Meet Josh Gray and Rachel McCann of Inglewood in Nashville, Tennessee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Gray and Rachel McCann

Hi Josh and Rachel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ten years ago, we purchased Ivy Hall, a historic home in Inglewood. We moved here from Mississippi to find better resources for our music, which at that time was centered on performing. We didn’t know at the time how much Ivy Hall would inspire our musical journey. The home itself has a colorful history; its architect and the original owner both were Nashville icons in the 1930s. And the house has great creative energy.

Before we were even fully moved in, we started converting a room in our basement into a practice space for rehearsing and recording demos. Then we found out about a studio being sold that featured a vintage Neve console. We purchased almost everything in the auction, and so Ivy Hall Studio began as a Neve that needed a place to live and thrive in the midst of a historic home. And that’s evolved into how we see ourselves today: a state-of-the-art studio in a house brimming with history.

We hired Michael Cronin Acoustic Construction to build a room on the level of our new equipment. It was a two-year process, during which we opted for maximum disruption and replaced mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems throughout the house. My wife, Rachel, is an architect and architectural historian. Her capabilities were invaluable to the process of updating the home, building the studio, and keeping the uniquely important historic character of the home intact.

As we neared completion of the studio, we began to realize that we had built something special that we could offer to others, so we set up a Facebook page showing off the new space and featuring the talented musicians who were coming to record.

Home studios have always been plentiful in Nashville, and so many amazing and well known records have been made in them. When we added our studio to the mix, we had no idea that we, along with all the other home studios in Nashville, were illegal. The statute was overlooked and rarely enforced unless someone turned you in, but a person in the neighborhood saw our Facebook ad and did the deed. We received a cease and desist letter from the city soon after opening our doors and spent the next eight months in a quest to exist.

The historic status of the house allowed us to apply for a preservation overlay that permits historic homes to operate as businesses in order to generate revenue for their preservation. We had to attend and host a series of public meetings, distribute notices to neighbors, circulate a petition, and enlist neighborhood support for the studio. The brightest spot in a very difficult time is that we got to know our neighbors on a deeper level, and we ended up with a tremendous show of support from them. After another ten months spent bringing the studio up to the commercial building code, we became one of the first legal home studios in Nashville. A year or so after we reopened, a tremendous effort spearheaded by studio owner Lij Shaw succeeded in legalizing home studios in Nashville.

In the last five years, we’ve grown organically by word of mouth and been privileged to host a number of talented musicians at Ivy Hall Studio. People who come here to make their own art love the atmosphere of being in a house that is itself a beautiful work of art. They love the peaceful setting of Inglewood, the opportunity to relax on the back patio, and the ability to focus in a dedicated and well equipped studio space. We live here, and we enjoy having creative people in the house. If we’re cooking, we invite them to join us for dinner.

We also offer musicians the chance to reside on site while recording. It’s a wonderful experience for them to be able to wake up in the morning, have coffee, and go downstairs to record. The house is on substantial grounds, so it feels like a haven tucked away from the city, and yet downtown Nashville is 13 minutes away.

We have just replaced our much-loved Neve VR console with a new API 2448 that gives engineers more flexibility and a modern interface. We have a great selection of gear that we have accumulated over the years and a fantastic Baldwin concert grand piano picked especially off the production line for us.

Now that we’re happy with everything here, we’re ready to let more people know about our unique setup. We offer musicians the ability to travel here from all over the world to work on their projects and live at Ivy Hall while they work. They have access to all that is on offer in our great city while living and working in a peaceful, private location. Ivy Hall offers all the advantages of a commercial studio alongside the conveniences and atmosphere of a home. Our surroundings are park like, and everyone who works here remarks how comfortable and relaxed they feel. This was our intention for ourselves from the beginning.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has been interesting. Getting to meet new, creative people is always exciting and inspiring for us. Having to overcome the obstacles that nearly stopped us from existing was very challenging.

We faced challenges inserting a modern, technical facility into a historic house–we had to get very creative to integrate the two; all the walls and even the floors and ceilings are working very hard here.

Accumulating the gear and working with the musicians is just plain fun. It’s inspiring to be around people at their creative best.

Our fight for legality was the biggest challenge, but brought us deeper into resonance with our neighborhood and the greater community.

Keeping within a construction and equipment budget was a challenge that we failed miserably at. And everything took longer than we thought. But it has been well worth it.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We both have backgrounds in art: music and architecture and the history of both. We’ve both been educators in our fields. This has given us a very good insight into the creative process and the struggles that artists face. It’s not the same for everyone, and we realize that. We’re more naturally artists than we are business people, and we feel fortunate that we’re able to work in such a creative field.

We’ve moved from performing to nurturing others and bringing their projects to fruition. In addition, we do crazy other things that aren’t about the studio at all–delivering sailboats, traveling and writing, energy work, and some investing.

We’re proud to be known for making a studio environment that hits the sweet spot between home and commercial studios.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
For Josh, it was getting his first guitar. For Rachel, it was hearing stories from her grandmother.

Pricing:

• We’re competitively priced; call us!
• We offer everything from day rates to full lockouts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ivyhallstudio.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ivyhallstudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=ivy%20hall%20studio
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ivyhallstudio3777