"This is a studio that's for the community,” says Liz Vasko, co-owner of Dog House Music Studios and director of its nonprofit arm, Rock for the People. Courtesy: Dog House Music Studios
A young man named Elliott wails into a microphone:“La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, oh.”
The live band backing him up stretches their tempo to match his drawn-out rendition of “Man in the Box” by Alice in Chains.
In Studio B, local band Rat Brew is auditioning for a new singer. Down the hall, other musicians are strumming, drumming and singing with other crews, while a sizable crowd mingles near the bar. It’s Band Speed Dating night at Dog House Music Studios in Lafayette, a rehearsal, recording and live music venue.
Though Dog House is the location, the studio’s nonprofit arm is actually the host. Through Rock for the People, Dog House also offers a bevy of resources for locals in the music industry: free recording, mixing, and mastering; paid internships for audio engineers; a free marketing program for musicians, and a ton of live events, from amplified and acoustic open mics to songwriter meetups to the upcoming Lafayette Music Fest.
“This is a studio that's for the community,” says Liz Vasko, co-founder and executive director of Rock for the People and co-owner of Dog House Music Studios.
Every stage
Rat Brew did find a new voice at the most recent speed dating event: David Priest. Their former singer was also a speed dating connection, and the loud-rock band is quick to sing the organization’s praises.
“Doghouse Music Studio has just been the best community resource,” says guitarist Tom Gajowski. “Anything you need to do, if you need help… It's been great.”
Although its founding members live “right down the street,” they’d never been inside Dog House until attending a live show there, Gajowski says. “I got drunk and came to a concert here, and that's how I found it. And that was literally, like, three weeks of us being a band.”
From there, Dog House became part of Rat Brew’s DNA. The band attended nearly every speed dating night; they were also beneficiaries of free rehearsal space for a year, courtesy of yet another of the studio’s many community programs. They’ve played their own house show there, too, taking home 70% of the proceeds — “our biggest payday ever,” Gajowski says. They’ll play again Jan. 8 in support of Boulder-based alt rock outfit Nine Wide Sky.
Dog House “has been an integral part to every single stage of our band's evolution,” says drummer Robbie Goehrke.
“Their whole thing is, ‘You are the local music scene,’” adds Rat Brew bassist Sonnie Land. “And that is actually true for them.”
Making music happen
Band speed dating events don't start off in the studio. After a brief half-hour of networking, musicians sign up for 20-minute sessions; a screen keeps track of the schedule and location. Musicians flow in and out of studios, winding through Dog House’s labyrinthian corridors.
That “choose-your-own-adventure” environment has led to more cross-genre and cross-generational collaborations. Multiple full-on bands have formed from speed dating and Dog House’s femme musicians meetup; some of them have since split into new groups.
It’s the outcome Vasko hopes for with all Dog House events and programs: a more diverse, thriving local music scene.
“It's really easy for the music scene to become really monotone,” Vasko says. From her time in studios, she noticed, “we keep getting the same people and the same type of music. This just can't be all our music scene is.”
“I started the nonprofit to help lower the barrier of entry to getting in a studio and meeting other musicians and making your music happen.”
Collaboration is contagious
A world apart from the casual socializing of band speed dating, Rock for the People is preparing for its biggest and most organized event of the year: Lafayette Music Festival.
Held on the first Sunday of October, the one-day festival features more than 200 Colorado acts across eight different venues. The first Lafayette Music Festival in 2022 drew about 6,000; last year, nearly 3,000 people were in attendance.
More impressive than the numbers is the “collaborative attitude” of the festival, says Rachel Hanson, director of Lafayette’s Office of Arts & Cultural Resources. Fellow music venues Nissi’s and Muse are hosting acts, as are the nonprofit Arts Hub and two local businesses: a coffee shop and a bowling alley.
“Liz and Rock for the People have really great, positive energy, and that’s contagious,” Hanson says. “They are opening their doors, making partnerships.”
Lafayette is sponsoring this year’s fest; past support from the city included small grants. But Hanson believes the event’s success is “something that really could only be created in a grassroots sort of way. If I had tried to manufacture that from a city organizational standpoint, it would have taken a lot longer or not been as effective.”
Also a Lafayette resident, Hanson makes attending the festival a yearly priority.
“I’m just really proud of what Lafayette Music Festival has built,” she says. “They’re not doing it on a huge budget, they’re not doing it with gigantic corporate sponsorship, but they are doing it with a lot of heart and dedication.”
