Oregon Music News

Ian Mouser / Photo by Motherghost Photography

There is something magical about the power that music has to bring people together. Sometimes that magic gets lost in the hype of concerts and famous artists and the industry and business of making music. Ian Mouser strips music down to the purest and most basic starting point and it is inspiring to see how he can do so much with so little.

In 2008, Mouser founded the nonprofit: My Voice Music. A musician who has released several albums, Mouser had a dream to reach marginalized and at-risk youth with music. He did not have a Rolodex full of contacts or a limitless supply of financial resources to fund his vision. But what he did have was experience in the field, determination, friends who would listen, a love of music, and a lot of heart. OMN had the opportunity to talk with Mouser about his amazing story and learn why he is so committed to helping an underserved population through My Voice Music.

Mouser grew up in the foothills of Southern Oregon. His childhood was not easy. He moved around a lot and found school difficult because of the lack of family stability. One thing that was always constant in his life was music.

“I had trouble in school until I got involved with a place called Wilderness Trails, a camping organization, and it changed my life. Once I got involved there I finally had positive adult mentors. I went from being a kid who was failing most of his classes and getting into fights and being known for a tough guy, to being a nice guy and that really launched me into high school with a new MO. When I got out of high school, I started playing with a few bands, American Hit List and Another Cynthia. I got signed to a record contract with Rumblefish. I dropped out of college and moved to Portland and started rocking out with the band. We toured the West Coast and did lots of rock and roll shows for about seven years,” Mouser said.

At some point, the life of a touring rock star lost its appeal and Mouser returned to working with at-risk youth.

“I got a job as a treatment counselor in a residential treatment facility and it was a lockdown facility for kids with emotional challenges as well as behavioral challenges. I’d walk in every day and have to go through a few locked doors. I’d be managing kids who were getting in fights. It was a situation where I was an adult in power and the kids were there to challenge it. It was a very weird interplay. One day I brought in my guitar and played some music. All of a sudden these six 10 to 12-year-old kids came out of the room and instead of yelling and screaming at each other they just sat down on the floor and with bright eyes. They looked at me inquisitively and they listened to me play my guitar. It was the first time I was able to see them as boys and not kids with their guards up.

“After that they started wanting to play music. I formed a little rock band with all of them and they played at their talent show. You know, I couldn’t give them a fork on the unit because they might use the fork to jab themselves, or a peer, or me, but I could give them my classic 1964 Band-Master guitar amp head and they were complete gentleman. It was a place where they could shine and that experience really struck a chord in me and in the staff. After that experience, I started teaching music classes and all of a sudden this place that was full of fighting now had all of these kids singing ‘Let It Be’ and they had so much fun rocking out. We formalized the program and after that I started teaching music and therapy programs in a local school and then when that program was shut down due to funding issues, I saw a need and started My Voice Music,” Mouser explained.

Student and teacher at MVM

Of course nothing is quite that simple. Even when there is a recognized need, the logistics of turning dreams into reality are often the stumbling blocks to success. In 2008, as Mouser was formulating his ideas, the economy was spiraling downward. Undeterred, Mouser kept his dream alive with the help of his friends.

“My friend from Rogue River High School, Richard Hannan, who is now president of our board, overheard a conversation I was having about music and kids and the work I was doing. He was so excited about it; he actually asked me, ‘What do you need?’  I said, ‘I don’t know.’  I had no connections, no money, and little intellectual capital at the beginning of this journey.  Richard said, ‘How about I buy you a cheap van and keep it running for you?’  He bought that van 18 months before My Voice Music was founded and I used it to launch private music lessons in order to afford to be able to stop working full-time and put my energy into making My Voice Music a reality.  We use that same van as the program van for My Voice Music,” Mouser said.

Things happened fairly quickly after Mouser took that first step.

“The first family that I worked with, the Holmes family, found out about the work I was doing and actually gave me their Durango if I would form a non-profit.  I formed a Board of Directors that week.  I then sold the Durango for $3,000 and had my friend and attorney, Peter Shaver, help me with all of our incorporation documents. He worked pro-bono.  He also introduced me to some key people and organizations that he thought could help me in this venture,” said Mouser.

My Voice Music accepts students from the ages of 8 to 17 for the independent programs on a first come, first served basis.

“All of our programs are free or pay what you can afford. We want to serve those people who would not otherwise have these opportunities. I think of My Voice Music as offering a tornado of services. On the outside of the tornado you’ve got a complete range of music programs such as electronic music programs where we do music with computers to teach kids how to use free computer software to make music and we help them record their work. We also offer rock band camps. We also do things that are less intensive like drum circles and sing along groups that use music as therapy in programs in residential treatment centers. In that situation where we are only going to see kids one to two times, we can’t really teach them guitar, but we can promote music as a way to stay calm, heal and cope and we can teach them how to express themselves through music. We do all of these programs as a way to get kids involved in music and to develop skills to help them in the future.

“In the inside of the tornado we’ve got independent programs that we run where we don’t go to outside organizations, but the kids come to us. These are kids that either got referred through our partnership programs or maybe they came from a foster home that heard about us. These are programs where kids stop in, hang out with a bunch of other kids, learn an instrument, join a rock band, work on a project together, finish the project together, record it, and do a performance. At the core of our tornado is the community of kids that we are trying to build. We want kids signing up for the programs and coming back each time and by starting to feel like they are in a band, they start to form positive relationships with the staff and other kids in the program. We feel that what is really life changing are these positive relationships. In a nutshell, we are trying to build a place to foster those personal relationships and make your own music at the same time,” Mouser explained.

