A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day. High around 45F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph, becoming N and increasing to 10 to 20 mph..
At her studio in downtown Manhattan, Aliyah Stephens helps people find their voice.
Stephens, an audio engineer and music producer, formed Manhattan Mob Records in 2015 and ran the studio out of her home until moving into a space on Poyntz Avenue in 2022. She said the work gives her a chance to help people to help people say something.
“It gives other people opportunities to capture their stories,” she said.
The studio includes two rehearsal spaces, a vocal recording booth and a mixing station. Stephens books out the vocal booth for people to record music, advertisements, voice overs and more. She also offers mixing and mastering of audio tracks and creates instrumental backing tracks for people to put vocals over.
Several local groups rehearse at the studio, including alternative rock group Philosophy of Lions, blues and R&B group The Flint Hills Band and the Manhattan Mob.
Stephens grew up around music from a young age. She took piano lessons beginning at age 4 and was involved with music at church. She played in bands in school and sometimes asked her father, a saxophone player, to play with her as well.
“I started making bands with my friends at school and recording ourselves, blowing up our gear because we didn’t know what we were doing,” she said.
Stephens’ younger brother, Benjamin, also works at the studio as a drummer and audio engineer. He said Aliyah started teaching him to play drums when he was 4 years old. They said their parents were very supportive of their musical endeavors.
“Our parents played a big part in influencing our musical taste and access to things you needed to become a better musician,” she said. “And they didn’t just give us the tools, they would listen to us and give us feedback.”
Stephens studied music composition at K-State and also took classes in music production and sound design from the Berklee College of Music online. She originally planned to study aerospace engineering, but during her senior year of high school she had a revelation.
“I don’t know exactly what it was that happened, but I was like, ‘I think I’m going to play music for the rest of my life,’” Stephens said.
She said she took a class that taught her more about how to create certain sounds an artist might ask for and train her ear to hear detailed sounds.
“It’s kind of like learning your colors over again in a different sense, like learning how to hear a high frequency or a low frequency,” she said.
Stephens writes her own music but recently has been focusing on helping others create theirs and collaborating with others. Stephens said she feels she has a knack for helping other lyricists refine and improve their work.
“If somebody says a line that is too plain, or I’ll say ‘You said too much, say this without saying it,’” Stephens said.
Creating custom instrumental tracks for other artists is one of Stephens’ favorite parts of the job. She said some clients get beats online that are under copyright, so she will build an original track around their vocal. She said she tries to create a signature sound.
“I get to add my own flavor,” Stephens said. “When I get to make an instrumental, that’s something nobody can take away from us as a producer and an artist.”
