Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Gariano and Dusty Schaller.
Justin and Dusty, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Justin Gariano: Hi there, I’m Justin and I’m a producer/mixer/instrumentalist/engineer… a lot of people call me JC though. I grew up in Woodland Hills and Oak Park here in California. I went to school at UCLA/UC Irvine and studied engineering. I had always been involved in music as both a guitar player and bass player and played in and toured with several bands. I discovered record production when I was in my early college days and found I could conjugate both my scholastic background with the creative work I craved. I was fortunate to come up under the guidance and mentorship of guys like Ross Hogarth who really gave me my start, Andrew Scheps, Ted Greenberg and Mikal Blue. I worked at Glenwood Place Studios for a while for Kit Rebhun who taught me so so much, I’ll forever be grateful to her. I went off on my own and started my own studio and producing artists and later met Dusty Schaller whom came on board and partnered with me and that’s when everything really started to take off. Two heads are better than one as they say and we’ve been in business for the past 13 years.
Dusty Schaller: My name is Dusty Schaller, co-owner of TreeHaus Recording and owner of Glen Canyon Audio. I’m a producer, drummer, engineer, design and build playback systems for bands and tour as a playback operator for artists such as Evanescence and Meghan Trainor.
I grew up in Stockton, California, with wonderfully encouraging parents who let my bands rehearse at full volume in our dining room. Drums, amps, a large PA system and all, my mom wearing earplugs, making dinner five feet away.
My career began as a teenager, interning at a local recording studio after school before moving to LA and attending Musicians Institute. Drumming led to touring, and engineering led to years of work with Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk, touring as a playback/keyboard/electronics tech, and eventually meeting Justin and building our commercial recording studio, TreeHaus Recording.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Justin Gariano: Being a producer is a challenging role to play. You have to be able to turn to the guitarist and speak “guitarist speak”… and then to the drummer and speak “drummer speak” and so on… you’re the hub by which the grand creative idea for the band is communicated. When working with singers where you’re essentially “the band” you have to have the final production finished in your head before you start so that you can confidently guide them through the process, same goes for bands. And as a mixer, it’s important to communicate your intent with the artist’s mix before starting so everyone has a clear vision of what to expect. Another thing is you have to be ok with bands never releasing the music you worked so hard on. Bands break up and fall apart so there’s so much great music that never sees the light of day. I’ve had this conversation with several other producers and it can often be the norm more than the exception. It’s pretty incredible how often people can’t get out of their own way.
Dusty Schaller: The music business really has no “road map” for success. But it is imperative to focus not just on the music side but also on the business side. Do your best to keep them separate. They will sabotage each other every chance they get. The enemy of creativity is asking, “is this good business?” And the enemy of “good business” is spending time and money to record and tour your new music when the odds of success at any given time are astronomically small.
I moved to LA with no plan and no connections, just a blind belief that it would all work out for me. And while I do have what I consider to be a successful career in music, having “no plan” led to more steps backward than forward. Opportunity is plentiful, but it favors the prepared. Things often happen at the last minute, so you have to be working in advance for the positions you want. Say you’re a singer, and you have a phenomenal voice. If I call you for a session tomorrow, could you sing for hours on end? Can you sing harmonies? Are you coachable? Can you learn 45 songs for this upcoming cover gig without blowing out your voice for the show? Do you have a stage presence? At a certain level, EVERYONE is talented. That just gets you in the door. Being prepared, being on time, and being a good hang is what will land you a career. And a piece of advice that has always served me well is “make up your mind quickly, change your mind slowly.”
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
TreeHaus Recording is a full-service recording studio located in Woodland Hills, California that sits atop a hill at the mouth of Topanga Canyon overlooking the San Fernando Valley and Woodland Hills Cluntry Club. Our studio is anchored by an SSL console with PMC monitoring, a spacious live room and a candy store of outboard gear, instruments and toys. We specialize in tracking, drum recording, production, programming, mixing and are live playback architects for some of the biggest touring artists out there with clients such as Evanescence, Meghan Trainor, Lil Wayne, Jelly Roll, Toto, Reignwolf, Sampha, Yamaha, Darude and Desert Dwellers to name a few. We’re a one stop shop for your music and can provide both production and/or a creative space with all the tools and instruments you need to make your art. As artists ourselves, we’ve curated a place and environment that’s specifically curated to creativity in a magical location.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Justin Gariano: Absolutely. The first thing we learned was how many people in our industry didn’t have any savings to sustain themselves for any period of time when the pandemic hit. Some people threw their hands up and went home and some people came up with some incredibly creative ways that still sustain them to this day that they’ve incorporated into their tool bag. Secondly, we learned whom in our creative community took the pandemic seriously and who didn’t.
Dusty Schaller: The pandemic was really, really brutal on our industry. The touring world stopped completely. Budgets dried up when it became apparent that there was no timetable for the industry to restart. Artists make very little money from streaming, so revenue was just GONE. We have so many friends who made their entire living playing shows. They had to pivot immediately. Many colleagues left the industry.
Justin is very fond of saying, “crisis breeds opportunity,” and that was very true once everything shut down. When you own your own business, as we do, or when you’re a freelancer, as we are, you have to diversify your income streams. There’s no secret as to why Justin and I have so many job titles. Making 100% of your income from a particular source is not financially stable in any industry, and especially so when you’re at the whims of creatives. At the same time, not every opportunity is a good opportunity, which is hard to remember when you’re in a crisis. We turned away sessions with those outside our bubble and the money it would bring because the profit wasn’t worth the potential downsides.
We both re-connected with how important music is to our very existence, and we set to work figuring out how to stay afloat. One of those ways was to commit ourselves to a small, safe social bubble with an incredible artist in need of development, and we wrote song after song, day after day. We took on remote projects. I opened my audio business in anticipation of the touring industry re-opening and being flooded with artists needing gear.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.treehausrecording.com
- Instagram: @treehausrecording
Image Credits
Image credits: Justin Gariano/ Dusty Schaller
