Norwalk rapper FNX Provides Food to Families in Need (Norwalk Hour, December 26, 2016)

Photo by Erik Trautmann, Heart Connecticut Media

NORWALK — When Norwalk rapper Kenneth Shuler decided to give back this holiday season, he hoped he would be able to help four local families.

As of Christmas Day, he and a team of friends and family have provided two to three weeks of food for 11 Fairfield County families and counting.

“It’s been amazing,” Shuler said. “It’s a testament to the type of legwork the FNX team has put forth. Marc Alan (of Factory Underground) has been a big help, and it’s just been an amazing experience.”

Shuler released his debut hip-hop album under the moniker FNX (pronounced phoenix) on Black Friday. Produced by Norwalk’s Factory Underground, Shuler has been giving away the 17-track album for free, asking instead that fans donate the money they would have spent to a GoFundMe page used to purchase food for hungry families in Fairfield County.

Photo by Alex Von Kleydorff, Heart Connecticut Media

Using statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that say $250 is the cost to feed a family of four for a week, Shuler had hoped to give one week’s worth of food to one family in Norwalk, one in Stamford, one in Bridgeport and one in New Haven, selecting them with the help of local nonprofit agencies.

The fundraiser brought in $1,400. By completing the shopping himself and finding items on sale, Shuler was able to provide even more food than anticipated, feeding two families in Stamford, three in Norwalk, one in Bridgeport and two in New Haven. Shuler said the FNX team will feed an additional two families next week.

“I feel great about what we were able to do,” Shuler said. “When we got to the door of the families and I said, ‘Hi, I’m FNX and I have some food for you,’ they didn’t know what to say. Not too many people expected it. As we started to bring in the food, joy started to come by, and we started to be able to communicate. It was just a blessing. I was blessed to be able to do it.”

The fundraiser is not Shuler’s first time giving back to the community. In June, Shuler hosted the first Hometown Love Initiative event in conjunction with Factory Underground and the Carver Center. The event featured a barbecue, basketball tournament and food drive, drawing alumni and community members for an event so successful they are planning to duplicate it next year.

“We’re really happy to support people in the city of Norwalk, but also across Fairfield County,” Shuler said. “We appreciate the support of everyone who either directly donated or donated to the GoFundMe.”

Shuler’s album is available at fnxmusic.bandcamp.com, and donations can be made at gofundme.com/fnxholidayfooddrive.

Norwalk CT Rapper FNX: Changing The Culture of Hip Hop (Norwalk Hour, December 15, 2016))

Photo by Alex Von Kleydorff, Hearst Connecticut Media

Written by Kaitlyn Krasselt
Reprinted from the Norwalk Hour, December 15, 2016


[NORWALK] Kenneth Shuler’s story isn’t unusual.

He grew up in South Norwalk, a child of a broken home and a family in poverty. Depression, homelessness, domestic violence and abuse in the shelter system are all issues that have shaped his life.

Rather than fall into an endless cycle, he’s breaking the mold and building a career in music, telling a story and giving back to the community that shaped him into the artist he is today.

But the story isn’t about him, he said. It’s about everyone who’s ever dealt with those same issues. 

Photo by Alex Von Kleydorff, Hearst Connecticut Media

“My life story is very similar to a lot of people who battle class and race issues,” Shuler said. “I had a brief stay in the shelter, I grew up around mental illness and domestic violence, I slept on the floor of the pentecostal church in high school. And despite those dynamics, I can tell my story and it’s one that people like me are going through.”

Shuler released his debut hip-hop album under the moniker FNX (pronounced phoenix) on Black Friday. But he isn't selling it. Produced by Norwalk’s Factory Underground, Shuler is giving away the 17-track album for free, asking instead that fans donate the money they would have spent to a GoFundMe page he plans to use to feed hungry families in Fairfield County. [see follow up story in the Norwalk Hour, December 26, 2016 for results of the campaign].

Shuler credits his ability to break out of his family's predetermined path of poverty to Norwalk’s George Washington Carver Center, an organization he says kept him off the streets and in school. After graduating from Brian McMahon High School in 2003, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Southern Connecticut, and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire. 

Photo by Alex Von Kleydorff, Hearst Connecticut Media

In June 2016, Shuler hosted the first Hometown Love Initiative event in conjunction with Factory Underground and the Carver Center. The event featured a barbecue, basketball tournament and food drive, drawing alumni and community members for an event so successful they’re already planning to duplicate it next year. [The event raised 600 non-perishable food items that were donated to Person-to-Person Food Bank of Norwalk.]

“[Carver] gave me a platform to give back to my hometown,” Shuler said.

Marc Alan, director of marketing for Factory Underground, said the Norwalk-based recording studio is always looking for ways to get involved in the community. And, having built a relationship with Shuler since he started recording there five years ago, the Factory became the perfect partner for Shuler’s initiatives.

