Located behind a Seminole Heights bungalow in a single-story concrete outbuilding nicknamed "The Compound," Short Circuit Studio doesn't look like much from the outside. But against this unprepossessing backdrop, a growing number of notable local releases are being recorded in relative obscurity and with high-quality results.
On any given night, musicians mill around in the spacious courtyard outside the studio, drinking beers or coffees and smoking cigarettes. Some are taking a break, discussing what to adjust or track next; others are there to soak up the laid-back, creative vibe established by the three friends who run the place.
"It's definitely a labor of love," laughs Owen Meats, who founded and built the studio with Dillon Griffiths and currently operates it with co-producer/engineer Troy Cedeno. "If we can make enough to keep the lights on and the gear fresh and keep it cool in here — at the end of the day, if that can happen and everybody's happy, then that's fine with me."
The three are also musicians who, at one point or another, decided to produce records for others simply for the thrill of it, even as their own musical projects waxed and waned.
Meats has limited time in the studio these days, as he's juggling a job at Bern's Steak House and culinary studies at The Art Institute of Tampa. Griffiths runs a web-based business and is more an occasional (silent) partner. Cedeno has become the go-to producer, his daytime bookkeeping gig leaving nights free. Meats trusts Cedano to get the job done when he's not around. "Without Troy, we couldn't do as much as we do here," he told me during a recent visit to the studio.
Meats is the most experienced of the trio. He built his first home studio in '01, and gained additional skills working for Progressive Media and Music for over seven years, four of those as studio manager and head engineer. His tenure there made him realize he didn't want to make a career of it. "It's really all about the love of it for me."
His initial home studio grew out of a desire to record on a budget and without creative restraints; Short Circuit came about for similar reasons. But it's far from your stereotypical "home studio."
"We're not Morrissound by any stretch of the imagination, we're not Audio Lab… but we're definitely as pro as you can get in your backyard," Meats explained. "We've spent a lot of our own money buying gear — vintage organs, guitars, monitors. We give ourselves mics for birthdays. Any excuse to get studio gear."
Short Circuit isn't a money-making venture. "I don't think I've made a dollar in two years' recording," says Meats. "We've poured pretty much every cent we've made directly back into the studio."
The main recording space, Studio A, is a large, completely soundproofed room. Everything is custom-made, with three movable baffles that can be used to get good sound separation while still maintaining a live recording environment. The smaller Studio B, "The Command Center," houses the computer, boards and vocal isolation booth, and is more of a "live" space for listening and engineering. "We're pretty much inside the box, in the computer, when it comes to mixing and mastering," Meats explained. "But we do have an analog interface; everything goes through an analog board into a computer. You get a warmer sound. There's just something about warm circuitry that, when you pass sound through it, electricity through it, you get a more organic feel."
The studio is willing to work within the time and budgetary needs of individual bands, and has established its reputation entirely through word-of-mouth. With the exception of Tribal Style's 2008 LP, Olde Town, the majority of Short Circuit's major projects have come from bands repped by Brokenmold Entertainment; 2008's Meltdown at the Smellrose (a Nervous Turkey concert DVD), 2010's Kentucky Monkey by Poetry n' Lotion; Auto!Automatic!!'s Best of the Bay-winning self-titled second in 2011; and forthcoming releases by The Living Arches, Brahm Bones and Florida Night Heat. "It's not really by design, but just kind of by fortune and circumstance and the fact that they need somebody and we're here … and we like working with them a whole bunch and really back up what they're trying to do with the music scene here."
Cedeno's favorite part is the process of creation itself — "when inspiration hits right there in the studio and then all of a sudden makes a good song great, or a great song unbelievable."
For Meats, "It's gotta be fun. If it's not fun, then I don't want to be here. You're always gonna have rough patches… But at the end of the day, if you can't say I had fun tonight, then why the fuck did you even do it?" He added, "The act of creating something — to help my friends realize their art, I can't think of anything higher than that."
This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2011.