Turning a record shop into a live recording studio

Shelves of records are pushed aside, warm lights illuminate a performance area, and a handful of chairs are set up and surrounded by room microphones. There is no elevated stage. The audience and the performer are on the same level. 

This small recording panopticon was set up hours earlier by Dan Gross, who is quick to exclaim to anyone who approaches him after doors open that the show is gonna be great and that the soundcheck was special. His excitement is as genuine as it is contagious. 

Gross is the founder of Stereo Field Recordings, a production company that hosts live recording sessions for touring and local musicians, as well as provides recording and media production services in Rochester. This includes the establishment of a live music show format that involves turning the venue into a temporary live recording studio and releasing the resulting performance on CD and streaming. 

Over the past decade, Gross has built a range of skills, including audio/video recording, audio engineering, music production, and music journalism, in addition to his own musical talents and extensive knowledge of jazz, which he exhibits on Rochester’s Jazz 90.1 radio station.

“The whole idea with Stereo Field Recordings was to take all of those skills and put them into a small business,” Gross says. “I do some things (where) I am essentially a micro label for the artist. I mean, I don’t own the music, and I might not necessarily help them distribute everything, but I can help out with graphic design, I often send out a press release for bands, and I’ll produce the event.”

This all-involved approach allows him to turn Bop Shop Records on Monroe Avenue into a performance venue/recording studio hybrid that provides the audience—and the musician—with a unique experience. While events produced by Stereo Field Recordings aren’t always at Bop Shop, its unconventional layout, sound-reflective tin ceilings, uneven walls of records, and comfy atmosphere make it a perfect space for Gross to stage most of his shows. 

Bop Shop owner Tom Kohn has had shows at his record store for nearly 40 years, and the musicians he books have a level of expertise and experience that fits perfectly with the type of environment Gross wants to cultivate. 

“We treat it like a home listening space, so people are really listening,” Gross says.

He has worked with Kohn for almost a decade, helping him put on these shows, and now with Stereo Field Recordings, Gross also books artists at the space, often local ones, to record an album in front of a live audience. 

It started with a project he worked on with Eastman School of Music graduate Gavin Rice, who specializes in revitalising the sounds of 1920s jazz. Together, they produced and recorded a concert that turned into an album: “Gavin Rice and his Famous Collegiates LIVE at Bop Shop Records.”

“I helped guide Gavin in terms of producing the concert, what the song selection should be, how we’re gonna put it together,” Gross says. “I didn’t think I could do this all professionally until I started working with him.”

Last year, five of these live recordings were released by Rochester-area artists, available on music streaming platforms, and as CDs sold at Bop Shop. The recordings sound as detail-oriented, cozy, and personal as the shows. 

It can feel intimidating to be an audience member thrust into the recording process, surrounded by equipment and microphones picking up room sounds, but the welcoming presence of Gross, as well as that of the Bop Shop room itself, helps offset the unorthodox setting. As Gross explains, before welcoming the musician onto the stage, audience members who need to use the restroom between songs can do so by walking across the stage to the back of the store. The audience is part of the recording in every way, and that is part of what makes these shows so exciting. When unexpected noise from the audience, such as coughing or early applause, is captured, it is left in the recording. 

“I try to be as hands-off as possible,” Gross says. “When you do a lot of digital restoration like that, or that kind of digital fixing, it sort of compromises the realness of the recording.”

Both Gross and Kohn agree that these live shows are elevated when the musicians are not only listening to each other but also playing with the knowledge that the audience is intently listening. Gross says that when everyone is engaged, “that’s where the magic happens.”

In a recent show booked by Kohn, finger-picking guitarist Raedwald Howland-Bolton performed to an attentive audience, allowing him to play quieter songs where he could take off the finger picks he usually uses, rather than fill his set with songs from his busking background that are louder and quicker to command attention.

It takes a specific kind of audience, venue, and performer to make shows like this happen, but Gross’ presence facilitates this. He is completely involved in the production of the show and understands the needs of the audience and the performer. 

Gross works with a small team that helps the shows run smoothly, including production assistant McKinley Miller and photographer Christine Purdy, as well as others he has met throughout his work as a media production specialist in Rochester. 

“There are a lot of good people out there,” Gross says. “There’s no shortage of people doing cool things or putting on these shows or going to these shows.”

In addition to helping local artists introduce their music to their own community, he also helps them gain more widespread attention—for instance, by entering the NPR Tiny Desk Contest, which takes place at the start of every year and allows the winner to perform their own NPR Tiny Desk set. 

Gross says the city of Rochester has a high appreciation for music because of the strong arts presence at the area’s colleges and universities, influence from the Eastman School of Music, and the city’s location between big music hubs like Toronto and New York City. 

This appreciation is channeled through the community-centered approaches of Gross and Stereo Field Recordings, which boost local artists and immerse audience members in musicianship.

Jess Williams is a Beacon contributing writer and former intern.

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