June 4, 2026
James Rasser has had an interest in professional music production ever since his dad gave him a guitar and a microphone as a kid. Today, he’s already working for a record label.
It just so happens to be part of his classes in the Glenn Korff School of Music.
“Broken Elevator Records combines the work students are doing in the Advanced Audio Recording and Production class with the Music Entrepreneurship class," explains James, a vocal performance major from Papillion, Nebraska. “Since we have this new building with an amazingstudio, our professor Tom Larson thought it would be cool for us to work with local bands on recording their music while also doing live events and promo.”
Last semester, James and the Broken Elevator team worked with the Lincoln-based band Joyrager on recording a four-song EP as well as planning, promoting and staging a live show at the Nebraska Union.
“I feel so lucky to have been in both classes and get both sides of the experience,” James says. “During production, we recorded the band in the studio and then were put into groups to mix the music ourselves. The new studio is so amazing, it's hard to put into words — I’m just in awe every time I get to work in it.”
While recording in the state-of-the-art space let James and his team control every aspect, putting on the live show at the Union presented more fast-paced challenges.
“After all the promo — creating posters, doing social media and building a website — we had to actually figure out how to put on a live show at the Union, which was super cool. Running around, setting up mics and doing sound checks the day of felt like we were setting up for something really big.”
As it turned out, they were setting up for something even bigger than they’d planned.
“It was a huge hit. We were right up front cheering on Joyrager, then we turn around and all of a sudden there were probably 100 people or more behind us. We were all just like, ‘Whoa, this really worked.’”