Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich Hi, I’m Ian Gorman, owner, producer, and head engineer here at La Luna Recording and Sound in Kalamazoo Michigan.

There’s a studio that I’ve been running for about 25 years that has grown over the years from a spare room of my apartment, grew into two rooms in the apartment, grew into the floor of a duplex.

Finally, in 2012, my wife and I bought a house and did an extensive renovation on our garage, where we really turned into a full fledged recording studio, very much like what you see here, but about half the size.

We have a wonderful staff of engineers and interns here, and it’s just to spend the love of my life for a few decades now.

I grew up with a deep love of music.

My dad was a DJ in Detroit in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and my mom was an artist, and that’s actually how they met.

She was hired to do caricatures of the DJs at the radio station.

When I was 13, I started playing instruments, started playing guitar and bass, and that kind of thing, and my folks got me a little home cassette four track recorder.

that I just started making recordings with me and my friends, and we’d make our own little homemade albums, you know, go down to Kinko’s and copy the inserts and all that kind of stuff, duplicate them one at a time.

And then in college, I started taking classes with John Compos, here at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Originally, just to learn more about it for myself as a musician, to get better at recording myself and making the art that I wanted to make, and John changed my life, like he’s changed many people’s lives, and, you know, helped me get this love of just the studio and the recording process and realizing that I love producing and engineering for other people as much as working on my own music.

And it really just kind of, it was like a cartoon light bulb went off, and all of a sudden, it was like, what I want to do.

I want to be in the studio, I want to make albums.

In 2000, a door open for me at a studio in Chicago, and I decided to just roll the dice and move out there.

Uh, worked at a couple different places and ended up at a studio called Chicago Recording Company.

Learned a ton, worked insane hours, probably took 10 years off my life due to sleep deprivation and stress, and decided that, for a variety of reasons, the Michigan music scene in Michigan itself was really where my heart was and where I wanted to focus my energy.

So in 2001, I moved back here, opened up my own home studio, was working up at Western freelance, working around town, making albums, doing live, sound, all kinds of stuff, and just kind of starting to grow stuff from there.

In Chicago, I got the opportunity to work with some incredible legendary artists.

Some of the big names I worked with.

I got to work on an Aretha Franklin session, got to work with a little bit of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with Wilco, got to experience that.

The big thing was, I worked with Billy Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins for quite a while, for a couple months, some sessions that were a combination of some work on Smashing Pumpkins’ greatest hits album that came out at that time, as well as the beginnings of what would become the Zwan album.

And in doing that it was really, in a lot of ways, achieving a dream of mine.

But the flip side of that was the stresses and the pressure and a lot of the ugly side of the music business on that kind of level.

A lot of things that just weren’t what I wanted to spend my life doing, you know?

The art was incredible.

Obviously, the studio and the gear were incredible.

But I didn’t want to spend my life working 100 plus hour weeks for people that were on ego trips and heavily competitive.

And I’d find myself coming back to Michigan on vacations.

If I had a couple days off, I’d come back and hang with my friends, be around Kalamazoo, and we’d go into shows, and all this music would just be moving me so deeply, and all these people that I just loved and respected, and just, finally, I kind of had a realization, like, wait, I’m vacationing in the place that I used to live.

This feels like I’ve made a wrong turn.

And... something just told me, You know what?

Like, the path in I’m on right now is kind of the, the straight out of central casting path that everybody dreams of.

You keep working your way up to bigger and bigger projects, more well known things, trying to work with the biggest artists, and be world renowned projects, and all of this stuff, but something stamped with me is like, you know what?

The art that moves me is back here in Michigan.

The people that I love and care about are back here in Michigan.

And I just decided, you know what?

That is my life’s mission.

It’s to make art that matters to me with people that I want to make it with.

This is my calling.

The Michigan music scene, what was and still is infinitely influential and powerful to me.

The people are honest and caring, and real, and passionate, and weird, and following their hearts and their souls, and that’s why I’m doing this.

