About

Emotions Are Our Business

When Fred and I started the studio back in 2008, it was more of an experiment. We’d bought recording equipment for creating our own music. The question became, would other people want to work closely with us on their own music? Or would they prefer the control and convenience that they could get from recording at home.

It turns out plenty of people DID like having our input on their music.

There were a couple of things that we emphasized right out of the gate. The first thing was that we’d slowly been building up a collection of vintage keyboards, particularly electromechanical keyboards. The thought there was that these instruments were bulky, finicky, and a pain to store at home. They also weren’t easy to model in the computer at that point. So people at our studio would have access to these sounds that they might not otherwise have access to.

The other, more important thing that we emphasized was based on a pet theory of mine: that most listeners don’t necessarily have a discerning ear when it comes to recording fidelity, but they can almost instantly tell a good song from a bad song, and a good performance from a bad performance. So as we slowly built up more equipment and more engineering experience, we were working closely with artists right away on their songs, arrangements, and performances to make sure the music had the biggest, most emotional impact.

Sometimes recording engineers can get in the weeds looking at very minor details, or be super focused on making themselves sound good. “Who cares if the song sucks, listen to that snare sound!” I like a good snare sound as much as the next person, but I’m much more concerned with whether or not the music is making me feel something. In other words, emotions are our business.

As we’ve progressed, our list of equipment has grown longer, and we’ve become more comfortable as engineers, but our focus is still on making music that has impact and shows emotion. I think that comes across in the example videos.

I think we have a truly awesome selection of keyboards, drums, guitars, percussion, microphones, preamps, compressors, EQ’s, and all the other building blocks of a studio. But we’re not using this equipment to make ourselves sound good. What we want to do is make YOU sound good. We want to make it sound like, when you’re singing, you had the best day of singing you ever had. That your ideas are sharp and strong. And that your songs are going to reach out of the speakers and shake people. Or make them feel comforted. Or make them melancholy. Or make them feel in love.

I think one of the reasons that people come to us instead of recording at home is that we can help them reach these places with their music. And while it’s possible to do the work at home, it’s harder to reach that emotional place when you’re also keeping an eye on the meters and worrying about overloading your gear. It’s also hard to keep your eye on the big picture when you’re struggling to get the mix right.

There’s way more that I could say here, but if you’re interested, feel free to contact us. If you’d like to come tour the studio and talk about your music, we’d be happy to have you over. If you’re not in Knoxville, but you’re interested in our Mixing and Mastering services, we can meet with you online.

Growing up as a young musician, I thought studios were magical places. Sacred spaces. Even the ones crammed into a shed or a spare room. Even when they smelled like cigarettes and beer and weed. We’ve tried our best to build our own sacred musical space (one that DOESN’T smell, for the record), and then share it with other musicians. If this sounds like it might be a good fit for you, please reach out.

-Jonathan Kelly