We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carl Bleke a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Carl, appreciate you joining us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?
I spent 5 years working sales for a major music retailer and one of the main philosophies they would constantly reinforce was ’sell clients what they need, not what they want’. The idea being that a client may come to you wanting to purchase something to achieve a certain goal, but if what they are looking for will not achieve that goal, it is your responsibility to work with and educate the client and ultimately sell them the best equipment to reach their goal. For technical matters, this was always pretty easy to identify and correct, but in situations that were more artistic and personal taste, it could defintely be a bit more difficult to navigate.
I had a bit of an ‘aha’ moment about a year after opening up the studio. I was struggling to wrap up the mix on a record where the client had a goal of sounding like a particular band, but the client didn’t have many similarities to this band. What they wanted was to sound like something specific, what they needed was to sound like themselves. Once I committed to making them sound like the best version of themselves, everything went great and everyone was happy. There’s probably two lessons there!
Since then I constantly remind myself with every interaction to truly figure out their wants and needs, and to make sure they are congruent with eachother. Whether they have an idea on how they want to approach something technically, or achieve something artistically – it is ultimately up to me to be the expert, and guide the situation to make it happen.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Like a lot of kids, I first got into music playing in middle school band. Not long after starting to play music, being a computer geek, I discovered I could use my computer to make music. In 2002, I bought my first computer based multitrack recording setup, and I haven’t stopped since. The name Brick Shed Studios is a homage to my first recording space, ‘The Shed’, which was a wood shed I built with my Dad when I was in high school.
I studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, toured in a band, recorded in studios, played drums and was a band leader for 5 years on cruise ships, spent several years in music technology sales, and many more stops along the way. Through my various experiences I was able to work with a wide range of musicians in various disciplines and backgrounds from all over the world as both a musician and engineer.
I have a diverse range of clients ranging from artists and singer/songwriters who need production for their songs, bands, audio for video, live-streaming, and remote production, editing, and mixing.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal with Brick Shed Studios is to be accessible and work with anyone and everyone, whether they are young or old, professional or hobbyist, expert or beginner. My diverse background in music helps to identify and work with the strengths a client brings to the table and fill in the gaps when needed.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Client referrals and earning return business. I’ve yet to begin much of a marketing push, which will be coming soon to take the studio to the next level. But for me, this approach was necessary to gauge whether or not I am doing things right and on my way to achieving something special. When I first started Brick Shed Studios, it was my goal to start off on a more personal and solid foundation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brickshedstudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brickshedstudios?igsh=MTZ0ODgyb2c1OWtzMg==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brickshedstudios
Image Credits
EvMo Productions