It’s not to follow some kind of like pre-planned career path or anything like that.

It’s to do stuff that really matters to me.

And that was happening and still is happening in Michigan.

My dream is for this place to be a lot of things to a lot of different people.

And the way that I set up the studio was very much intentional to foster flexibility.

No two artists have the same recording style that works for them.

You know, it’s not a one size fits all, like, here’s the process of recording.

It’s messier than that.

It’s a custom job.

You know, every time you’re, it’s a matter of problem solving, trying to figure out what works for this artist, what techniques for me as an engineer or producer are gonna work, and that’s this kind of liquid thing that’s always changing.

So, I wanted to sell a place that could be used in a lot of different ways by a lot of different people for whatever worked for them.

What works for me might be totally different than what works for Parker or Maggie or Sam or Asha, you know?

We can all use the studio in our own ways for what makes sense for our creative process and the artists we’re working with.

So, growing up beyond me was part of the blueprint from day one.

My mom was a visual artist, and I grew up in her art studio.

And she had a saying, which sounds a little cheesy, but it really shaped my path, and what she used to say is, paint the wow, is the term that she used.

And what she meant by that was, find the thing that just grips you to your core that you can’t let go and zero in on that and follow that through.

And to me, any great artist is listening to their own internal voice, finding the thing that moves them, and following that boldly and bravely.

If you’re an audio engineer or a producer, you have to be following your own tastes, you have to be following your own sound, you have to be listening to what moves you, you know?

If you’re trying to be something you’re not, you’re always gonna be a second rate, whatever that is.

The only way you can really fulfill your own creative potential is to just unfiltered exploration of the thing that you’re passionate about.

So don’t let anybody tell you, you should be doing this.

You should, you know, a proper mix has a drum level like this.

A good based sound is this based sound.

No, like, do what sounds great to you that follows your heart, do something that makes you like nobody else.

That’s the only way to really achieve your own creative voice in a compelling and influential way to other people.

That’s what the world needs.

The world needs more people just putting their own weird, one of a kind voices out there, and just making their own mark in a way that nobody else can.

Hello, I’m Asha, Kitchen.

Um, my engineer name is Ashd mixed it, um, audio engineer, recording, mixing, and mastering.

Mainly a mixing engineer.

I feel like my sole purpose in life is finding the truth.

I just I just need to find a purpose of something, whatever it is.

And so knowledge and wisdom is what really drives me, honestly.

I love music.

I breathe music.

I’ve ever since I was a child.

I always used to sing.

Like, I used to jump on the bed, my remote, like, as a microphone, and seeing all the time.

Even though Alex is this day, I sing all day, my girlfriend gets so mad at me, ’cause I won’t shut up.

So I was just, I just love music.

Yeah, I feel like everybody needs a way of expression.

And I tell people this all the time, like, whenever people are so built up with whatever.

I am just like, you have to find an outlet, and whatever type of way that is for you, to have to find an expression.

And for me, art is an expression.

Um, I make music, too, so anytime, you know, I have a bad day or something like that.

I can, you know, pour myself into music and writing and creating, and that just makes me feel better than the days, like, therapy.

Back in 2016, I started making music with my friends, I used to rap, and so I used to want to be the artist, and, uh, me and my friends used to just, like, make music on GarageBand, and, uh, my producer at the time was like, Oh, you should make this sound better.

It was that moment where I was like, Huh.

How do I make this sound better?

Then I just started, you know, watching tutorial videos and trying to learn as much as I could about it, and eventually went to trade school, and, like, 2018.

Called the recording workshop.

It was in Chillicothe, Ohio.

A little small town.

Um, and it was it was kind of interesting.

It was some cabins.

It was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was a very fun experience.

It was, like, a two month program, and they basically kind of just, like, gave us the basics, uh, and knowledge of just audio in general.

So we learned audio engineering, Foley, scoring, a little bit of live music.

So they kind of gave us a little bit of taste of all that, and kind of just gave us, like, the tools to kind of take and pretty much, like, do whatever we wanted to do with it.

