The Family Studio

April 27, 2009

Last year Mom surrendered her barn workshop to become our ‘music room’. It started when I wanted to buy a used drum set and the barn was the only place to house the thing. I got a sweet deal on a Pearl Export Pro Series 5 piece. Sunny got into the spirit quickly and started adding pieces to the set. Mom’s workshop quickly became the ‘music room’, complete with electric guitars, a bass and a couple of amps. Soon a microphone showed up along with a tambourine and shakers.

Over the past few months I have been back to Tennessee twice and I have been making some modifications to the room. To start, the barn is a cinder block structure. The old workshop has power, space heaters and outdoor carpet. The walls, however, are painted cinder block. Not so good for a jam room. After about 15 minutes the reverberation from the cymbals starts to really get to you.

I cleaned the room up, removed some pool toys and sleeping bags from the floor and riveted up a old red, black and white Mexican blanket that was my bedspread when I was about 9. I hung the blanket up by the rivets next to the drum kit, in an attempt to dampen the sound.

Mom and I threw around some ideas and we concluded that covering all of the walls with hanging sheets might do the trick. It was off to the Goodwill store for some sheet shopping. I found some jersey material sheets in red and purple. Next was how to hang them so they didn’t look lame. I lost my momentum for the day and didn’t get the sheets up. Later that night I remembered that I wanted to pick up some snacks at Trader Joe’s in Atlanta before I drove to Nashville. We started talking about how great Trader Joe’s is and when is Nashville going to get one? Growing up in California, we grew up with Trader Joe’s. Sunny even worked at a couple when he was a young surf rat. One thing led to another and was online at the Trader Joe’s website. I did a little victory dance when I saw that Nashville had a new Trader Joe’s. We immediately started making our plans for the next morning, which included swinging by a Costco.

While I was in Costco, I picked up two cheap 5′x7′ carpet rolls for $22. They were made from recycled water bottles and fairly light. Later when we got back to the house, I threw the carpets down on the floor of the ‘music room’. They were too small for the room, but they were a nice addition. Then it hit me. Glue the carpet to the cinder block walls! Which I proceeded to do and very much liked the result. One tube of Liquid Nails per carpet roll did the trick. Then I had to fly back to San Francisco the next day, so the room would have to wait.

I was back in Tennessee a month later with two large Indian tapestries from Haight St. for the ceiling. Mom went back to Costco and picked up 5 more rolls and over the course of two days I was cutting and gluing dark grey recycled water bottles to the walls. It made a huge audible difference, and it looked nice. The ‘music room’ suddenly was renamed the ’studio’. I picked up some flags at a military surplus store up the road, popped some rivets in them and hung em up. The framed photo of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley received some sticky back velcro and is solidly hanging up on the carpeted walls.

I am looking forward to some family jams over the summer. I still need to rip out the electrical system and completely cover all of the block walls with carpet and install a power conditioner so the amps don’t buzz from dirty power. I also need to pick up two more tapestries to do the ceiling up right. All that’s left after that is some shelf installation and possibly a ceiling fan for those hot summer nights.

I am afraid I will have the urge to get a computer interface mixer and some decent microphones for some serious recording. I should really learn to play some more songs before I dump loads of cash on recording gear. On that note, I am off to practice my guitar.

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