We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeremiah Shumaker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeremiah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

About a year and a half into the birth of Caffeinated Records, we put into language an ethic we had been building our business around: partnerships over projects. Working in an industry as creative-centric as the music industry demands a level of vulnerability be brought to the table – especially from our clients who were trusting us with their music. It became very apparent early on that taking a more holistically view to our clients’ goals and creating a safe space for them to make their music not only helped our clients succeed, but also gave them an uncommon level of care and value that most had not experienced in recording studios before. As a result, we began taking the extra steps to produce music that spoke to each artist’s unique style, even if it stretched us as producers. We would help map out an artist’s plan for growth, sometimes advising against certain projects if we believed that it was going to cost them more than it was worth. It meant building relationships with our clients and supporting them on their journey, even when it wasn’t directly profitable to us. This decision helped us create a loyal community of creatives and established one of our best forms of marketing: reputation.

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

My name is Jeremiah Shumaker. When people ask me what I do, I typically tell them “I create stuff,” mostly because explaining the range of things I do begins to feel a bit tedious at times. The truth is, I am a multifaceted digital creative with the heart of an entrepreneur. I’ve always been a self-taught thinker, and learned the inner workings of audio and video production as well as starting and growing a business all without ever going to college. In 2020, I opened a recording studio in the Chicago suburbs called Caffeinated Records.

In my time working with artists, I have come to learn that so many people trying to grow in the music industry have felt unseen or unvalued – particularly in recording studios. It became a common piece of feedback that Caffeinated Records was the first studio that artists felt cared for and that their music was valuable. This idea has become fuel behind my vision for the future of Caffeinated Records; to open a music and coffeehouse that would be a gathering place for creatives and that would serve as a bridge between the professional music industry and the local music scene. All my work today is building towards that end. That is, to use my passions and talents to form a community of creatives helping each other along their journey.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

As a creative, there is this all-consuming impulse within me to make stuff. I think most creatives can relate to this. As a result, the idea that I can spend the majority portion of my life making things that I am proud of, and things that benefit others; there’s no better way for me to spend my time.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As inquiries would come through our website, I would tend to evaluate how “promising” the job would be based on the information they provided. At least somewhere in the back of my head, I’d be making a lot of assumptions about whether or not the project was going to be worth the time. I think this is a somewhat natural impulse, especially when you become accustomed to people trying to undercut your price or losing potential clients the moment you give them your rates, but I had to learn that you never truly know what projects are going to be truly valuable unless you’re willing to walk down the path at least a little bit.

I had an inquiry come through our website one day. All I knew at the time was that she had an AOL email address and she was looking to “make a CD.” To be completely honest, in the moment, I did not hold high expectations for this prospect. My assumptions were that she would likely have limited musical ability and would not be looking to invest the amount of money that we would have to charge to keep the business running.

What happened instead was a month’s worth of work building a full 8-track album. Not only that, but it became one of the most beautiful stories to come out of the studio. Jaicie Claire (her artist name) wrote this project about her struggle with infertility and the hardship that she has walked through for her whole life, praying for a daughter she could never have. She wanted to create this album not just for herself, but to comfort and encourage others in her community that have struggled with the same issue. This project became one of the most meaningful (and ironically, one of our most profitable) works of art we had the chance to create, and I almost didn’t pay attention to it.

I guess it’s true what they say about assuming.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.caffeinatedrecords.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremiahshumaker/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caffeinatedrecords
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcAPQYuPpdvNNEMH-LURFuQ

Image Credits
All photos were internal, taken by and for Caffeinated Records