Today we’d like to introduce you to Donald Milton III.
Donald, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to Atlanta 11 years ago to be the first full-time Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. Atlanta has an amazing, diverse music scene and I quickly dove into the storied choral music community here. On top of my work at UUCA, where I oversee one of the most excellent and eclectic music programs in the city, I have sung with the Atlanta Master Chorale and served as their executive director, directed the DeKalb Choral Guild, and performed more avant-garde concerts with my ensemble Lux Atlanta.
In 2016 my twin brother went to L.A. where he attended a sing along called Hamiltunes and it blew his mind. A bunch of fans of Hamilton: An American Musical getting together to sing the whole show, not as a performance, but as an active community event. He loved the idea so much he decided to start Hamiltunes DC. When he told me all about it, with the passion and fire we share when we’re excited, I decided I needed to jump in and start Hamiltunes ATL.
After a few months of planning and logistics with a team of fellow Hamilton fans, we put on our first Hamiltunes ATL sing along in an old church that was converted into an event space. As people gathered there was a nervous energy in the room (luckily we had a keg of Sam Adams). I expected the room to be full of my singer friends but that wasn’t the case. Nearly everyone who bought a ticket was a stranger. Not a room full of singers but a room full of teachers, doulas, coders, photographers and any other job you can think of. A microcosm of Atlanta.
I had never attended one of these sing alongs. What was going to happen? People signed up to lead parts from the mic, I welcomed everyone and talked about the plan for the night, then people lined up at the mics for the first song. The beat dropped and the magic happened. Everyone in the room started singing and rapping along. Just over a minute into the first track when the Hamilton character sings his name everyone cheered. The room was electric and it lasted the whole night. At the intermission, I joked about how much more fun it was to be spending Friday night singing this together instead of spending Friday night singing this by ourselves at home.
Our second ever Hamiltunes was the week of the 2016 presidential election. The group was almost twice the size as it was at the first sing along and most people who came to the first event came back for round two. This night felt different. Instead of nerves, the air was full of worry, fear, disappointment, and sadness. That night we sang together for survival. We sang, we shouted, we cried. Strangers becoming community through something as seemingly trivial as a musical. This is one of the most memorable nights of my life.
After that night we did a Hamiltunes ATL about every other month adding a separate all ages sing along for kids and their parents because kids are just as into Hamilton. At the end of one of our kids events, our DJ threw on Moana while we were packing up and the kids went wild. They all ran to the mics and belted “How Far I’ll Go.” We had talked about branching out from just doing Hamiltunes events and this felt like a sign.
My team and I got together and created Sky Punch ATL, named after a song written by my niece, Shiloh, who was nine at the time, about punching the sky when you wake up; a metaphor for seizing the day. In the last year and a half, we’ve put on all sorts of sing alongs including Disney, 90s Boybands/Girl Pop, Broadway Showstoppers and a Halloween sing along. Most recently we put on a RENT event with part of the profits going to AID Atlanta and we’re gearing up for a Beatles sing along with a live band playing every number (May 11th at the Vista Room). We still do Hamiltunes ATL events three or four times a year and the Disney sings are exceedingly popular.
At every event, I talk about how Sky Punch sing alongs aren’t karaoke. At most bars karaoke is passive. People put their name on a list and wait for their turn to be featured. When they aren’t singing, they’re looking at their phones or talking with their friends. Our events are active. They’re participatory. People do get on stage and lead songs but it’s a community activity. A group of great singers, ok singers, and bad singers all bellowing music, connected through a shared love of the material they’re engaging with.
At our events, people often have a look of disbelief like they didn’t know other people were as nerdy as they are. Several of our regulars talk about how they found their people at these sing alongs.
Has it been a smooth road?
Unlike most artistic endeavors the Sky Punch ATL road has been pretty smooth. We have amazing volunteers who make the events super fun.
Finding the right venue was a little challenging at first but now we do most of our events at The Vista Room in Decatur so all of our sing alongs have great food and drinks available and the space is awesome!
The struggle for me has just been finding the time to have events. I’m a very active musician, conductor, clinician, and speaker so sometimes it’s hard to find dates when I’m free and the venue is open. Right now we’re pretty consistently doing an event or two a month and that’s working great!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Sky Punch ATL – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I’m exceedingly proud of the atmosphere at our events. It’s an incredibly supportive place to sing no matter your ability level. More than that, people in the room so into what they’re singing and you can feel it in the air. I joke that our events are like eating a bowl of endorphins. People are engaged the whole time and leave smiling and buzzing.
Sky Punch ATL is known for putting on some of the most fun and engaging nerdy events in the city. There are other places that do awesome karaoke nights but this is a whole different ballgame.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Thinking business wise Atlanta’s biggest strengths are its diversity and culture. If you look hard enough, you can always find something amazing to do any night of the week. Because there are so many options people very often wait until the last minute to commit to doing anything, which is what I like least about our city. When you’re planning events, you need to know how many folks are going to be there so you can make it as awesome as possible. I know other Hamilton sing alongs around the country sell most of their tickets on the first day sales are open. We sell about half of our tickets in the few days leading up to an event.
Personally, the best things about Atlanta are the music scene and shrimp & grits.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.skypunchatl.com
- Email: skypunchatl@gmail.com
- Instagram: @skypunchatl
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skypunchatl/
Image Credit:
Photos by Dan Lax Photography www.danlax.com
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