, peace, and racial equality. Future Youth Records, a non-profit, incentivizes youth to become social justice advocates using music as the platform to change the world.

The label’s seeds were sown during the summer of 2008, during the economic downturn, when drummer/producer/educator Jason Wall prepared to return to teach at Soundwall, a summer rock music camp for youth ages 13-17. He had a 16-year-old drum student at the time who he thought would be perfect for the camp, and when he asked if he would attend, the student told him his father was unable to afford it that year. Wall simply found it unacceptable and decided to donate his pay to cover his tuition.

“That was the moment I realized how important it was to support a cause greater than myself.” Wall recalls.

Wall’s student ended up winning the top drummer award that year. Over the next few years, Wall kept on raising money from parents, sponsors, and organizations to help others. And it didn’t stop there.

In 2010, after hearing from several Soundwall students that they felt they didn’t have a viable career path forward in the post-Napster-era, and for whom they felt popular music at the time did not reflect their beliefs, Wall says he went to bed one night and the idea came through him to begin Future Youth Records - a record label that would dedicate itself to youth who wanted to change the world through their music.

Jason Wall, Mo Pleasure, and Thia Megia, working with Mission Girls Services at Studio Trilogy in 2015

In 2012, he started the process to form FYR as a non-profit, and in December of 2014, FYR received its tax-exempt status. As fate would intervene, while waiting for the IRS to approve them, Wall received an inquiry through FYR’s website from Mission Girls Services in San Francisco asking if FYR could put together an eight-week songwriting program to help a group of at-risk girls. He thought it was a great idea so he enlisted Studio Trilogy - a multi-million dollar recording studio in San Francisco out of which he was producing - and some of the world-renowned musicians with whom he had been working, to mentor them – Mo Pleasure (keyboards for such artists as Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire), American Idol’s Thia Megia and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Marcel East. It was so therapeutic for the girls that they agreed to continue for another eight weeks. When the 16-week program culminated, the girls had written several songs and Wall learned how songwriting had helped a 13-year-old participant overcome thoughts of suicide.

 

Matt “Dr. Fink” and A-Plus working on “We Are the Women” with Mission Girls Services in 2015

 

Shortly after the songwriting program ended, Wall learned of another group of girls from Mission Girls Services who were not happy with how women were portrayed in rap music, and wanted to write their own song to empower women. He felt FYR should support the project and recruited Matt “Dr. Fink” (keyboardist from Prince & The Revolution) and rapper A-Plus (from the groups “Souls of Mischief” and “Hieroglyphics”) to mentor the group.  In five days they wrote and recorded an anthem called “We Are the Women'' inside Studio Trilogy, and a few weeks later, they filmed a music video. Mission Girls Services ended up submitting the video to the Super Bowl 50 committee who were awarding 50 grants as part of the Super Bowl 50 celebration in San Francisco that year. Out of over 600 submissions, the girls won one of the grants. This served as validation for FYR to keep working to empower young women and the Think Women campaign was born.

 

A-Plus, Matt “Dr. Fink”, Willie Samuels, Jason Wall, Dave Shul, and Eva Gardner working with youth from Mercy High School in San Francisco to produce music for the Think Women campaign in 2018

 

Over the next few years, Wall and his team partnered with several youth agencies in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles and the UK to produce more music for Think Women. They worked out of world-class studios like East West, Different Fur, and Real World - Peter Gabriel’s legendary studio in England. Wall also expanded the team to include Eva Gardner (bassist with P!NK and Gwen Stefani) and Dave Shul (formerly with Michael Franti & Spearhead). The success of these projects led Wall to create the Think Peace and Think Earth campaigns. And then, in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and FYR had to abruptly cease all recording projects.

As the world dealt with the unprecedented health crisis, Wall and his team quickly pivoted into a remote model, and decided the best path forward would be to run a songwriting contest for its Think Peace campaign that year in response to the tragic killing of George Floyd. The contest model allowed FYR to reach youth globally and to drastically reduce its production budgets since the entire process would be remote. It was also easier to secure top musicians such as Justin Derrico (guitarist from P!NK and The Voice) and Ash Soan (session drummer who played on Adele’s “Set Fire To The Rain”) who were often too busy to attend FYR studio sessions. FYR quickly found out that there were hundreds of youths who wanted to submit songs for a chance to appear on the compilation album. Out of over 300 youths who entered, an all-star judging panel voted for their top five picks. The legendary drummer, John “JR” Robinson was one of those judges. He was so impressed by Celeste Butler, a winner from Los Angeles, that he offered to co-produce and cut the drum track on her song, “Bullets”. 

FYR was really onto something here with this new model. They ran two additional contests for Think Women and Think Earth in 2021. Both led to hundreds more submissions and 11 new tracks on the compilation albums. FYR also expanded their judges panel to include luminaries such as Jack Douglas (legendary producer for John Lennon), Kathy Valentine (bassist and songwriter with The Go-Go’s), David Kalt (founder of Reverb.com), best-selling author Gay Hendricks, and legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff, to name a few. While the contest model was working well, Wall and his team decided to keep submissions open year-round, but to eliminate the competitive aspect. To date, they have received over 2,000 submissions from 22 countries and counting.

Jack Douglas

Kathy Valentine

David Kalt

Kenny Aronoff

2022 has been a busy year having released several songs for their Think Women and Think Earth campaigns; they are currently in production for their Think Peace campaign, which they are dedicating to those living in Ukraine. In addition, they also recently completed the pilot for their new artist development program called “FYR360” which provides all-star coaching in areas such as songwriting, music production, music business, live performance, marketing, and networking.

Wall believes FYR can help this generation of youth create the soundtrack of social justice. “If we can partner with youth, and together produce music that promotes critical thinking on social issues, we’ll see meaningful change.”

FYR continues to operate 100% remotely and is planning on making an even bigger impact in 2023. The label covers 100% of all production, marketing, distribution, and programs costs while youth retain 100% ownership in the rights to their music.