Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Gieser.
Matt, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I had been playing in bands all of my life. We always struggled finding a recording studio that could accurately transfer the sound we had as a live band to a record. We would record at high end studios and dumps and still were never satisfied. My band had heard about this little living room recording studio run by a guy who had graduated Maine South high school a few years before us in the city. We went to check it out and it was this little dumpy house, nearly falling over with black mold in the basement. The daily rate was $50 and it was all straight to a tape machine with absolutely zero computers involved. That was a pretty new concept to me personally.
The band ended up recording there and continued to record there for the life of the band. The engineer Barrett Guzaldo was incredibly talented and definitely beyond his years. Barrett and I ended up developing a pretty good friendship. At that time I was 20 and he was 23. Barrett was attending Columbia College of Chicago on and off and I had just started my first year at DePaul. I was studying entrepreneurship and I kept realizing that school wasn’t a place for an entrepreneur. I had to get out there and start doing something. Barrett and I sat down, he know how to record the bands, I knew how to run the bands, so we created a partnership and decided we were going to open a small studio in some vacant office space and see how we worked together.
Things went great, within weeks we were done with our small office studio and wanted to build the next best studio in the city. A gym next door to us had recently went out of business so we decided to rent out that space. It was an enormous upgrade from our 1200 sq. ft. studio to this 5000 sq. ft. behemoth. We made a design that featured loads of entertaining space, practice spaces, art galleries, and of course the studio.
We started construction in October 2013 and opened around the New Year (2014). At that time I was 21 and Barrett was 23.
Treehouse has grown incredibly in the past (almost) four years. We are still a very small team at the studios, still only Barrett and I running day to day. We have since expanded to nearly 25,000 sq. ft. with 35 practice spaces and an expanded Studio A.
We recently purchased Pink Floyd’s Trident TSM console that they used to record The Wall.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Barrett and I have always had the benefit of being excellent partners. My strengths are his weaknesses and vice versa. When we were building the studio I wasn’t even old enough to buy a beer so we both really grew up in the studio. When things are tough we work together to get them better and they always get better. That is definitely something I take for granite because the only reason business’s fail is because of people. Bad partnerships, employees, etc. Barrett and I work very well together and are incredibly productive.
Starting off there were absolutely months were we didn’t think we would be able to pay the rent, but again, we did everything in our power to make sure that never happened. A funny story I often remember is looking thru our account and seeing that Barrett had gone to McDonald’s a few times that month and literally getting angry at him in my head like “WHY THE HELL DID HE HAVE TO EAT?!” (Haha).
So yes, just like any other new business we’ve had ups and downs, no such thing as a smooth road. But in the end we will prevail.
Please tell us about Treehouse Records.
We are an all analog recording studio and practice space facility. We record bands straight to tape with no protools rig or computers involved at an incredibly reasonable rate. We’re known for our all analog recording as well as being owner operated. Every recording that has come out of Treehouse Records has been recorded and engineered by co-owner Barrett Guzaldo.
As a company I am incredibly proud to be successful. We opened an analog studio in the dying age of studios, especially analog studios. People can make great records on a MacBook in their basement. We knew that going in, so we designed our studio and facility to give people a REASON to get into a studio to make a record. With that simple concept we’ve really done will with it.
We are also a one stop shop. We offer recording, monthly rehearsal spaces, a repair shop on site, as well as help bands get their music on streaming services or printed (vinyl/cds). Bands can really get everything they need to be successful simply by walking in our door. Not many places do that nowadays.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have built the business backwards. We opened a recording studio, semi- struggled to get that off the ground, so in turn we built practice spaces to help bring in more steady monthly income to cover running a recording studio.
Starting over I probably would’ve built the practice spaces first and then opened the studio.
But then again, a big draw for people renting from us IS the studio. Also, for a while the practice spaces were making far more money than the studio but in the past year and half that has also flipped.
Pricing:
- Analog recording hourly rate $40 / hour (all gear, engineer, tape included)
- Monthly practice space ranges from $350-1000 a month depending on size
Contact Info:
- Address: 4808 W. Wrightwood Ave.
Chicago IL, 60639 - Website: www.treehouserecordschicago.com
- Phone: 847 302 6105
- Email: mg@treehouserecordschicago.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treehouserecordschicago/
- Twitter: @treehouserecord
Image Credit:
Spencer Bagley
Alec Basse
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