Um, so, I had already kind of, like, started, you know, learning how to mix before.

I went to school, so going to school kind of just gave me that certification and more skills and more knowledge, and, uh, that’s pretty much where I started, you know, getting really serious with it, and by 2020, is when I was able to monetize and start my own studio.

I would say, for me personally, I’m the type of person where I work with anybody, I don’t discriminate.

Um, I know some engineers where they’re like, Oh, I don’t work with people that aren’t serious, or I don’t work with a beginner or amateur people.

I work with anybody.

I don’t care who you are.

I have a lot of people that come in the studio, but, like, I’ve never been in the studio, you know?

And so I was like, okay.

I know how that can be annoying.

Sometimes working with some people, where you’re just, like, trying to coach them the whole time, but, um, I don’t mind it, you know what I mean?

Like I said, it fulfills me to just, like, help people.

I just try to make people feel as relaxed as possible.

Because the thing about it is, like, recording is actually very vulnerable.

Um, I make music, and honestly, I can’t even, I still can’t record in front of some people, because I’m, you know, shy or whatever.

So, I actually admire people that come to the studio, because it’s a very vulnerable place and to, you know, do this in front of somebody you just met.

Like, that takes a lot of, uh, you know, not a heart.

I’ll have artists that come in, and, like, they freestyle, right?

So they’ll punch in, and some artists, they might punch in a couple of bars, or they’ll freestyle, and then they... But the thing is, like, they don’t tell me if they want to keep that.

I just have to anticipate a no, you know what I mean?

So, it’s like... Um, punching in is, uh... So, you you record, you know?

So it’s like, when I hit recording, you start rapping or singing.

And then, if you stop, that’s one take, and then the next take is punching in again.

You know, it’s just recording, pretty much.

Um, and looping is where you loop the beat, so it can just replay that same section, or the same couple of bars or whatever.

Like, even if an artist doesn’t tell me to keep that take, I’ll keep that take, just because I’m like, I know that they’re gonna want me to keep this take, and then later on, I’ll be like, Did you keep that take?

Yeah, I did keep that take, you know?

Or it’s, like, some people, they come in, they record the whole entire verse.

Some people want to punch in, they want to take some time.

I’ll give them time.

I’ll loop the beat for them, you know, and I just, you know, just stick in with whatever, like, makes them feel comfortable.

Like, I don’t know, it’s, like... You just kind of, like, got to learn people and adapt to them.

Um, and, you know, I have a lot of clients that I work with where, like, I just know them off rip.

And even, like, with newer clients.

Like, when they come in, like, I just know them off rep.

A lot of people always say, like, I work pretty fast, and it’s just because I’m really good at anticipating what they want.

I’ve kind of grown a name for myself here, and that’s been pretty cool.

Um, I love when people tell me all the time, like, Oh, yeah, I was recommended to you, like, um, and ’cause that’s literally, like, how my business is.

It’s all word and mouth.

I don’t promote anything.

And so that that’s probably, you know, the best thing about it.

Cause sometimes I can’t even believe where I’m at now, you know?

Cause I’ve just been so humble with it.

Like... I... Sometimes people come to me, I almost feel like a celebrity sometimes, and I’m just like, Oh, heck, no.

You know, I’m just a normal person.

Like, but it’s I don’t know, it’s still surreal for me.

So I guess, like, my voice in it is just, uh, kind of really just being true to myself, and making sure that I love it still, at the end of the day, that’s really what matters to me, ’cause... once you start hating what you do, then it’s not fun anymore, it’s not enjoyable.

And I always want to have fun with this.

So... You never give up on what you want.

Yeah, if you have a dream, go after it.

Um, everything is in the grasp of your hands.

The first early stages of me making music was because my mom was a professor at Western, and she was given a computer, and on that computer was Garageband.

And so being in, like, seventh or eighth grade, just finding GarageBand as, like, a little music kid, you know, that just, like, blew my world up.

