On The Rise: Akron Recording Co.
Benjamin Patrick and Nate Bucher make music underground in Akron. Descend the staircase into the basement of the WhiteSpace Creative building in the Northside District and find Akron Recording Co., where Patrick and Bucher are making recordings for locals like rockers White Buffalo Woman of Minerva.
The studio in the more-than-a-century-old former Akron Soap Co. building has a trendy reclaimed vibe with red guitars hanging on wooden beams, exposed sandstone and barnstone boulder walls cast in ambient colored lighting, and ‘70s leather chairs and table lamps from Patrick’s grandma. With a bring-your-own-booze policy for events, it’s like chilling in a friend’s basement.
“Most people walk in and they’re like, It feels great. It feels like home already,” Bucher says. “Our goal is to create a welcoming space that everyone can come into and immediately feel creative.”
Much like the vintage furniture mixed with modern hipster cool, Akron Recording Co. combines analog and digital for tracks with a unique feel.
Bucher has early memories of feeling comfortable with both types of equipment. His father works in analog and digital at his Cirrus Recording Studios.
“He had old tape machines. He let me tinker,” says Bucher, who was inspired to study sound design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. “There is some type of sonic quality that tape provides. It’s a warmth, character or color it adds to the sound.”
Bucher and Patrick discovered they had great synergy while collaborating in the studio. Bucher, who is in psychedelic rock band the See Creatures, helped record a couple of projects for Patrick’s garage rock band, the Dreemers. Between Bucher’s technical prowess and Patrick’s creative artistic vision, the two felt they had what it took to start a recording company.
“We already have a studio if we put our heads together,” recalls Patrick, who has recorded music using his grandma’s tape machines.
To capitalize on their combined experience in analog and digital, they opened the hybrid Akron Recording Co. last year. Often, bands will play live for an initial recording on a tape machine that is simultaneously uploaded to a computer. Parts of the song are then redone and edited digitally for a final recording with the crisp precision of digital and the musicality of analog.
“You’re giving them the modern convenience of digital, but that warmth and foundation is definitely still intact,” Patrick says.
Both founders being musicians means that they are more active listeners and approach each recording with detail and passion as if it were their own, experimenting with different critiques to make the best song.
What happens if you play a guitar lick here that mirrors your vocal? What happens if we take the drums and make them all crazy sounding here? Bucher poses possible pointers that could arise.
Their dual role means they also have a vested interest in creating more opportunities for the community to engage with local music. Patrick has heard local musicians remark that there aren’t enough area spots for performing and recording. So the duo hosts concerts, including a holiday showcase of their recording artists like Akron rapper Floco Torres. Audience members have told them it’s one of the best live venues in the area.
“We want to be more than just a studio,” Patrick says. “We want to curate this whole scene or culture that’s going on in Northeast Ohio.”
The pair has been trying to bring the underground local music scene out into the world with their “Where the Hell is Akron Ohio?” compilations featuring songs by local artists. The tongue-in-cheek name, taken from a T-shirt thrifted from the Village Discount Outlet, pokes fun at how Akron is unknown to many outsiders — especially when it comes to native musicians who aren’t the Black Keys.
“It’s a bit of irony,” Patrick says. “It goes under recognized, but there’s a lot of great talent here. We deserve to be on the map for that.”
A volume II compilation features songs by Cleveland alt-rockers Mollo Rilla, Akron rock band Time Cat and more.
With the compilation, they hope to rebuild Akron’s disjointed music scene and rekindle collective energy that was prevalent in the ‘70s and ‘80s when groups like Devo and the Rubber City Rebels created a cult following around the Akron sound. The duo eventually hopes to use their studio in the prominent Northside District to create a label that brings together local artists and helps more people know where the hell Akron, Ohio, is.
“We had the music community in mind with this studio,” Patrick says. “We wanted it to be right downtown Akron and be an epicenter for music.”