Conversations with Sebastian Jones

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sebastian Jones.

Hi Sebastian, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
Wasatch Studios is a family-owned and operated recording studio in Mar Vista, California. It first started in the 90s as a garage turned recording and rehearsal space, put together by my father, David O. Jones, and his dad, Michael. Beginning with mostly punk and independent artists, there has always been a focus on live-tracking bands through analog gear and often down to tape. Some bands from our garage era include Alice Bag, the Shrine, Rough Kids, and the Chuck Dukowski Sextet. 

I started to assist my dad in the studio as a teenager, and by the time I was in high school, I was helping my friends record their bands or solo projects in our space. Around this time, I also started interning at different studios around town and this continued while I studied at UCLA in college. There, I met Jake Augustine, another musician and producer, and we’ve been working closely together ever since. 

In 2019, we decided to move out of the garage and built a new recording space with the help of studio designer Jared Stansill. While the pandemic slowed some of the construction process, we have been fully operational since 2022, and the Wasatch Studios team of my dad, Jake, and myself have been recording, mixing, and mastering projects full-time since. Some recent recording and mixing credits include the Black Hearthrobs, Future Confusion, Charlie Havenick, and 18-Wheeler. Jake is also releasing music with his sister Sophia as the duo Jia*, with an album coming out soon that was recorded, mixed, and mastered in our space. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As we mentioned, there were some delays in the construction process for our space that made it more of a challenge coming back after 3 years. There was also a bit of a learning curve once we actually had the new set-up in operation, shifting from such a DIY approach before and now working with more professional equipment and accompanying workflow. Jake and I both worked as runners at professional studios, and those experiences helped us a lot in organizing and utilizing the new setup. Other than that, though, it’s been pretty smooth since the move, and we’ve been very lucky in finding artists and projects who share an appreciation of the studio and what it is that we do. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
At Wasatch, we pride ourselves on being a versatile team when it comes to providing different services under the umbrella of music production. Many of the projects we work on start here – recording live bands or helping artists transform their ideas and demos into fully formed productions – but we also provide mixing and mastering services for projects that were recorded elsewhere. Recently, we’ve done a lot of work with producers who come to our space specifically to record live drums and vocals and to utilize outboard equipment in their workflow. 

As musicians ourselves, we work hard to create an environment that makes everyone feel comfortable and able to fully express and explore their ideas when it comes to recording projects. With so many great studios in LA, it feels extra important to make sure our clients feel taken care of here. 

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
It felt like a huge leap coming from the old garage into our shiny new professional set-up, and honestly, it was a bit scary at first. In that moment, we decided to invest in ourselves, taking a passion – recording friends and our own projects – and trying to turn it into a full-time profession. So far, it’s paid off beyond belief, and it seems like people have responded well to the family business aspect and our approach to recording and production. While most of our clientele have been musicians we’ve known for a while, there are also new connections we’ve made that have, in turn, introduced us to other new projects. The network seems to be growing with every person who comes into our space, and we’re all incredibly grateful to have what feels like a big Wasatch Studios family behind us. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wasatchstudiosla.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wasatchstudiosla/

Image Credits
Spencer Shapeero