For the Artist
New Co-Create space helps musicians go beyond just recording
PHOTOS BY JORDAN RANDALL | DEVELOPED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SOUND HOUSE STUDIOS
For years, Jonathan Gautier has helped musicians experience the euphoria that comes with taking an idea locked inside their mind and crafting it into music that represents the fruit of that idea fully bloomed through the taxing technical work of recording, mixing, editing and mastering.
Hugs and fist bumps are in order, a feeling of accomplishment is earned, and then what?
That question is the precise dilemma that Jon—a Grammy award-winning producer who has been a collaborator with the likes of Taylor Swift, Florence & the Machine and The 1975, to name a few—and his songwriting friend and now business partner, Jordan Burks, are looking to resolve with the launch of the Co-Create space at Sound House Studios.
“We always talk about completing the circle for an artist,” says Jordan, a music teacher at Lakeland Christian School, who has written more than 500 songs to date, many of which have been published and even graced the airwaves of Christian and country radio stations. “Our Co-Create space is like Catapult for musicians...and the closest thing like this is in Nashville. The music industry is so gate kept. We are changing the game with this.”
The “this” he’s referring to is the comprehensive approach to supporting artists that begins with recording stations for artists to track demos on, access to Sound House’s state-of-the art studio, a co-writing collaborative space to connect with others, and the post-production marketing and networking expertise that artists desperately need, but don’t know how
to find.
At last, Jon and Jordan will tell you, there’s a place for artists to brainstorm, write, record, produce and market themselves all in the context of a community of professionals that in some ways replaces the old and narrow record label path that provided opportunities but also could be greatly restrictive and frustrating to many bands and artists.
“We’re an anti-label label,” Jon says with a smile inside the recording studio located at 113 S. Florida Ave., just east of the historic Polk Theatre that can be seen from Sound House’s second story windows.
Jordan Burks (left) and Jon Gautier (right) have developed a collaborative environment through Sound House Studios Co-Create space for artists to collaboratively brainstorm, write, record, produce and market themselves.
“We are a ‘for the artist’ label,” Jordan says to clarify Jon’s remark. “Our goal is we want to develop artists, and I have a passion for teaching and seeing people succeed.”
He and Gautier both. Burks, a Florida Southern graduate was at one-time an elementary school music teacher in the public school system and is now the Elementary Music and Upper School A/V Teacher at LCS. Gautier, a Rochelle School for the Arts and Harrison School for the Arts alum, spent seven years teaching music at North Lakeland Elementary and he now serves as an adjunct professor for music management at Burks’ alma mater, FSC.
It makes sense then, that the duo is big on a comprehensive education process for members of the Co-Create space. They will offer artists social media training, set up meet and greets with industry professionals, and lean into a songwriting network that Burks says stretches from New York to Nashville
to Texas.
“When you see the songwriters who are making it big, almost all of them are collaborating,” Gautier says, with his business partner nodding alongside him, suggesting people take a closer look at the bylines on the Billboard Chart’s top songs over the past decade.
Gautier might jokingly call Sound House an anti-label label, but the truth is the 40-year-old father of two has actually found immense success recording for some of the largest labels in the world.
With encouragement and support from his late father, Jorge, Jon moved out of his home studio in 2011 into a space once desperately in need of recon and renovation just a stone’s throw away from a theatre where Elvis and Smokey Robinson once performed.
You may never have heard Gautier’s name, and he’s OK with that, but at the top of the stairs at Sound House you’ll see his name in plain sight on a GRAMMY Award Certificate, honoring him for his work recording violin tracks on Taylor Swift’s “Folklore,” an album that has since reached 6x Platinum status.
For many years, Jon has leaned into the grind required to make a career in the music industry, and during the pandemic that commitment paid off in an unexpected fashion.
He received a call from violinist Bobby Hawk, a New Yorker who was temporarily quarantining with his parents in Polk County, requesting studio time to record an unknown project. Files would come in with music arrangements labeled as “Project X” and other hard to decode names, but the truth of what Gautier was recording revealed itself in late July 2020 when he and Hawk found out Swift had included their strings arrangement on several tracks.
“This is about who you are. This is not a cookie cutter approach at all.”
For many, that would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to cling to for the rest of their lives. For Gautier, he is fortunate it has become a repeat experience, having worked with Hawk and other well respected musicians to record tracks for some of the industry’s biggest names.
“I remember I was driving to the [YMCA], and I thought this new song was pretty good,” he recalled, “and it sounded very familiar…and it was Anti-Hero (another Taylor Swift track), and I realized we had recorded for it.”
Every artist loves the idea of being the next global superstar (or at least earning a spot in their album credits), but most aspiring musicians would be pleased to simply be under the tutelage of industry veterans on a path toward finding sustained success—exactly what Southeastern University graduate Jessica Jarvis was doing in the Sound House studio on a recent afternoon.
Check out Jarvis on social media at @jessicajarvismusic and you’ll find a behind-the-scenes look at her journey alongside Gautier (and Hawk), including the recent release of her first single “Shakespeare Street.”
It’s clear that the art of “doing” is the practical step for those often stuck in the “dreaming” phase, and Burks knows that as well as anyone. He recently found out Dolly Parton was listening to a demo he recorded—but as is often true, he doesn’t know what that means for the life of that song. He said about three and a half years ago he wrote a song that he believed had all of the makings of a real hit, especially for Contemporary Christian Music icon Michael W. Smith. He never heard anything back, until earlier this year when he got word that Smith was tracking the song for his upcoming record.
Burks and Gautier are excited to share all they have learned about the music industry with other budding stars and established artists alike. They are offering consultations and tours of the Co-Create space, ready to connect with artists looking to not only record a track or an album, but those seeking to answer the question, ‘What next?’
“This is about who you are,” Burks says. “This is not a cookie cutter approach at all.”