We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful CJ Metz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with CJ below.

CJ, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We didn’t set out to start a recording studio. Five years ago, my wife Jenna and I were two twenty-somethings who had recently gotten our degrees and were working corporate jobs. Then in 2020, COVID hit, remote work became an option, and the rules of “what we thought we should do” kind of went out the window. In the process of attempting to figure things out, we started day-dreaming about opening a wedding venue somewhere in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Still operating with pandemic-brain, we called a realtor and started touring houses, and before we really knew what we had done, had purchased this cabin on 30 acres.

From there we kind of just started doing what felt right step by step, and this idea kind of built it’s own mission in a way. The venue idea hit a wall with zoning and licensing issues, and we realized we weren’t as excited about it as we thought we would be. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the studio idea had been bubbling – I had been self-producing since 2018 and in a band (The Milestones) for much longer then that. When my band congregated at the cabin to write demos the fall after we bought it, that’s when I realized we had to share it. So we got our business license, built a website and social media, and have been operating as a recording studio ever since.

Our mission is pretty simple: to make a place where people feel comfortable to make cool things. I believe the best music comes from a place of comfort and authenticity, and I focus on meeting people where they are at to deliver real, honest performances. I tell people my job is to handle the technical side so they can stay in the moment and focus on their music while we capture something special. We’ve tried to build something that feels more like home than a business – initially in service to providing a comfortable recording environment, but this idea has expanded as well. Over time, “the cabin” as folks who know it refer to it has grown into a community of people who value the same things, and that part means a lot to us. We host regular concerts for friends highlighting people who have recorded here and love to build connections between different artists that they may not have otherwise known.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been playing music and performing for all of my adult life – my most enduring project being an indie-rock band “The Milestones” that I started in 2014 with friends from high school days. Over the years, we’ve gone through different stages, but were playing pretty actively in the DC/MD/VA-area starting around 2017, and in 2018 we went down to Nashville to record our first full-length album at Blackbird Studio in Nashville. That’s where I got the recording/engineering bug – it started out recording my own demos, then over time, building out more elaborate home-recording productions for personal use. A good friend who was a technically-trained engineer really helped me out along the way. We recorded my band, and things kind of grew from there.

My philosophy is that the technical side of recording is a critical side of the equation, but only part of it. I joke with clients that the most important part of the engineering is to be “a good hang” – but it’s more than that. I pride myself in my ability to meet artists (and projects) where they are and knowing when to offer feedback, when to step back, and how to keep a session feeling natural. My goal is to build a studio where both seasoned artists and first-timers feel equally comfortable, and to remove any barriers folks might have to getting in the studio and getting there work out there.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

The short answer is we didn’t – we used what we had and buy what we need along the way. This looks different in different categories – from a music gear perspective it meant dipping into savings for a few investments up front and continuing to invest along the way as the business grows. It’s also looked like a few barters and trades for gear here and there, refinishing a drum kit myself (which has since been upgraded by a professional), and building lots of acoustic panels/go-bo’s in the garage. We’ve also tried to be smart and invest in some signature unique pieces (like our 70’s Rhodes piano), in addition to foundational gear.

From a personnel perspective, this approach can be summed up by “we just make things work” – a lot of work on nights and in random hours, especially in the 18-month period between when our daughter was born and when she started daycare. Our family lives on the property so we don’t have to worry about multiple mortgages and additional overhead.

I think this approach works for us because we’re honest about what we are, and what we aren’t as a business. We’re not trying to be the fanciest commercial studio and don’t advertise our selves as that. Folks know before they book what gear we have, our approach, what our space is like, and what we’re trying to create.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We started out building from relationships and contacts that we already had – following local businesses and artists, etc. I think the key is that we were building real-life relationships in addition to just ‘followers,’ got to know the local music scenes, and made real friends who helped spread the word and believed in us. Opening the space for low-key hangouts (aka parties) and concerts also helped with this – the first year we hosted a ‘stargazing and cider night’ in the fall with local cidery. I also am not shy about reaching out directly to artists I would love to work with and letting them know that we exist.

As far as posting goes – we try to keep our posting to organic and authentic content that shows what we, and keeping in mind how I think potential clients would like to see themselves in the space. Having a recognizable style has helped too – we always use a similar color scheme, and style of editing that folks associate with us. We still have some work to do on the social presence side of things, but that’s what’s worked for us so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sillandgladecabin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sillandgladecabin/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sillandgladecabin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sillandglade
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sillandgladecabin
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ueGRzNvZvS9fucXMekaJA?si=bc58f9eeaac94071

Image Credits

(some) photos taken by Heather Goodloe