My name is Samuel Peters, and I’m a producer and engineer and songwriter here in Kalamazoo, and I like to think that I’m, like, a creative facilitator.

I’m just here to, you know, be a teammate with the people that I work with, and to try to make really dope music.

scared of painful I know you were too long It’s gonna pay for, I know you what you love Creating and sharing art is the most important part of the process, because I think any great form of art takes a team of people, all my favorite records, is a team of people.

Um, I don’t really prescribe to, like, you know, I can do it all.

I can do everything myself.

Um, some people are great at other things, and they have these weaknesses and these strengths, and if everyone does their strengths, the best of their ability, then the product is gonna be better.

And so I find like collaboration pulls people’s strengths out from one another.

And it also allows people to take a step back when maybe they’re not the greatest thing at something, you know, and they let someone else be like, Oh, that cat is, like, the guitar player.

Let’s let them be the guitar player.

Or, you know, especially writing, I feel like writing is such a great collaborative thing, because sometimes multiple life experiences and shared experiences can lead to some of the best writing.

So, I find that collaboration is, like, the key to creativity a lot of the times.

You know, it’s just a magnitude of a bunch of different types of music.

I feel like, even early on, when I was first getting into music, I made a bunch of different types of music, I was, like, trying to make hip hop, and I was trying to make trap beads, and I was trying to make EDM, and I was trying to make, you know, rock and everything in between.

So I feel like, you know, my catalog now, and my discography now, and the type of music I make, is that it’s a bunch of different styles and expressions of music.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, I think you’re right, because the thing is, I will overthink a guitar solo, and, like, we’ll never, you know?

There’s nothing in particular at this moment where I’m like, that’s sticking out, maybe something will eventually, but I think I do like that you threw that.

It’s funny that you noticed that because I’m like, that’s, I mean, for years I’ve been playing that like little lick and, um, I haven’t found a stock to like put it in yet, so... It’s killer man.

It’s cool that it fits in this one.

All right, the next thing I want to do is I want that base thing at the end.

And all I’m thinking is, do you still have your base here?

Yeah.

If you don’t mind.

Oh, there’s just like, I’m just gonna do root notes.

At the end here, and it’s just like, I don’t even care that the bass tone.

Kalamazoo is such a special place.

Like, I’ve been to a lot of different cities, and I’ve been in multiple different studios, a ton of different studios, and I’ve worked with people from all over, and there is something magical about the community of Kanazoo.

It’s a small town, and it’s tight knit, but it’s next level creative, like, next level creative, and kamazu has edge.

Kamazu’s got an edge to it.

You can hear it in the songwriters.

You can hear it in the music being made, you can see it in the art being made.

There is a particular voice happening in Kalamazoo.

You know, I’m from here.

I grew up around here.

You know, my mother was an art professor at Western.

I was constantly skating around kamazoo.

My heartstrings are really attached to the city.

For one, it’s just so beautiful.

So, like, there’s this deep, intrinsic creative force happening in Kalamazoo.

And I think it’s because that it’s smaller that makes it feel, of course, like more tight knit, but it makes it feel more special, because there’s not a million people jam packed into a small space all try to do the same thing.

It’s like we kind of have these people who have become kind of these pivotal, like, archetypes of a particular dream or a particular style, and they’re looked up to, and they keep raising the bar on what the standard is.

like Kalamazoo might be small and things like that.

But we’re making records that are, like, making waves.

We have cats who are signed to the biggest label in the world, Colombia.

And we have cats that are absolutely doing insane numbers and playing sold out shows.

And it’s just this place where, like, you know, to me, I think, like, geographical location has nothing to do with success, especially in this day and age of, you know, what we all know.

So it’s like, we have everyone kind of, like, building each other up and raising the bar together.

And I think that’s really, that’s kind of where I come in, is, you know, if you work with me, you’re gonna get a level of quality, that you’re also gonna get in L.A.

Like, you’re also gonna get in Nashville or a hub.

