Something for the weekend: Employees at skiing organisation Aspen Snowmass came together to write and produce a song during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
Heading up the team of musical maestros at Aspen is chief operating officer Matt Jones who is no stranger to the music industry, having worked a tour manager and taken to the stage as a backing singer.
During lockdown, Jones set out to revitalise his passion for the industry, and engage fellow employees by onboarding other music magicians. Jones scouted out Jonathan Ballou, head of the ski and snowboard school, more importantly, bassist, to join the gang. Jones onboarded lyric writers Auden Schendler and Michael Miracle from the sustainability department to bring the words to life.
On lead mic was Hannah Berman, businesses sustainability manager. Rounding the band together was Willia, Schendller’s daughter, who lay down some jazzy beats.
Producing the track ‘See You’ helped to motivate employees at Aspen Skiing, and aided them in dealing with the uncertainty of the Coronavirus pandemic, with ski operations taking a significant hit due to lockdown measures.
With the song now available on iTunes and Spotify, Jones hopes that others will follow a similar strategy to motivate staff, as long as their track is not better…
Jones said: “I’m really proud of how a group of amateurs who’ve never played a riff together could pull this off. I think it’s a testament to how much latent talent is out there.
“When things get hard you try to focus on some of the things you love. It gave us a fun project and a way to be together: even though we were socially distant, we were together in music.”
Here at Employee Benefits, we will be looking out for the Aspen Skiing touring dates and holding out for a Christmas special.