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Meet Glenn Sawyer of The Spot Studios in Evergreen

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Glenn Sawyer.

Glenn, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It’s been a long road to where I am today and it hasn’t always been straight. I’ve been playing music my whole life but I didn’t originally set out to do what I do today, which is music production and engineering. I played classical piano growing up but didn’t really fall in love with music until picking up the guitar in high school. This opened my eyes to what was possible and eventually led me to earn a B.A. in General Music Studies from FSU. At that point I was convinced that I want to be a performing musician and was active in a few different bands.

Over time I began to realize how hard it is to find likeminded individuals with the same level of dedication towards a project, while also realizing how much I enjoyed recording music with my little home studio setup. I began to explore options for getting into engineering which led me to Full Sail University. I earned an associate’s degree in the Recording Arts from Full Sail and then decided to pursue a Master’s in Business Entertainment following that. This was one of the best things I ever did as I learned how to monetize my musical talents and it gave me the skills to start my own business.

After graduating from Full Sail, I moved to California for an internship at RadioStar Studios with Sylvia Massy. Over my year a half at Radiostar I worked my way into a production/engineering position while also learning a ton from Sylvia and the other producers and engineers that worked there. Rich Veltrop was one of the producer/engineers that I learned the most from and I’m fortunate in that he is currently my production partner.

It’s a long story but Sylvia ended up downsizing RadioStar Studios in 2012 and Rich and I decided to start working as a production team on our own. We began putting together a plan for our new studio and I managed to convince my best friend from FL and his business partners to invest in the studio. My best friend was living in Denver at the time and convinced us to come here to setup shop. We found an incredible 7800 sq. ft home in Lakewood where we started the business in June 2013. After six great years in Lakewood the family that owned the home decided to sell it and we purchased a home in Evergreen where we are currently operating.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has definitely not been a smooth road although I’ve learned a lot in the process. I think the biggest struggles came from just learning how to operate a business and deal with everything that comes with that. I’ve dealt with issues such as unexpected tax bills, people who promise the world and don’t follow through, and clients who are actually trying to embezzle from you and other crazy situations. The good news is that I’ve been able to apply what I’ve learned from each of these situations to either avoid or to navigate them better the next time around.

Please tell us about your music.
The Spot Studios is the home of myself and my production partner Rich Veltrop. Although we offer a variety of audio production services, we specialize in high end music production and I would say that’s what we are known for.

We are a bit different from other recording studios in a couple of ways. The first is our focus on production. Most studios will rent musicians a room, and possibly an engineer, but production is not included. Musicians will either bring in their own producer or will self-produce. We are different in that when you book with us you are getting production and engineering as well as a studio space and access to gear and instruments. We are also different from other recording studios in that Rich and I are the only producers/engineers that use the space. As such we’ve designed the studio so it’s as streamlined to our process as possible. Rather than having to setup our work space every day it’s always ready to go which minimizes setup time while maximizing the time we have for actually recording.

What really sets us apart is what Rich and I bring to the table. Rich and I work as a team and we make a good team because of the differences in our skill sets. Although we are both capable of producing/engineering I tend to take the lead on the production side and Rich takes the lead on the engineering side. I write in a variety of different styles and I’m a capable programmer. I tend to be more focused on form, arrangement, parts, tones, etc. and do a lot of projects where I build tracks with singer-songwriters. Rich is an excellent mix engineer and has a knack for getting the best performances out of artists. We also come from different generations and have different influences which helps us cover a lot of ground stylistically. The result of all of this is that we are comfortable working in a wide variety of genres and there isn’t much we’re not capable of between the two of us.

I would say that the thing I’m most proud of is our catalog of work. There’s no pleasure for Rich and I if the recording doesn’t come out well so we take great pains to make sure our productions are always as good as they can be. I think people know that they are going to get a great product when they work with us because of this.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m generally a forward thinking person so there isn’t too much that I would go back and change but there are a couple of things. I think taking a little more time to understand how accounting and finances work would be one of the things that I would change. Some of the struggles that I mentioned earlier were a direct result of this and probably could have been avoided with a little more due diligence.

The biggest thing I would change though is just taking the time to enjoy the process. In the first few years we were in business I spent a lot of time being angry because I thought things should have been easier or that we should have been farther along in our success. Over time I realized that this just leaves you in a bad mood all the time, and that as cliché as it sounds, the fun of the journey is really what happens along the way. Although I still have big dreams, I’ve got a little more patience these days and life is generally easier because of it.

Pricing:

  • Day Rate – $650/day ($500/day for New Clients through Summer 2020)
  • Hourly Rate – $70/hr ($60/hr for New Clients through Summer 2020 – Three Hour Minimum)
  • By the Song Package Deal with Guaranteed Completion – $1400/song (Typically $1400 but $1100 through Summer 2020 with New Client Special/Start with 3 days of studio time)

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Glenn Sawyer – All Images

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