“We love being involved in things to help people,” Alan said. “And FNX is great. With hip-hop, people expect a negative connotation, and it can be hard to convince people it’s not that, but he keeps bringing positive attention to the culture and we really support that.”

Read the full article in the Norwalk Hour. 

Free Download of "DJ Juelz Presents: FNX Music Volume 1" 

Tom The Suit Forst in the Norwalk Hour: Retired Sales Executive Trades in C-Suite for Center Stage

NORWALK — After two decades in the corporate world, Tom Forst had had enough.

So when his wife told him they’d finally paid off the last of their children’s college tuition, his response, naturally, was, “I’m quitting.”

That was eight years ago. Back when he had a tight haircut and wore a full suit to work every day. Back when the idea of playing music full time was nothing more than a daydream supplied by a memory.

With the blessing of his wife, Forst gave his six months notice — as it turns out, you don’t just “quit” when you’re the regional vice president of sales at Cox Communications — and returned to a life he always knew he’d find again someday.

"I think if I have a message it’s that you should never give up on your dreams,” Forst said. “The dream was always to start again. It never occurred to me that being older would be a problem, and it hasn’t been.”

Forst, now 65, will release his first solo album, “On Fire,” Jan. 14. Produced by Grammy-winning guitarist, producer and songwriter Paul Nelson and recorded at Norwalk’s Factory Underground, the album features musicians from the Johnny Winter Band, Popa Chubby Band, Allman Brothers Band, Saturday Night Live Band and Steven Colbert Band.

Known as “The Suit,” Forst hasn’t given up his corporate identity entirely. Though a little more eccentric, his face framed by shoulder-length gray hair and classic Chuck Taylor’s on his feet, he still dons a suit jacket everywhere he goes. Some are more flamboyant, decorated with elaborate embroidery, and others are classic, well-fitting and subtle.

His 11 track blues-rock album also features the songwriting of Forst’s longtime friend, the late Gary Youell of Norwalk, whose suggestion that Forst cut a song about a world where women have taken over was the inspiration for a single Forst plans to release in January called “Women of the World.”

“He came to me and said, ‘The world is such a mess. What if women took over the world instead of the good old boys?’ And that’s how we came up with this song,” Forst said.

The father of two daughters, he said the song was also informed by their experiences as women of the world, as well as the glass ceilings he saw in the corporate world.

Read More: Tom The Suit Forst in the Norwalk Hour 

NEW VIDEO RELEASE: TOBIN MUELLER MASTERWORKS TRILOGY: MUSIC OF TRANSCENDENCE

     Tobin Mueller has announced his film biopic "Masterworks Trilogy, Music of Transcendence," featuring interviews, and a behind the scenes look at the writing, recording, and mixing of his latest work "Of Two Minds: The Music of Frederic Chopin and Tobin Mueller." Directed by Marc Alan of Factory Underground Records, with editing by Aidan Gerety of Stateside Visuals, the ten minute film work is now available on Mueller's YouTube video channel. 

     The Masterworks Trilogy is a three album set recorded by Mueller over the past three years. The final album in the trilogy, "Of Two Minds," is an exploration of the intersection between jazz and classical piano. On disc one, "Tobin Plays Chopin,"  Tobin performs a selection of intricate musical compositions by Frederic Chopin, including Polonaise in A Major, Op 40, No 1, Mazurka in A Minor, Op 17, No. 4, and others. Disc Two is "Tobin Plays Tobin," nine pieces of solo jazz piano written by Tobin Mueller, inspired by the music of Chopin. Mixed, mastered and engineered by Kenny Cash of Factory Underground, the double album set was released in 2016, and is available for purchase on CD Baby, Amazon, and other online retail sites. 

    The two other albums in the trilogy are "Tobin Mueller: Impressions of Water and Light," featuring original compositions inspired by Impressionist painters of the 19th Century, and "Flow: Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Tobin Mueller," another two disc set.   

     Interviews in the film detail parallels between Mueller's struggles with A1AD lung disease, and Chopin's struggles with tuberculosis and other lung disease that resulted in the composer's death at 39. As Mueller explains, "This is why I have to get the music out as long as I can continue, why I've had to reduce stress, change all my priorities..."

     The film also outlines Mueller's volunteer work at Ground Zero in New York City, which began the day after 9-11, September 12, 2001. Mueller's work on site including supplying the firemen and welders with food, water and other materials. In the years after 9-11, Mueller developed what he thought was a bad case of asthma, but that later turned out to be A1AD, a condition which involves inflammation and swelling of his joints and lungs. 

     An interview with Kenny Cash reveals Tobin's prolific nature, having worked on at least eight of Tobin's albums over four years of their work together, a number of them multiple disc sets.

http://www.TobinMueller.com
http://www.CDBaby.com/m/cd/tobinplayschopin
http://www.factoryundergroundstudio.com