We recently connected with Kevin Grenier and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Hidden Creek was born mostly out of my family’s love for music, and especially our heart for the artists who create it. In June of 2014, my wife Angie and I packed up our three daughters, two dogs, and the possessions we could fit in a 20’ trailer and moved from rural Northeast Wisconsin down to Nashville. We had been to Nashville several times as a family and had all fallen in love with it. You can feel the creative energy everywhere in Music City. You can practically smell the inspiration in the air. My whole family came alive the moment we hit the ground here.

Shortly after the move we had the good fortune to stumble upon a unique property on Nashville’s West side, a secluded 12 acre wooded lot tucked away among the rolling hills of Bellevue, near the legendary Loveless Cafe and Natchez Trace. We immediately began dreaming about the ways we might be able to share this beautiful property with fellow music lovers.

We started by putting up a mini-barn and finishing it to be a music space. Then, after walking away from my full-time corporate job in March of 2019, Angie convinced me to put all my energy into building a music business. We officially adopted the name Hidden Creek, and started meeting with local singer/songwriters to pick their brains about the possibility of housing a recording studio and intimate listening room concerts in the mini-barn. We had our first concert a month later. It was such a big hit, with both the artists and the audience, that we knew we had struck a nerve. During the year that followed we had 1-2 shows every week. The people we met and musical experiences we shared during this time were nothing short of life-giving. We turned the corner into 2020 with full hearts and a head of steam.

Then came the Great Pandemic. Our calendar was wiped clean and everything came to a halt, just like everyone else. But we didn’t let that deter us. We used the shutdown as an opportunity to reflect on what we had done so far, what we should better focus on, and what new ways we might be able to come alongside our artist friends. They are among the hardest hit among all the people and professions that have been devastated by this ordeal.

I was able to invest a lot of time and energy into the studio, making major upgrades and redesigning the facility to be as friendly and functional as possible. We were then able to offer pristine multitrack recording & mixing services in a cozy unique space that our artists absolutely love hanging out in. We were determined to be flexible and keep our rates very low, helping to reduce the barriers that prevent too many artists from bringing their creations to life. Angie and I literally stripped our personal budget down to the bare bones to help ensure that we could keep those rates low and continue to provide recording services for many years to come.

Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

ABOUT HIDDEN CREEK

Hidden Creek is a friendly, relaxed, and supportive music production studio, where everything revolves around you and your music. We believe the real magic in great music comes not from technology, but from the talent and creativity of inspired artists.

Of course studio facilities and gear are critically important to the recording process. So are the skills and aptitude of the engineers at the controls. But at Hidden Creek we see these as secondary to the music and the artists who make it. Nothing is more important than your music. Our desire is to provide an environment where you can unleash your creativity and have an awesome experience from start to finish.

Whether it’s your first time in a recording studio or you’re a seasoned veteran, whether you have an exact vision for your music or just a rough idea… we’ll play as large or small of a role in the process as your situation requires. And you will be in control at all times. We are here to serve you and your creative vision.

We’ve tried to remove as many obstacles to creativity as we can. We will always serve and advocate for you, and we’ve set our rates very low but our quality standards very high. It’s our hope that you end up feeling like you’re getting much more than you’re paying for!

ABOUT KEVIN

I have been multitrack recording for nearly four decades, ever since that fateful day in the 1980s when I discovered I could connect my boombox to one channel of my dad’s cassette deck and insert an adapted microphone into the other. The tape hiss after a few rounds of this technique was something special to behold. After many years and many iterations of that first experiment, I ultimately entered the digital age in the early 2000’s with a basement home studio that soon blossomed into a full-fledged recording studio in Menominee, MI. Life eventually swept our family down to Nashville, and it wasn’t long before I had my sights on a new studio. Thus, Hidden Creek was born.

Modern technology has opened up possibilities for music creation that were inconceivable back in the 80s. I love the tech, and I love deep-diving into all of its complexities. But I also remain old-school in the sense that I believe the real ‘magic’ in music comes from singers and musicians, not computers and software. I really believe that my role (and the role of all the studio tech) is to serve the music, and to encourage, support, and advocate for the artists who make it possible..

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients has been, hands down, without question, unequivocally… current clients. This of course made it hard to get going initially, but also exponentially easier to connect with new clients the more we grow.

While customer referrals are a big deal for most businesses, maybe nowhere is this more true than in the music industry. And in our case, as we attempt to exist and thrive as a small recording studio in Music Studio among the plethora of excellent (often legendary) studios, the testimony of our independent artist clients is everything to us. There are plenty of well-tuned rooms with high quality gear and talented engineers to choose from here. But we provide an environment that is uniquely friendly, inspiring and affirming. For some independent artists, this is a game-changer.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In addition to the Pandemic Pivot I already shared, we found ourselves pivoting again big time in 2022. After we ran into a series of road blocks with local codes as we attempted to diversify our family business using our 12 acre property, we ultimately made the decision to move on from that property. By that time the studio had more that proven it was worth fighting for. So I set out to find a commercial space. The hope was to find a space that would be reasonably affordable (in Nashville?!), flexible, and ideally still in the Bellevue area.

I ended up stumbling upon a nearly perfect space for lease above a local family-owned florist. The space doubled my square footage, and I was able to work with the existing layout. I designed and built my own modular isolation booths to save money and avoid major structural changes to a leased space. For several months I juggled continued studio session in the old place, building piles of modules for the iso rooms, prepping the studio space, selling our property, and buying a new home. The new lease started in August, we closed on our old and new homes in late September, and the new studio was up and running by mid-October. I think it’s the most intense stretch of hard work and extreme stress I’ve ever experienced.

The new space led to dramatically increased studio capabilities and a much more prominent location. I am now in my fourth month of full-time operation since reopening, and each of those months has been better than any month I had since opening the business in 2019!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hiddencreekmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiddencreekmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiddencreekmusic