Life & Work with Shane Thompson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Thompson.

Shane, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
So, the MAPS story began on two different fronts. One with Michael Filson in 2006 when he opened his studio, ArtiSans Label, in Fullerton, CA. The second in 2011, Mike Willson built and opened his studio, MAPS, in Huntington Beach with the help of Ian Bailey and Gary Westmoreland. In 2015, Willson had been forced to relocate his studio and began working freelance out of other spaces in Southern California. Filson had heard about Wilson through mutual friends and asked if he wanted to come to check out his space in Fullerton. From there, the stars aligned, and they merged as partners to form MAPS by ArtiSans Label. In 2018, I (Shane Thompson) joined on to help as the studio’s Community Manager as the team decided that the best way to grow and encourage music in the local SoCal region was to open its doors to other producers. The goal stated by the team is “We provide a creative space, curated gear, shared knowledge, and real-world opportunities for independent music producers.” With these attributes in mind, we aim to help empower and facilitate promising producers and artists to take their careers to the next step. Recently, MAPS has opened a beautiful new studio overlooking Central Park in Manhattan, New York.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Music is never exactly easy. There’s always hills and valleys not to mention the most glaring example…2020! However, with the struggle of the pandemic came our most successful year of growth as more and more producers learned of our space in Fullerton and our openness to allowing and welcoming new clients. As many can guess, building a studio is a huge challenge, and then comes the duty of maintaining the space as well. Fixing gear, replacing knobs, handling plumbing, and keeping the floors clean are all a part of the job. Fortunately, we’ve held a fairly good reputation, which helps with marketing our location and getting happy clients to return.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For me, personally, I’ve always been drawn to the creative side of things. I started playing drums when I was 11 years old and played in numerous bands over the past 25 years. After learning to play guitar and piano, I started writing songs and creating my own art. Over the years, I’ve been influenced by many genres and bands. Music such as classic rock, punk, indie, alternative, jazz, blues, classical, folk, surf, pop, country, bluegrass, and even Indian Classical music and Indonesian Gamelan from my time at UC Santa Barbara, where I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music with Emphasis in Ethnomusicology. Writing my own music and forming my own band brought Mike Willson and I together as we recorded and performed together in our group called Shape Pitaki. Together, we’ve recorded and produced numerous albums and now work with each other at MAPS. Before working there, I was pretty hesitant on touching any console or outboard gear, but Mike encouraged me to give it a try in order to help me progress in my recording abilities and allow myself more opportunities to experiment with the art. Even though I’ve got a long way to go to being a proficient engineer, I feel more confident than ever when it comes to producing music and understanding what colors and tones a song might require. I love writing and making music, and it’s been an amazing journey, having recorded over 20 studio albums with my friends and family.

Any big plans?
For MAPS, we have some exciting things coming in the future. Our goal is to share our community-based ideas with other studios and work towards creating more positive networks amongst producers, engineers, artists, and studio owners. We will always strive to make our location in Fullerton better and better, and we’re also excited to share our New York location with more producers! Ultimately, we would love to have locations all over the country and possibly the world where people can go create great art in special environments.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://recordatmaps.com
• Instagram: @recordatmaps

Image Credits
Nick Setchell, Bristol to Memory, Keili Fernando