Josh Gold, owner of Basement Studio
It’s been a year since we first interviewed recording producer Josh Gold about his Basement Studio enterprise. While Gold, a widely recognized keyboardist, has had to relinquish his touring gigs with his beloved Adam Ezra Group, he still has plenty to keep him busy in his work place of sound.
“Roughly 90 to 100 artists I’ve worked with so far,” Gold said. Yet, he didn’t get to where he is without some good, old fashioned work.
To turn his home basement into a basement studio, Gold had to remove a wall before installing wall insulation to the remaining walls as well as install ceiling tiles. Then his once concrete walls would absorb sound, not bounce it back. Although Gold misses his touring days with his old band, building his own studio was the logical step after spending the last 7 of his 15 years with the group as the live sound engineer. If you’re familiar with the last handful of releases from Adam Ezra Group, Gold was the one turning the knobs to make it sound good.
“We pretty much started out with the first live one, Better Than Bootleg 1,” he said. “We definitely did a lot of live engineering throughout the time I was playing with them.” Since our last interview with Gold, he’s added more equipment and plenty more instruments.
“The studio has grown naturally over the course of the year,” he said. “The interface is an upgrade. The computer is an upgrade. I’ve got some new microphones, basic studio upgrades.” Gold has also added to his instrument collection a glockenspiel, an acoustic guitar, and a lot more percussion instruments.”
Josh Gold, Basement Studio
Gold gets up early each morning, takes a walk around his neighborhood blocks, then spends the rest of the day in his Basement Studio, for at least 12 hours.
“I like to get a little daylight in before I go down to the studio,” Gold said. “I’m usually up pretty early because of the kids, get them off to school. At nine o’ clock I pretty much hit the studio. Today, I had a session starting at nine. Clients come over. Some days, if clients aren’t over, then I’m still in the studio but I’m mixing or doing production.”
Gold can take any instrument track and build a song up or around it. “I often start with drums to build a song up,” he said. “But each song is different. Sometimes I start with the guitar. Sometimes I start with a vocal.”
Gold does not have to look too hard to find professional musicians to help him achieve the sound he is looking for. He can count a few old friends. Working with AEG’s long time drummer Alex Martin or former AEG bass player Francis Hickey gives Gold a wide pallette of sound and styles to choose from. Gold can also work with full bands that can come into his studio.
Basement Studio
“When I do hire people, I tend to like to hire people that I know and I’ve worked with. I’ve used John Chapman before. He used to play in the Adam Ezra Group. I’ve used Jordan Tyrrell-Winsocki who used to play fiddle with us. There’s a lot of different people I’ve brought in if the bands that I’m recording don’t have their own musicians.”
In addition to working hands on with bands in his Basement Studio, Gold can work with colleagues online, regardless of how far away they might reside, including other countries. “There’s a few musicians from Haiti that I’m working with,” Gold said. “One of which is online and he’s in Haiti. One of which is living in Boston now, and I’m working with him in the studio.” Gold is also working with a Nigerian musician who is in Boston and working on an Afro-pop project. “His name is Korex.O,” Gold said.
Gold and his studio services can be discovered by global musicians through his own Basement Studio website or through various production websites out there that direct musicians to producers. This gives Gold a huge variety of genres to work with, requiring him to jump from one genre to another in the same day. The transition is not as challenging to him as some may imagine.
“To me, music is music,” he said. “If someone is invested in their own work and their own project, then that’s going to translate. If somebody comes in and I’m working on a project, it doesn’t really matter what the genre is. The genre is secondary.”
After his first year or so of success with his Basement Studio, Gold still recalls fondly his time spent on the road with the Adam Ezra Group. He couldn’t have one without the other. “I’m also appreciative of my time working with Adam and the group,” he said.
To learn more about Josh Gold’s Basement Studio, please visit:
https://www.joshgoldmusic.com/
