Singer to celebrate debut album during Party on the Lawn

As a 3-year-old attending her grandfather's retirement party at Hill-Rom in Batesville, Alex Hutchek broke into song before the company CEO. The youngster also loved singing to the background music in grocery stores.

"I just did not care," Hutchek said. "I loved the music."

Now a junior at Purdue University Fort Wayne, Hutchek will introduce her first recording album next week through PFW's Gold Top Music Group. The goal has been to drop the album in time for Tuesday's Party on the Lawn at Student Housing on the Waterfield Campus, which will also serve as her release party.

Using the stage name "VEO," which is her middle name and her great-grandmother's first name, Hutchek's "Reflections" features nine original country and rock songs. Most deal with events from her life, showing she still has that 3-year-old's passion and fearlessness.

"My whole goal is to be part of the industry," Hutchek said. "I don't care necessarily where I end up, I love the music that much. I love the way it makes people feel, and I love the connection. You can connect with a total stranger at a concert because of a song, and I love that."

For a year, Hutchek has been working with producer Tyler Crisp, a senior commercial recording and production major, and co-executive producers Ryan Tilby, clinical assistant professor of music recording and technology, and Nathan Heironimus, education resource manager for Sweetwater, to craft, refine, and grind through creating an album. It's been exhilarating, painful, tedious, draining, energetic, and ultimately pressure-filled with a deadline quickly approaching.

"I can't say enough about how open-minded she and Tyler have been through this process," Tilby said. "Tyler allowed me to be co-producer and say a lot of things that they've been so great with."

One of Tilby's goals was helping his students understand how difficult it is to produce an album, but still maintain the love for what they were accomplishing. He wanted to push them to frustration, force them to dig for better and fight to make something special. They bought in, because, as Hutchek said, "With happiness comes a lot of hard work-and that's OK."

"I was diving super-deep into the `This is terrible and miserable, and why am I doing this?'" Crisp said. "Then getting to the end, `Oh, yeah, this is why I'm doing this.' I knew it would be a huge learning process, which it really was."

But the album also fulfills Crisp's dreams. As he said, it goes back to being a little kid seeing someone mess with the faders and wondering what that person was doing. This creation started with songs on phone recordings and voicemail notes, and finally, he was running a big production in the studio, even playing guitar on a few tracks. Everything required multiple takes.

Ten people joined the crew to play on the album, including regular Hutchek bandmates Chase Fritz and Aden Carson on guitar, Connor Hogsten on bass, and Phoenix McClain on drums. They are all PFW juniors.

Crisp already has new ideas he wishes he'd thought of a year ago before they started creating tracks in October. Hutchek wrote the last song, "Here Lies," two months ago after one of her best friends passed away after a short battle with lung cancer. After saying goodbye, she composed the song in her head during a 10-hour drive home and then played it in her songwriting class a few days later.

Except for one idea from a newspaper story, the songs are intensely personal to Hutchek. "Daydream" was the first song recorded for the album and is about being away from someone you love and longing to be with them again. She wrote it last summer while spending time away from her boyfriend after taking a job eight hours away.

Hutchek describes the last year as challenging, but also an amazing period of growth.

"I knew going into it this year would be a lot of work, but I love the music. The fact that I get to write my own music and put it out there means the world to me because that's something I always wanted to do," Hutchek said. "I've become a better songwriter, and I've learned so much from being a part of this."

Rolling in the momentum of creativity, Hutchek has hundreds of notes for new songs. No one expects the next album she and Crisp collaborate on to take nearly as long to produce.

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