Sculpting music and careers

LEWIPSORTE -

Musician, sound engineer, and father of 10, Dean Stairs has been running his own business in Lewisporte since 2001. The ever-cheerful Mrs. Stairs, Stevie, is Dean's partner in life, love and the family business. While day-to-day family life flourishes in the upper floors of the old Salvation Army Citadel at 104 Main Street, the music business booms below.

So what exactly does go on in the basement of the old citadel in Little Known Artists' Studios (LKAS)?

According to Dean, his business "facilitates music careers." He says there is a perception that all he does is make CDs, but his business is much more than that. Although producing CDs is one aspect of his work, his 30 years experience in the industry places him in a position to help guide the careers of musicians through his creative support in the development of their music, through high-end recording and engineering of their music, and through the promotion of them and their product to a larger audience.

The studios consist of a master workroom with high-end computer and audio gear, and several isolation rooms each with different attributes for different types of sound. The rooms each have different floor and wall surfaces. All the rooms have unusual shapes - triangular or parallelograms. It's almost impossible to find a ninety-degree corner in any of the rooms. The floors in the studio are 'decoupled' meaning they float free and independent of the wall structure and of each other. This prevents the transfer of subsonic sound. The rooms are soundproof; all have very deep, insulated wall cavities ranging anywhere from 18" to 36" deep. It is undeniably a purpose-built space.

Dean says, "It's all about control of sound, knowing what the space can do and what tool to use - the right tool for the right job."

During testing and recording musicians are situated in one of the rooms depending on the desired sound, and play their music while Dean is at the computer in the main room recording the sound and monitoring it through the speakers in his space.

In addition to the recording processes within this specialized environment, Dean also makes adjustments and enhancements to build context for the musician's work. Dean says "some people play guitar, I play the computer." He engineers and creates using the computer. He refers to himself as an audio sculptor.

"People come with an idea in the form of an emotion - they want to create a particular feeling with a certain melody," he explained. "We start together with this and from there we sculpt it into something."

Dean works with musicians such as Terry Penney, Dan Bursey, Irene Bridger, and Ada Jenkins. He's also working with a number of teenage musicians as part of his second Janeway CD project, due for release in April.

Musicians come to him with a range of experiences and at different stages in their careers. When working with a singer/songwriter such as Terry Penney, Dean says Terry's songs are already like fine cut diamonds. Dean's role is to add the setting to that gem to situate it in the best presentation form possible.

One of the highlights in Dean's career as a music engineer was Terry Penney's 2009 SOCAN Songwriter of the Year Award for the album Town That Time Forgot. As Dean co-produced that CD, it reflects well on him too.

Dean says he's also very proud of the initial Janeway CD project. The fact that his clients would come back to donate their time to this project speaks highly of the cause itself and of the business relationship between Dean and his clients.

As Dan Bursey sees it though, "Dean doesn't have clients, he has friends."

Dean's work goes beyond recording music.

"What I find that people don't understand is that you can go to a lot of places in Newfoundland and get a CD made, but what we can do is help you have a career," he said.

This aspect of Dean's business is growing all the time. He currently has a MUN student intern working with him - Kayla Ball from Lewisporte. The team at LKAS helps with CD distribution, concert organizing, cyber PR (promotion over the Internet), with websites and photography, as well as with the mundane administrative tasks required of musicians as they establish their careers. Through all of this LKAS is always working to make connections close to home and beyond, to national and international levels. The network is growing, and Terry Penny's recent tour in Ireland is one of those examples.

Another interesting and unusual aspect of Dean's business is that it is situated in the family home; and that family is a large one. The children range in age from three to 21. Dean says part of the appeal for some clients is "being in the home where my children are free to come and go and be a part of things... Stevie is the hostess. It's not exactly a family-run business, but the family is integral to the business. Sometimes when new clients come to the studio they don't realize that right away. While they may be initially surprised, most of them are happy with it; they come to look forward to that aspect of their work at the studio.

Ultimately, says Dean, "The business comes down to who we are. The combination of our family, this location, and my experience is a unique one."

Musicians appreciate Dean, and want to work with him again and again. He has a "fanatical determination to get it right" and he will work a piece over and over again to meet the wishes of the musician. What more could anyone want from someone they choose to do business with.

For more information about Little Known Artists' Studios check out their web site at: tp://www.littleknown.ca/littleknown/Welcome.html