Meet Jeremy Grelle | Music Producer/Engineer & Record Label Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeremy Grelle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeremy, what role has risk played in your life or career?
When it comes to evaluating risks, I believe strongly in following my intuition. If a risk is truly worth taking, usually that inner voice will be screaming at me, “Go for it!” I tend to have a strong and clear picture in my mind of what the desired outcome is from taking that risk if it’s truly worth taking. More often than not, when those signs have been there, the risk-taking has worked out.

But I find those worthwhile risks to be somewhat rare. If those signs aren’t there, I will usually seek to gather more data to see if the picture becomes clearer. If that inner voice doesn’t start getting more insistent at that point, then I know it’s a risk that should be left to the side.

The biggest turning points in my career definitely came from taking those worthwhile risks. In 2007, I dropped basically my whole established life in Atlanta to take a job with a small startup software company in which I had a strong belief. The company did very well, and the fruits of that risk are what enabled me to turn around and properly invest in starting my own music production business, something to which I’d always known I’d return. By 2013, I was living in California and figuring out what to do next in the face of San Francisco’s skyrocketing living costs. I spotted an advertisement for a rental house in Atlanta that featured a purpose-built recording studio space and seemed like a perfect place to hunker down and plant seeds. I once again took the risk of dropping everything in California to move back to Atlanta and dive head-first into running my own business.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Inhesion Studios was built as a place to make records the “old-fashioned” way. Musicians hanging out in a great-sounding room, playing instruments, following their creative intuition and just being themselves. I structure our projects in such a way that nobody ever has to worry about a clock. I believe the recording studio is a place that musicians should look forward to being, and should be as far removed from pressure as possible. Hanging out, listening to your favorite records, and remembering what got you there in the first place is just as important a part of the process as the actual act of recording.

Inhesion is a little different from many of the studios of today in that we place an emphasis on capturing the authentic sounds of physical instruments and their acoustical interaction with the recording space. With the help of world-class studio designer Wes Lachot, I was able to build a live room that is capable of sounding like a much larger space, yet is small enough that it fit within the constraints of being an addition on my house. Equal attention was paid to the acoustics of the control room, creating a an extremely accurate sonic picture that allows you to hear the smallest details that could be otherwise missed.

All of this is ideally suited to working with singer/songwriters, which is the large majority of my work. I love the heaviness that exists in this most authentic and honest musical expression – often heavier than the most aggressive metal bands that are a large part of my own musical roots. I enjoy working with them to take those authentic songs and create a worthy sonic painting in which to present them, applying my own unique production style which could be described as some sort of bastard hybrid of Trent Reznor and Dave Cobb.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The first stop ITP is almost always The Porter in L5P or Brick Store Pub in Decatur, as I’m a giant beer geek and love good pub food to go with it. As my home is out in Lilburn, we’ll surely hit some equally good Gwinnett County gems like Lincoln Fill Station and/or Summits Wayside Tavern in Snellville, or the fantastic new Blackbird Farms Brewery right here in Lilburn.

You can’t go wrong with a stroll around L5P, hitting classic shops like Criminal Records, Junkman’s Daughter, and the various other boutiques. It’s still my favorite part of town, despite how much all the other in-town neighborhoods have evolved since my first moving to Atlanta in 1995.

Atlanta’s rich history and diversity are one of the things that make it my favorite city. Visits to The King Center and The National Center for Civil and Human Rights are essential.

If there happens to be a good concert at either The Tabernacle or The Fox, two of the most beautiful and best-sounding venues I’ve ever been to, that would also be a must.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would not be doing what I am today without the influence of Brian Parker, who sadly passed away early this year after a long battle with ALS.

Brian was a well-loved recording engineer and producer who worked with many independent bands around Atlanta, including some of my early ones. After having worked at some of the bigger commercial studios around the city, he started his own recording business out of a more modest studio he set up in the basement of his house. The recordings he did there were just as high-quality as the ones he had done in the commercial facilities, but it was a much more laid-back and fun place to work and just hang out.

The experience of working with him planted the seeds for the current incarnation of Inhesion Studios, which is a longtime dream come to life. Brian taught me the value of having a relaxed but inspiring place for musicians to bring out the best of themselves, and he showed me the unique qualities of traditional analog recording gear at a time when everyone was starting to do more and more in the digital computer realm.

Website: https://www.inhesionstudios.com

Instagram: jeremyg484

Twitter: jeremyg484

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InhesionStudios

Other: https://shop.inhesionrecords.com/

Image Credits
Portrait photos by Devin Nutter. Studio photos by Wes Lachot.