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Meet Chris Beeble of The Blasting Room in Fort Collins

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Beeble.

Chris, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in a pretty non-musical household, but I always had a deep love of music and dancing (maybe dancing is a generous term, but loved moving my body in creative ways to the beat). For the first 14 years of my life, my time was filled mainly with playing every sport imaginable when I wasn’t at school, but I would end most days listening to music alone in my room. Middle school marked the period in my life, as well as many kids, where the music you listen to starts becoming part of your identity. I was always a very emotional kid, and for some reason, heavier music was a great outlet for me to feel less isolated going through the growing pains of getting older and dealing with the new feelings and experiences of loss, depression, and longing for acceptance. As the music I listened to continued to become a bigger and bigger part of my life, it was only natural that I ended up wanting to participate in playing it. So freshmen year of high school I joined my first band a week before I bought my first bass guitar. I don’t believe I had a great reason for choosing bass guitar besides thinking, “I’m a big kid, so maybe I should play the big guitar.” I can’t lie and say I was a natural, but I was full of false self-confidence and I immediately became addicted to the energy of the practice space and creating something new. I was hooked. With the lifespan of high school bands averaging about three months, I went from hardcore band to hardcore band in the first two years of playing and embraced the excitement and nervousness of being on stage. I took a strange turn my junior year as my curiosity and desire to push my technical prowess on the instrument led me to join the jazz band at my high school. Jazz and myself were an unusual pairing, but I loved the challenge it presented and it opened me up to a whole world of new and old music to listen to and get lost in. So for the rest of high school jazz and my various bands were my focus. As the stage in high school where you begin to consider college approached, I toyed with the idea of majoring in music. I was always aware that I wasn’t a virtuoso on the bass, but I had become a solid player and I knew my passion for it couldn’t be matched. I toured the University of Denver campus and something hit home on a deep level and it became my mission to go there. They had a great jazz program and I began preparing rigorously for the audition. I remember the strange combination of nervousness as I opened the letter that determined my fate and steadiness, for there was something about it that felt destined (a little cheesy, but true to how I felt at the time). I was ecstatic to find out I had been accepted, as I had worked very hard towards it, but while it was a challenge that I was proud to have conquered, I knew I didn’t want to go to school for just performance. I had become a very competent player, but I had always understood that my playing was probably not something that would sustain, and honestly fulfill me alone. I began looking through the different programs the school offered and noticed they had an audio production program. My interest was piqued as my recording experiences at the time had been some of my fondest memories of making music and it seemed like it could be a great fit for my creative, yet analytical mind. I ended up spending most of the next four years of my life in the basement of DU in their recording studio, and thus began my journey as a recording engineer and producer. That time in the studio was spent in classes, recording the student jazz ensembles, and recording my own band for my big project assignments. Many a bad recordings were made during that time, but it was a space where I was able to develop my engineering craft and discover what things made music come alive for me in the studio and find my voice as a producer. In order to graduate the program, I was required to have a summer internship between my junior and senior year. I ended up applying to about 25 studios in London, as I was fascinated with the idea of going overseas for the summer, but I got zero replies or responses. Now that I run an internship program, I completely understand why. I idolized The Blasting Room since I grew up on a good amount of the records they had produced and every local band that ended up recording there had much better sounding recordings than anyone else. I had Bill Stevenson’s (owner of The Blasting Room and drummer for The Descendents) phone number from when my band had a few songs mixed there, so while I knew it was a long shot, I gave him a call and asked if I could come up for the summer and intern. We ended up talking for a while on the phone and he agreed to meet me for lunch. During lunch, he offered me an internship and I was over the moon. I was to start in a couple of months and I began counting down the days. I showed up and I remember walking into Studio A where my now colleagues were all gathering and announcing that I was the new intern. I was met with blank stares and puzzlement as they informed me they had no idea they had a new intern and informed me that Bill hadn’t been to the studio in about six months. I was unaware, but Bill was extremely sick with a grapefruit size brain tumor behind his eye. Luckily that part of the story has a happy ending where he had the tumor removed a couple of months later via a very risky surgery and quickly recovered and has been sharper than ever since. So I begged them to let me intern for the summer so that I could graduate from my program and they begrudgingly agreed. I would drive up from Denver a couple of times a week and do the dishes, laundry, and help tear down sessions and I was weirdly in heaven. I just felt so lucky to be in the building where these amazing records were being made and made sure everything I did was up to that same standard of excellence they had established with the records they made. By the end of the summer, I had somehow convinced them I wasn’t just an annoying kid and that I was a hard worker who