THE SPACEBAR (CHRONICLES)
As long as I’ve been able, I’ve built spaces to make music. An obsession that probably started as soon as I could move heavy furniture by myself. It started early. I was probably 14 or 15 living with my (superhumanly patient) parents, overthrowing the balance of home and music space in the late 90’s. The only way to tempt me to move out at the age of 20 was the promise of space you can mess up all of your own. It worked.
Life in an apartment gave life to headphones and absolutely no percussion. As a lifelong drummer, this was torture. From 2007-2018, I was without anywhere to beat and bang all of life’s anxiety out of me. Living in a townhouse was as bad as an apartment, but there was hope on the horizon.
I made a Vlog about this back then and chronicled the discovery, the acquisition and build-out of the biggest thing I’d done up to that point. A weird, distant, unfinished office space that a righteously cool dude owned and let me rent/build out for 2 years.
Spacebar #1 was a 2200 sqft shell of a pole barn building out in the sticks of VA. I scraped up enough money to build it out with air/heat, electrical and plumbing over the course of several months. I filled it with all of the toys I’d collected over the years and would go there every night, every weekend, every morning, any time I could. It became a place for friends to come and try out their new ideas, old desires for music production and collaborate on the future. You really did lose yourself when you went there. It was far enough away and removed from the busy day to focus on getting what’s in you, out of you. The people I met in this process have become family and collectively the best memories I have. It was a gift and I’ll never see it otherwise. I ran out of money in 2020 and had to close it down. It was the hardest thing I did that year and the nominees on that list were formidable.
Spacebar #2 was very technically the garage of my new home in 2021. I wanted a space that was ready to go and it made the most sense for some reason. It didn’t. But my dad indulged me and help me throw together a stage on wheels. I didn’t have any ambition to play live really. I just wanted to practice and shoot videos. I never got into a groove or a schedule out there. I think I shot maybe 3 videos the entire year. Lindsay and I had just gotten together and spent all of our time catching up on the last 30 years or so. The stage sat for about a year, occasionally used to play songs to the nearby highway late at night. After about a year of non-use, I gave the garage back and dismantled the stage for good.
Spacebar #3 At some point in 2025, Lindsay had to go on a trip for 3 days to NYC. I stayed behind and gave 72 hours to the largest shed on our property. It was a woodworking shop, automotive shop and basically held all of my stuff when I wasn’t using it. Drums were in there, music stuff, but also all of my tools and a workbench. The attic was full to the brim. the closet was completely unusable. It was a mess. I took a full 2 days to remove EVERYTHING. Removed every fixture, anything on the walls or ceiling and emptied it completely. I tore out the cabinets, the bench and anything that was taking up floor space. Once clean, I ran to Lowes or Home Depot and bought the calculated right amount of snap together flooring I could responsibly purchase. I knew I would mess the floors up so I started with those last. I spent a whole day and night painting the inside. MDF is about the thirstiest wood available and I didn’t want to replace it with Drywall for a lot of reasons. It would add time and cost that I wasn’t ready to give up. Once painted with primer, and 2 coats of paint, I started on the floors. Those took a day and they came out near perfect. I finished the floors with the trim the next weekend and started hanging lights and sound.
This new space has been the most productive one yet. Writing songs, learning songs and working out lighting/sound for various venues ahead of time has been the real gift. Load out/in is easier than ever and it’s all automated. When you get home from a late gig and have to unload the truck, the outdoor speakers and lights kick on to give you a soundtrack to listen to while you work.
