Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Rye.
Hi Jake, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been working as a music producer, mixer and songwriter for 20 years to date this year. I began my professional career in 2005 with my first studio in Michigan and I have split time between Michigan and Nashville often since I began my work.
My family’s musical background goes all the way back to the Ryman where my great uncle Forest Rye was a fiddle player for the Opry and also co-owned a record label in town. He later moved to Detroit for work with my grandpa when touring as a fiddle player didn’t fit the stability he needed to raise a family. My family is largely from Erin and Dickson TN just West of town originally. I’ve split a lot of time going back and forth to town for projects and I was a member or Christian Rock band Sanctus Real from Jan or 2013 to Jan of 2017. Im currently a member of a new project called LO CLOUD that was started in town with my friends Matt Hammitt and Nick De Partee. We are having the time of our lives right now. Its been so refreshing to be in a band again.
For the past 15 years I have split time producing, writing and mixing for several mainstay Christian artists as well as a lot of indies… Currently Im in the middle of finishing a full length record with Nashville transplant indie band “Juniper”. They are definitely on the come up and are originally from Boston. We tracked that record at a private location outside Bon Aqua TN in the woods. We wanted a place that wasn’t too far outside town but just enough to give us some focus and solitude as well as peace and quiet for magic to happen. I have a knack for finding remote locations to record albums at. Theres just something about going on an adventure somewhere that isn’t someones studio… Theres magic about unfamiliar places and creating an atmosphere that people can bond in. People are truly themselves when they aren’t bombarded by the stress of the familiar.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Everything in this world of music has a learning curve and unfortunately a lot of people gate keep or are protective…Its the ones that come along side us that are the people you want to keep in your life. Living generously with others is the way to be.
If you’re lucky enough to pick up some mentors along the way that helps. There have been bumpy roads and major victories. The largest hurdle has been learning how to be freelance and stabilize revenue streams. I won’t bore you with all that info but its a chore and it requires you to be on top of things.
I’ve been blessed to have many people speak into my life in this capacity. Since my home base has been in Michigan I’ve had a lot of opportunities that people who only live in Nashville wouldn’t necessarily have.
Ultimately being in the right place at the right time or just focusing on building meaningful mutual relationships has been whats made this journey livable.
My most recent struggle which was major, Im still recovering from. In March my commercial studio location downtown here where I live that I LOVED was destroyed in a multi building fire. It was this incredible room in a 1200 square foot space with cathedral ceilings on the main level of a building from 1879. All brick and huge windows on the front. I’ll miss that space.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Creatively I’ve been blessed to be trusted by people that I have a lot of respect for. One of my favorite projects over the years was producing 3 EP recordings for artist Michigander. We collaborated extensively from 2018-2021 on the projects “Midland”, “Where Do We Go From Here” and “It Will All Be Ok Eventually” as well as a hand full of B-Side projects and singles. His song Misery did very well at Alt Rock radio and it really launched his career in a major way.
In 2021 I had the opportunity to mix for Canadian rockers The Glorious Sons and one of the tunes from the batch I worked on went number one on the Billboard Rock chart and stayed Top 10 for a whole year. That was fun. I found out about it like 5 months after it happened. Those guys had a lot of really good songs pent up from their covid isolation that they needed to turn lose on the world.
I really enjoyed my time touring as a member of Sanctus Real too… Theres really nothing quite like being on the road on busses and planes and playing in arenas. I’ll always be grateful to those guys for making me a member there and giving me community.
There are just so many moments that Im grateful for.
My favorite thing about what I do has morphed over the years… Early on it was about just making something that gave an artist a strong stance in their marketplace… Something that just was massive and felt important. That approach got me a lot of work. Later I realized that I needed to spend more time providing and creating opportunities for artists to really succeed in being the truest version of themselves in the studio.
I transitioned from needing to be the one in charge with the biggest voice in the room and moved into a roll of making sure people were able to really make the art they wanted to make and had their voice and ideas heard and facilitated. I essentially learned what collaboration truly is. That also comes from working with more seasoned artists as well.
As a mixer I really focus on framing what the team has made in a way that makes the point they were trying to make. I have some gear and stuff that I use to help me get there that I think gives my work a sound if you will thats a touch different than some of the other guys in the circle but ultimately the role of a mixer has changed for me to facilitating the vision more so than putting my stamp on their art. At some point a few guys in the industry made mixing about them and that kinda polluted the waters…
What changed me was a super unique opportunity. I was blessed to work with Tom Lord Alge in 2011 on two records and he invited me in the studio the entire session. We spent a lot of hours together for about 10 days. We spent a lot of time getting to talk about serious stuff and watching him interact with his clients really changed how I saw mixing. That dude really takes care of people and listens to them… Even though he’s a legend he doesn’t see himself that way all the time and I really appreciate him and how he continued to speak into my process over the years. Having people like that in your life matters. If I was starting over again I would get into rooms with other people who are older and more advanced as much as possible even if I was just making coffee and winding cables. I’d be a sponge.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk taking… I love talking about this… Any job in the music industry is a risk… The first thing I know for sure is that you have to know yourself. You have to know your values both short term and long term and be grounded in them. You need honest people in your life who care about you… Not your work but you. People that don’t want anything from your are the most honest with you…
The next thing you need is patience and to not be thirsty and in a hurry to make something happen.
If you can be 80% of what I mentioned above you will have success with taking risks because you can’t be bought and you can weigh risk versus reward on a long term and short term timeline. The people that I’ve seen manage themselves this way are the most successful. I’ve failed so often because I may have been in a season where I was desperate for a win. Some of my colleagues have had more success than I because they have made better risk decisions than I have and I the same as some others.
There are a few things that are never risks to take and once you learn what they are for you, you can manage to keep those things away from you. For me the main one is going into debt. I will never go into debt to build a studio ever again… Early on in my career I needed to borrow money to buy gear etc. Now that I’ve paid everything off and have been cash positive I will never go that route ever again. Its my dream to some day provide a dream space for my clients again after the fire but that time is not now and I have no issue being patient to see it happen again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jakerye.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jake_rye_music
