Tom’s Travels: Audio Along the Hudson, Day 3

Don’t Pass Up Day One and Day Two!

Wednesday, July 30: Make Tracks to Mike Gordon’s Megaplum Studio

Today’s the big day, the main reason for jumping on a redeye and heading East: a visit to the amazing new WSDG-designed, Mike Gordon-owned Megaplum Studio, built from the ground up into the shores of Lake Champlain. A little piece of music paradise, designed to inspire the creative juices.

It’s a five-hour drive, allowing for time to recharge the battery and stretch the legs. John is up early and already working by 6:30. Me? I was ready by 7, but just barely… After a stop for a breakfast egg-and-cheese sandwich at a nearby, much-better-than-expected roadside deli, we hit the NY Thruway and headed north.

We were met by Mike Gordon, the owner; producer/engineer Jared Slomoff; Brian J. Mac of Birdseye, the architect who designed the main house and studio (featured this month in Dwell magazine!); Romina Larregina, Partner and Project Manager at WSDG, who took lead on the project; and a few others.

There is an excellent design, acoustics and interiors story to tell, but I will be saving that for the October Mix cover story. For now, a few observations from my afternoon at Megaplum:

• Mike Gordon is much, much more than the bass player in Phish. He is well-read, and well-versed across all media, with an emphasis on the visual arts. He has made three films, at least, and has two more in development. He has an incredible eye for interior and architectural design. He is still something of a rebel; he likes a sense of juxtaposition and the unexpected. He loves the films of David Lynch.
• Everybody should have a buddy like Jared Slomoff, a producer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with Gordon in multiple capacities since 1998—everything from musical collaborator to systems engineer to troubleshooter to gear selector to psychologist. His job, in his own words, is “to anticipate everything that Mike might want to do when he’s inspired, and then make it so he just has to push a button to get started.” Plus, Jared likes sandwiches. A man after my own heart.
• You absolutely can make a control room sound incredible even when the design mandate calls for glass to cover nearly 80% of three walls.

• Mike Gordon is an excellent dad, and he shares a special relationship with his 16-year-old daughter Tess, one based on music and harmony. She is a talented songwriter, a shockingly mature vocalist and she is taking advanced guitar lessons from the same person who taught Trey Anastasio, the monster lead guitar player and vocalist of Phish. Mike and Tess will start playing out soon, starting with local fairs, farmer’s markets and the like. It was a real treat to watch them strum and sing back and forth throughout the afternoon, even during the cover shoot.
• Hen of the Woods in Burlington, Vermont, is an excellent restaurant, especially when you’re surrounded by such stimulating company and the owner stops by the table to welcome you like you’re an old friend.

Tomorrow, it’s back to Highland and a changeover to my friend at Marist University. But not before a quick lunch stop at the Luzerne Music Center to meet the incredible Elizabeth Pitcairn!

Stay tuned for Day 4!