We recently checked in with Dave at 1809 at had a great interview. Hope you enjoy!
Where is the studio located?
Macedon, NY (20 Minutes east of Rochester)
A solar-powered recording studio is housed inside a re-purposed, 19th-century Erie Canalside Tavern. In a nice off-the-beaten-path kind of location, while still close to any amenities one needs.
Who are some notable artists who have recorded at the studio?
Danielle Ponder, Seán Barna, Stealth Ulvang (of The Lumineers), Amanda Rogers, Hallelujah The Hills, Ron Gallo, Former Belle…
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4X7N2NHbLHSqON87O6peYE?si=nPjAP18yTrm8Ro_JT7rQwA
How did you start the studio or what led you to start the studio?
I opened my first studio (Hopewell Recording) in an old Victorian house in Canandaigua, NY, with a good friend when we were 20. It was during recording school at FLCC. We both just knew the only way we would learn was by doing. This was back in 2002. We did this for 2 years and then “cashed out” so we could move around a bit. I spent about 10 years away from upstate NY, living in Colorado (Denver and Boulder) and Los Angeles. I did some recording in those towns, but mainly I focused on getting my undergrad in business and found myself working in artist management and tour management. I met my wife in Los Angeles, and we moved back to upstate NY together in 2012 and bought the 200-year-old building that now houses both the studio and our home. Took about 2 years to build it.
I always knew I wanted to open another studio someday that felt like it was an extension of myself. Something affordable for clients that made them feel really special. A vibey space can really inspire creativity and I personally feel really sensitive to this myself. So in a lot of ways, it was designed to please me both aesthetically and from a workflow standpoint. Since I am super song/artist obsessed, it definitely really leans into that experience. The gear was/is always secondary to what I cann being “in service of the songs”.
How do you go about finding new gear for the studioand what’s your favorite toy?
I find out about gear kicking around the used resellers online, chatting with friends in the business, and just general Google rabbit holes. Hard to really pinpoint a favorite piece, but I adore my Neotek Series 2 Console. I recently recorded some lead vocals for Seán Barna and was over the moon using my U67 in tandem with the WA-44 ribbon into 2 channels of Neve DPX and the U67 into an Audioscape 1176F and the WA44 into an LA2A. That really knocked my lil socks off.
Name 1 or 2 favorite/most meaningful sessions/albums from the studio.
I have been really lucky in this regard. I honestly don’t really have any motivation to do things that are not meaningful, ESPECIALLY in the studio. My life’s most rewarding relationships have begun with a session. I consider new clients by asking myself, “Would I invite them to one of my kids’ birthday parties?” If it is a yes, then it’s time to make a damn record.
Specifically:
I have absolutely loved my co-writing and recording sessions with Danielle Ponder. She is an absolute force of nature that inspires me so much. I feel really privileged when she trusts me with some of her art. She is one of those artists who makes everyone around her feel super important, like they’re some kind of celebrity, and that you can dream as big as you want to and ignore everyone trying to pull you back down.
My records with Seán Barna, starting with our EP, “Cissy” are the tops for sure. Over 4 albums (and counting) and a lot of touring together, we have developed a super special process. We have become true friends through making music together. Our sessions are very social on one end of the spectrum and like sibling-grade emotional on the other. We can create in this vacuum together because we really love and respect each other. Big family vibes. The effect our relationship has on the music is magic.
Additionally, on most of the Seán Barna records we have made, our mutual friend, Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows, has added vocals. It’s incredible seeing him work. His voice is so iconic and has always been so important to me growing up. It’s just wild to not only be able to record someone you hold in that high a regard, but also call them a friend. I mean, Adams’ music and lyrics helped shape me into the thoughtful and sensitive man I am today (when I am at my best). He did this for a lot of young men. If not for him, I think a lot more of us could have grown up just to funnel into vapid “male” archetypes.
Also – I have been having an amazing time working on an upcoming Stelth Ulvang LP. Stelth is a member of The Lumineers, and his original music is really special. It’s beautiful, fun, uninhibited, off-the-walls at times, and truly a representation of his unique self. We have this wild process where we learn songs while were being recorded in these long 60-90 minute continuous pro tools sessions. I have all the gear dialed in, and I am playing bass and working out arrangements with Stelth on piano and singing in an Iso Booth (w/ windows), and my best friend (and the dude I opened my first studio with – Jake Rodenhouse) is on drums. We record the entire process until we have a take or 2 we are happy with and stop recording. It is so fun and feels really free-spirited. It is also a trip to run a control room from the live room with an instrument in my hand and my songwriting hat on.