There’s a level of thing that’s going to happen here where you, like, go back and you listen in your car.

like, damn, like, this sounds like what I’ve won in my music to always sound like.

And I get that constantly from people, constantly.

And I can hear it back in the stuff that I make, where I, A, B, it between some of my favorite records.

I’m like, This could live, and it does live in the same Spotify editorial playlist, or things like that.

Like, granted, that’s, like, all that stuff is, like, noise, but, like, if you want to be successful, like, these things are important.

I love Kalamazoo here.

I’ve been able to, like, really make my dreams come true.

And I’ve also made a name for myself, you know, 50% of the work that I do is people from not in Kalamazoo.

It’s people from all over.

And mostly it’s just word of mouth.

You know, I don’t have, like, an official website or anything.

It’s just the classic thing in this gigging freelancer world is you get your name out there, you build reputation, you build reputation, you build reputation.

And that’s what you get known for.

My connection to La Luna is super special.

I got back from an internship at Audiotree in Chicago, and, um, I also, you know, I would put this out there too.

I was able to kind of make that internship happen through the arts console, through the caddy grant, and in the caddy grant, You know, the category is all about, like, how are you going to, how is this going to come back to Kalamazoo and serve Kalamazoo?

And at the time, you know, I was like a young kid.

I was kind of being silly.

I was like, I’m gonna come back, and I’m gonna work at a studio, I’m gonna, like, build my own studio.

And, like, when I was writing that, I was gonna, like, I was like, there’s no way that’s gonna happen.

Like, that’s, like, a pipe dream.

But then I came back from Chicago, and I was like, Hmm, like, maybe I should work an intern at a studio in Kalamazoo.

And I hear nothing but amazing things about La Luna, and the professors at Western, also say nothing but amazing things about La Luna.

And so, um, that was right when Ian finished building La Luna, because he used to operate it out of his garage for many, many years, but he wanted a bigger commercial space, so he built it out, and built this absolutely beautiful space.

And it was still, like, in final developments when I started to be an intern there.

Like I was helping him do some final painting and, like, wood furnishing as, like, the first jobs of my internship.

And, you know, Ian and I just hit it off instantly, and, you know, lucky for him, in this new studio, he needed all the help he can get, and I was really, really eager, and things moved along really fast at La Luna.

I think, like, Ian really wanted to have staff engineers, and, you know, I only, I feel like I really only interned for, like, three or four months, and, you know, I found a band that wanted to record with me, and Ian was like, Yeah, you know, he took a big, not a risk, but he was like, Yeah, you know, um, let’s make it happen.

And, you know, Ian’s been such a friend and such a mentor, and he’s, like, helped me so much in my career.

I owe so much to him.

And, um, yeah, La Luna is a really special place to me, and has a special place in my heart.

For future generations, which is crazy to say, because whenever I look at myself in a mirror, I always just see 16 year old Sam, not 30 year old Sam.

But I would say, you know, if this is something you really want to do, I feel like you have to ask yourself, like, why are you doing it?

Because now, again, talking about, like, playing the game, we live in this world of appearances, and it’s always been like that.

But it’s now even more heightened.

It’s more extreme.

It’s more cutthroat, it’s more competitive.

You gotta ask yourself, like, why am I doing this?

And it goes back to what I was talking about earlier.

Like, if this is in your blood, and if this is intrinsic to who you are, then you’re never gonna stop making music, you’re never gonna stop, have the driving force to become an engineer.

You know, my, I guess my word of advice is just, just push on, you know, just never stop creating, even when you get depressed, or when you have, like, a writer’s block.

I think it’s important to note that it’ll come back around.

There’s this intense ebb and flow, and you can be at your lowest flow and your highest high, and that’s just all part of the journey, and they’re all gonna make you who you are, and you’re gonna be better for it.

So just think about, like, you know, why am I in this in the long run, and if your first answer is, like, I just want to make music, that, to me, is the most important answer.

Um, that, to me, is, like, what sets people apart from others is, like, they’re in it for the music.