knew what I was talking about and they let me continue interning during my senior year of college. So I continued commuting during the school year and after I graduated I ended up going up more often and would regularly sleep on the couch to save myself a drive back and forth from Denver. Later that summer I asked if I could be hired on as an engineer and they agreed, but informed me that I may not be able to get enough work to sustain myself. There was at the time a lot of unattended administrative and repair work that needed to be done, so I took a lot of that on when I wasn’t engineering and kept myself very busy. A year into working there, we parted ways with our manager at the time and Bill and I divided the roles of a typical studio manager, where I took over the bookkeeping and operations, and Bill took over the bookings. That really helped allow me to make a living while I cultivated my craft and built my client base at the studio. In 2015 we hired Jonathan Luginbill, who has since taken over much of my operations responsibility as I’ve gotten busier and busier producing and engineering, but I continue to keep the books for it helps satisfy the non-musical part of my brain where there gets to be a definite right way to do things and correct answer. I feel very grateful that I get to work with the artists I do today and help people make the music of their dreams. Nothing is more rewarding than the look on people’s faces when they hear their song fully realized and the gratitude they have for it.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I doubt there is anyone that makes a living in the music industry that claims it has been a smooth road. It’s a much bumpier path than most. I was so grateful for the freak opportunity I had to be able to intern at The Blasting Room that I felt a deep weight to make sure I gave it everything I had. For the first year, I wasn’t making enough to afford to pay rent anywhere in town, but I was fortunate enough to have parents who were gracious enough to let me live with them for a bit and I would commute from Arvada. I ended up spending most nights though sleeping on the couch at The Blasting Room to save myself the drive. The hardest part of my journey though has been the struggle with doubt and obtaining a healthy work life balance. There’s always a voice in the back of my head telling me that the work I do is garbage and I should finally throw in the towel. The way I’ve dealt with combatting that voice over the years is by proving to it that I’ll work harder than anyone to make sure my work speaks for itself. That coping mechanism has led to some rather not-so-healthy work hours, making it tough to make time for my wife, friends, and family. I’m extremely grateful though that I have a very supportive wife who believes in the work I do and has been helping me find that balance (not quite there yet, but getting closer). Insecurity is a hard thing to deal with, and it caused me to almost quit music altogether in college after receive a rather brutal performance class review. I remember meeting with my Dad over coffee to let him know that I was going to quit the program and pursue a more traditional major such as business. He ended up talking me in to staying with the program at least until the end of the year and then making the decision. In that time is when I really began to fall in love with the audio production program and decided to continue with music and never look back. I know for a fact that if I wouldn’t have had the support of my parents, I would have given up a long time ago. I think it’s so important for friends and family members to encourage their loved ones in their creative endeavors because sometimes all it takes is a small nod that helps us continue navigating the bumpy path of a creative.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Blasting Room story. Tell us more about the business.
I work at The Blasting Room and have been now for nine years. I am a recording engineer, producer, and handle our administration and bookkeeping. I specialize in taking a band or singer/songwriter’s songs and help realize their potential by helping with arrangements and lyrics, coaching performances, engineering the recording session and mixing it down to its a final representation. The Blasting Room is most known for its iconic punk rock records, most notably Rise Against, A Day To Remember, Hot Water Music, and many others. That being said, we record and produce all kinds of music from Bluegrass to Pop. One of the things I love most about going in to work is that every day I get to work alongside my fellow Blasting Room crew, who are some of the most brilliant and creative minds in the business. Half the time we combine forces on projects and split into our specialties to record an album for a band/artist, and the other half of the time we are working on our own solo projects. Even when we’re working on our own though, we are constantly running our work by each other and getting feedback and critique.
We operate under the understanding that we’re all in it together and that when one of us succeeds, we all do. So we are constantly pushing each other to better our crafts. This year we are celebrating our 25th year in business, which is something we are extremely proud of. Not many studios such as ours have been able to stick it out for as long as we have and we plan to keep making badass records for as long as we can.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I wouldn’t be working today at The Blasting Room if it weren’t for stumbling on an absurd amount of luck. The way my internship fell in to place at The Blasting Room was completely by accident, which was the catalyst that began my now nine years of working there. I feel very grateful for the funny circumstances that allowed me to get to do what I do for a living, but I also know that if I hadn’t followed up on my luck with a lot of hard work and hustle, nothing would have come of it.

Pricing:

  • $250/Day for myself + $400/day for Studio (8-10 Hr Day)

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Johnny Mac, Jesse Spencer

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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