Name 1 or 2 most surprising moments in the studio.
Adam Duritz asked me to sing and record the backing vocals on the last 2 Counting Crows EP releases (now combined into 1 LP called “Butter Miracle, The Complete Suites!”). He would send me the unfinished mixes and just tell me to go to town. I would record a ton of material, curate it, send it off, and then Adam and I spent weeks going back and forth, tweaking and trying out new ideas. It’s a lot of fun. We both operate from the gut, so the combined effort is rewarding.
The second would be when Danielle Ponder and I made the song Egún, as the theme song for Apple TV’s ‘Manhunt’. We were in the studio working on something else, and her manager hit her up and asked if she would submit something for consideration to the show’s music supervisor (the amazing Lindsey Driscoll). We got a little visual deck from production and some pretty generic song references. Just boilerplate gothic-americana, really. Danielle, being her strong-willed self, did not entertain emulating this for even a second and started playing this haunting and complex guitar lick that had been with her a long time. It felt like gothic-afrobeat to me! Such an amazing lick to jumpstart production with. Within an hour or 2 we had the song structured, recorded, and ready enough to show its intention. It was immediately picked and I got to work with Lindsey and Danielle for the next few months fine-tuning it to its final form.
What’s the best/worst part of running a studio?
The best is when you hit those strides where you’re super inspired and can feel yourself leveling up. This could be during a writing session or while engineering, mixing, etc. I love to learn and grow as a producer, engineer, and co-writer. I love that feeling when the contents of my brain shift and need to be realigned and re-evaluated because a new, profound input has been introduced.
I really love that moment when you dial in a new signal path and think,”Damn! That sounds expensive!”
Worst – Our culture does not value this medium appropriately. Recordings only have great ROI for a small minority of artists. The rest just make recordings as business cards or as works of passion with their own personal “extra” money. The absolute worst thing is seeing amazing art made by truly inspired people just languish in the cultural ether. It breaks my heart. I certainly don’t want back to the bygone “good-old-days”, but it would be really nice if art were not curated by tech companies that serve motives and stakeholders who could give an absolute shit about raising culture and curating art.
We music-makers are all caught in this system of bullshit at the moment. Music and musicians have always been objectified and abused for commerce, but in the tech and social media age, it is a nightmare. If AI really does take over our market, then the collective “we” has earned it. If people continue to only patronize derivative versions of music they are already comfortable with and keen on, and not anything new, different, or authentic, then we only have our own degraded, uninspired husk of a culture to blame. Ok…. I need to calm down now….
What was the first session done at the studio?
Hallelujah, The Hills! Album “Have You Ever Done Something Evil?” – released in 2014.
Ryan Walsh and the rest of the amazing guys in that band sent a deposit and trusted me to be done and ready for our scheduled session months before I was done with the studio. It was a big vote of confidence and inspiration in those last exhausting months of the nearly 2-year studio build-out. And the session itself was pure joy.
Is there a non-musical aspect of the studio that you are proud of?
Funky Furniture! Lighting! The Green Shag Carpet! The creaky doors that I never lubricated because I loved how dramatic they sounded (lubed now, sorry). Playing cards and having drinks in the narrow lounge (feels like you are on a ship at sea).
Most of all, 1809 Studios is an extension of my family home in so many ways. Our kids bop in and out sometimes through the back door of the control room to say hi to their musician friends and chat with them through the talkback. Our sweet rescued from a puppy mill cocker spaniel, Lady, has brought so much joy to artists and has been fully rehabilitated from her phobia of new people (men especially) because of how kind and loving my clients are.
How would you describe the vibe in your studio? How do you maintain it?
Clean, curated, and organized, while not taking itself too seriously, and leaning into whimsy.
Hey… that sounds like… ME???!!!
Any final thoughts?
Let’s all work hard to make beautiful things together. Let’s resist the urge to do impressions of others’ fully realized contributions to music. Let’s work to be truly inspired, original versions of our artistic selves. Let’s all bring something new to the potluck. Thanks for reading!
About the author: Producer, Engineer, Musician and all around music enthusiast.