Andy Reed and Reed Recording Studio

“I didn't have much of a direction in high school, just doing barely enough to get by, and didn’t have many options after. But I was an avid golfer back then, so I went to Ferris State for pro Golf Management.

During that time, my cousin, Danny, had a band called Acoustic Fields. He was the drummer and I loved those guys: I would follow them around and go to their shows, and kind of run sound for him. Eventually, I said ‘I’m done at Ferris’ and took the 150 bucks I had left of student loan money and bought a guitar. Then about three years later, I wanted to do this ‘band thing’. I was a big Weezer fan: they had a cool, modern sound but with an old school Beatles and the Beach Boys thing going on. I just loved all of that, it was the kind of stuff that spoke to me. So I started a band called The Haskel's with my brother, who learned how to play bass, and recruited our friend, Todd. 

We were just writing songs, recording our own demos and records on eight tracks and stuff like that. Because it was always cheaper to buy the gear and do the recording yourself, I learned how to do it as we went and wanted to put out music. 

We did a record with Brendan Benson in Detroit and Brendan later became the other guy in the Raconteurs with Jack White. He was always a hero of mine and some friends told us he had a studio in his home in Detroit with all the tape machines, vintage microphones, cool guitars, all the gear. Doing that record with Brendan opened up my eyes to what recording really was. I was like, ‘Oh, THIS is how you make records!’ The recording I was doing at the time was just, ‘Okay, you play your part live, I record it, and that's it.’ 

So we get done with that record, and from that point, it was on. I started to think, ‘Okay, what do I need to do to get better at this? What gear do I need?’ Digital was just starting to be a recording thing at that time, so I'm learning on tape. Digital was still super expensive and not ready for the home market yet. It was cheaper to go buy an eight track machine, and at first, I couldn’t even afford that. 

But eventually I bought one, and that’s how it all began.

The part of music for me is when you hear a song for the first time and it just connects with you. It has nothing to do with what I play or record or anything: it's still the thrill of finding a song or an album that makes me feel that way.
Because when this is done and I'm done working, I'm still gonna have these records to listen to.
And that's gonna be fun.” 

–Andy Reed, Reed Recording Company