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Photo courtesy of Bedrock Rehearsal Studios
Descriptions of Bedrock Rehearsal Studios sound like fevered pipe dreams of an aspiring musician. The kind you've probably had with your buddies while smoking on the back porch of some house party or in the backseat of a car on the way to a show. Conversations that go something along the lines of, "Dude, when I get enough money. I'm going to have my own recording studio. And there will be rehearsal studios with different themes. And a repair shop for when we break shit. And there will be a legendary store full of vintage gear that people can rent out. Oh! And we'll have a motel so that traveling bands can crash." Eventually someone will chime in, "And we could have our own bar! No, screw that. We'll have our own brewery! And a for late night sessions we'll have coffee house full of organic treats made from food that we'll grow ourselves." At which point everyone would sigh, light up another joint, and contemplate this golden impossible dream.Well, dream no longer: someone has has actually built it in Echo Park. 37,000 sq ft of it. After two decades of success in Seattle with ER Productions and four premiere music rehearsal complexes that served as home to artists such as Nirvana, Modest Mouse, Sir Mix-A-Lot and The Posies, the husband and wife team of Kaz Murphy and Jacqueline Grad have joined forces with talented partners Michael Caldwell, Cosmo Jones, and KamranV to build a brand new recording world. We sat down with Kaz Murphy and Cosmo Jones to talk about their new project before their grand opening on Sunday. Here is some of what was said.
Photo courtesy of Bedrock Rehearsal Studios
You've been running rehearsal studios for a long time. How did you get involved with that?
Kaz: I'm a songwriter/musician myself so we just started out getting a place to rehearse. It was actually Jackie's, my wife, cousin who had this old movie theater in Seattle. He was moving to LA so he gave it to us. And so we figured "All right, a new place to rehearse with free rent!" So we started putting it together and then all these bands like Nirvana started coming by. They hadn't made it yet or anything, but two months later, tour buses started pulling up to the studios and the whole thing blew up. So near our main studios which was called Chop House on Capital Hill in Seattle these guys started a place nearby called the Elysian Brewing Company. And we were still on the edge of the hip part of town, but mostly in the industrial neighborhood, and so every time we went into the Elysian, eighty of our people would be in there. So we got to thinking that we should have our own brew pub and get our place so that it's a one stop shop. People could rehearse and hang out and the whole thing. So we started looking around here with our partner Michael Caldwell.
Why did you choose LA?
Kaz: Well, we live here. We moved down here eight years ago for the music mostly, but also just to get out of the rain. (laughs)
So how did you guys get together for this project?
Cosmo: When they were first scouting out the rehearsal studios awhile back, I wanted to move. I had a rehearsal studio and it was downtown. There were all kinds of problems with it. There was a cockroach problem, there was no air conditioning, security was starting to lapse, and the final straw was when I called the landlord and he said, "We spray for cockroaches, we come out every month." And I said, "You know what, this isn't working." So I started looking for a new place and I found out about this project. I started talking with Jackie and Kaz and you know being a music guy and a business man like they are I immediately saw the potential for a one stop shop. A way to have a place where musicians can function in this completely different business model that the music industry is been forced into thanks to technology. Which I'm not against or for. I'm agnostic. (laughs)
That's a very diplomatic answer. Did you guys have any fights when you were building this place? I can't imagine that you were in full agreement about everything that's here.
Kaz: Oh no, there were disagreements.
Cosmo: We constantly argue about stuff.
What's the biggest battle that you won?
Cosmo: Oh, I don't know.
Kaz: I got Cosmo to do these hourly rehearsal studios. I won that one. He's running all of these hourly studios. Each one has a different theme and each one comes with all this gear. Each one has a full set of drums with cymbals and snare and kick pedal and a choice of amps. And we've got new gear rental and a vintage gear rental shop. We've got whole ton of really great vintage guitars and amps.
Well thank you for giving us a minute of your time.
Cosmo: Thank you.
Kaz: We'll see you on Sunday.
Want to see the Bedrock Studios for yourself? RSVP here to get into their grand opening is this Sunday. They're celebrating with an afternoon of free food, free music, and free beer from their brewery. Just try not to drool on the vintage gear, okay?
