Some big changes are happening here at Black in Bluhm Studios. Some of you may have already heard that my family and I will be moving to Lugano, Switzerland at the end of the summer! It’s true although it still feels like a tour that is half-booked and will end up cancelled at the last minute. My brilliant and talented wife, Melissa, landed a job at a very lovely school there and I will be a proud “trailing spouse”! I love this term. This will also double as the name of the cover band I will surely assemble with the other tagalong, expat husbands in town. I am personally super excited, sad, scared, inspired and freaking out all at the same time. We have tried to pull this off for years but kept putting it on the back burner. Now we are just going for it because if we don’t do it now we probably never will. It was the hardest decision we have made as a family and we did not take it lightly. I could go on but what does this mean for the studio?
Well, I have always had my eyes and ears peeled for a person who could either co-engineer the studio or even take my place one day should I decide to start another studio or maybe go roll burritos for the rest of my life. A couple of years ago I was recording Counterpunch’s new batch of songs and there was a dude in that band named Kyle who, despite coming down with a gnarly case of shingles for the entire 2 or 3 weeks, somehow managed to maintain a super positive attitude and really kind of co-engineered/produced through the entire project. He was competent in Logic Pro, had mad guitar skills, plus an obvious ear for just about everything as far as I could tell. I made a mental note. Could he be the guy?
Fast forward a couple years. Kyle’s girlfriend was looking for jobs out here in Denver (oh, they are from Chicago btw) and he was looking for recording opportunities. The first thing fell through, plans changed and then it turned into, “Hey why don’t you come do an intern type thing here and we will see where it goes.” She got a job and they moved to Denver immediately. Stoked for everyone! Since then Kyle Tilev and I have been working together on everything at the studio from tracking, editing, mixing to fixing issues at the studio I have long overlooked. (Too busy making hit records ha.) It’s been going really well.
So anyway, here’s the plan. Kyle will be taking over my recording chair at the studio for however long we are gone. Could be a year, could be forever. We honestly don’t know. I’ll be setting up a mixing and mastering suite in Lugano and will be working on all Black in Bluhm projects as they come through, almost like a studio B, but 8 hours ahead and across an ocean. I’ll also be doing remote mixes and masters (between cheese trays and cured meats) from anywhere and everywhere, as I have for years, so hit me up! Kyle will be handling the tracking and production roles as needed and believe me when I say I would close the studio before I left it in incapable hands. So far he is doing a great job and has all the instincts I believe a good recording engineer/ producer needs. I believe that this transition will actually make the studio more efficient and create better sounding finished products at the same time. Kyle also brought a bunch of new toys and a wealth of knowledge to Black in Bluhm, something I’ve never been accused of. I think this is a great team in the making and if you were considering trying us out or coming back I would not hesitate. I would never steer our clients and friends the wrong way.
We have all grown together over the last 20 plus years in music and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to lend my ears to so much incredible talent. It’s going to be really hard to step away from what we have built here. Dan, I love you buddy and thank you for being the best friend and business partner a guy could ask for. Can’t wait until we sell the building for 10 million bucks to real estate developers. To all the bands that I won’t be here to track or produce, rest assured that you are in good hands. To the community that has supported us for over a decade we can't thank you enough.
I can’t wait to get that first project pulled up in Switzerland and dig in.
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