Mouser’s passion and dedication to working in the nonprofit arena with the less fortunate youth who have fallen out of the typical realm of community services and who face challenges such as living in the foster care system, experiencing mental health issues, or coping with limited economic means, recently earned him one of four 2011 Skidmore Prizes. The Skidmore Prize, awarded annually by Willamette Week to celebrate outstanding nonprofit leaders and staffers in Portland, recognized Mouser for his long-term commitment, and with over 15 years of experience, they picked a worthy recipient. Mouser is hesitant to accept all of the accolades by himself.

“I am sincere in the fact that it is only with the help of so many selfless people who came to us to volunteer, donate and give their time that My Voice Music happened,” Mouser said.

From very humble beginnings My Voice Music has taken off and the success stories are numerous.

“One of the major successes this year is that we’ve been able to work with so many kids. Last year I ran all of our programs with some volunteer support and we worked with about 250 kids. This year we switched that up and now the volunteers that worked with me are actually running our programs so we can see a greater number of kids. By the end of the year we will have worked with over 500 kids,” Mouser said.

Two Portland students, who participate in a My Voice Music Saturday music program, 14-year-old Diamond and 13-year-old Jarod, are part of that group of 500 kids who have been served by My Voice Music. These students look forward to the opportunity to play music and meet other students who may or may not have experiences similar to theirs, but music becomes the common bond they share.

Mouser / Photo by Motherghost Photography

“Music is a powerful way to express your feelings and if you want to express yourself in music you can do that here. There is no limit. I like how making music is a group thing. If you have an idea to add to a song they accept it,” Diamond said.

Jarod, who plays flute, drums, piano, sax, and trumpet, agreed. “I like getting together and playing in a band, as opposed to playing and being by myself. This program gives me something to do. I can get away. I know whatever I say will be right. With music, I don’t have to worry about being wrong.”

My Voice Music does not take a cookie cutter approach to music. Mouser sees every student as unique with much to offer. Whether it is a student who comes to a Saturday program or a student who is institutionalized, each connection is a success and each song is valuable.

“I worked in a residential treatment facility with a teenage young man who was very violent and very aggressive to the point where he had to be put in physical restraints multiple times a day. This went on for weeks. Whenever I met with him I would just sit down and play my guitar for about 90 minutes. I later learned that after I left that first night, he had been calm and able to go to sleep. My music piqued his interest and he got really excited to start writing and recording his own music with me. We found a recorder and mic on the unit and we just started recording his songs. Over the course of about a month, the guy had written about 50 pages of songs and material. I still have the booklet. He just transferred all of his aggression into music and song writing. He was not violent after that and that was a pretty powerful thing,” Mouser said.

A big part of My Voice Music’s program is getting these kids to write and record their own music.

“I remember one of the girls I worked with wrote these lyrics and I looked at them and thought I don’t know about these lyrics, but I let her sing them any way. A few weeks later I got an email from her therapist and learned that the song the girl had written was used in her family therapy session as a breakthrough. The therapist told me that she had been trying to get this girl to express these feelings to her family for over a year. The song was a way for her to express herself and was played in therapy as a way for the family to have a huge breakthrough moment,” Mouser said.

“We have a motto that we use and it is: Believe. Create. Give.  Believe in yourself in order to create something that means enough to give back.

“There was a student in our program last year that ended up learning the guitar and singing really well. At the last concert of the year she gave a solo performance and it was just beautiful. I later learned that she regularly shared her music and sang to the younger kids in her residential home as a way for them to stay calm and to fall asleep. I thought that was really cool to experience music in that way. That is the embodiment of our mission, to give back.”

Despite these tremendous successes, Mouser finds there is still much to do. To be able to fulfill such overwhelming need while operating on a shoestring budget is a daunting task.

“We have a lot of volunteer positions where we need help. We need volunteers who have direct experience working in the nonprofit field, such as people with fundraising experience. We also need volunteers with musical experience to help our leaders to run our programs. We have a lot of instruments that are broken and need repair and we need volunteers to help repair them. We have laptops that we have been given for our electronic music program that need to be put together to have the necessary software. We also have events where we could use volunteers with experience in the food and beverage industry,” said Mouser.

“Fortunately we have been blessed with over 50 volunteers, but a big challenge is always money. Guitars, both electric and acoustic and basses are next on the list.  We would love to have enough acoustic guitars so that we could give them to kids as a reward for finishing two or three of our programs.  Also, having more instruments, makes it easier for the kids because they could practice on their own instrument,” Mouser said.

Clearly there is a lot of demand out there and My Voice Music is only able to offer a limited number of spots due to space constraints.

“Our biggest obstacle right now is space. We advertise to foster care agencies and we can only offer six slots. If we had our own space we could have these programs running about every night of the week. Space is what we need the most,” Mouser explained.

Mouser is confident that he will get to where he wants to be and he is determined to make that happen. To celebrate all of the achievements so far, the public is invited to share in the festivities of My Voice Music’s 3rd Anniversary Celebration on October 15th at The Village Ballroom in Portland.

“We have put together an amazing CD and we are going to release that at the party. It has 12 songs on it written by students in our programs and every song has a story behind it. A number of Portland notables like Mayor Sam Adams, Storm Large and Chelsea Cain are speaking on the album as well. We are having a silent auction and a performance by the students. There will be music by All The Apparatus and it will be lots of fun; we’d love the public to attend,” said Mouser.

Mouser chose a difficult path. Working with at-risk and marginalized youth is challenging, but incredibly rewarding. There is much to celebrate and what better way to do that than to create, listen and play music.

Celebrate My Voice Music’s 3rd Anniversary Celebration on October 15th, from 7pm until 11pm, at The Village Ballroom in Portland.  Find out more details and to RSVP for the for the party here.