Bart Thurber is a sound engineer in Oakland and a hidden treasure of the Bay Area. You won’t see him on social media or otherwise indulging in self-promotion, yet he has run a successful recording studio for decades. His supportive yet no-nonsense style lets a musician know when they are on the mark and when they need to try again. His studio is nothing special to look at, but the music that emerges from there is impressive. I’ve had the pleasure of working with him on four recordings and thought it was time listeners were introduced to this talented yet self-effacing man who has helped so many musicians get their sound out into the world.
For more information on Bart you can visit his website at www.bartthurberrecording.com. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Artemis: You said you’re from Palo Alto. Growing up, what was your exposure to music? Were your parents playing music a lot? And when did you start playing music?
Bart: I was one of those kids who was forced to take piano lessons by his parents. I really started playing music by playing piano and I hated it. I hated those piano lessons so much. It was always the classic little old lady piano teachers and they were just standing behind you and it was just so unmusical to me. I was probably like seven or eight, but I have to say that I am so thankful to this day that I had those piano lessons because it has come in so handy. That was a good thing.
I always liked music, I always liked the sound of music. I liked the sound of records. I was a big 45 kid, singles.
A: When did you start buying music?
B: I think I was 12 and it was “Georgie Girl” [The Seekers] and I’m sure I just played it over and over and drove my parents crazy. I think it was in 5th or 6th grade that I wanted to start playing guitar because, embarrassingly, I was kind of shy. I thought that if I played guitar people would notice me and I would be more popular, so I started taking guitar lessons. I really liked playing guitar because I like singing and playing songs. I got in my first band of 9th grade and that was super fun, and I played in bands all the way up ‘til the late ‘80s. Then I stopped playing because the whole time I’d been recording all my friends and myself trying to get things to sound like the records that I heard. I always wanted things to sound like a record and it finally became a hobby. In the late ‘80s it got out of control and then I just started recording. And here I am 35 years later still trying to figure out how to get that sound that I hear in my head and not really getting there.
A: You feel like it’s an approximation?
B: Yeah, I feel like next time, I’ll get it next time. I feel like maybe what an artist feels like when they spend time with a painting and they just get to the end and they’re like “ah, forget it”. Later on people say “God it’s so fantastic!” Not that they’ve ever said that to me…
A: Have I not said that? I’m sorry if I haven’t. There’s a reason we keep coming back to you.
B: When people compliment me it’s great and I feel honored but in the back of my mind I’m thinking yeah, but it could be so much better. I’m really never satisfied which is good because it just keeps driving me to try to keep learning, it’s always continuous learning. Music is always learning to the very end. What to do, and possibly try something different next time.
A: So when you started playing around with recording, were you thinking , “I’m not going to be in a band anymore, I’m just going to do this” or were you doing both simultaneously?
B: No… It’s hard to be in a band. I was in a band called Whipping Boy and we did pretty good. We got to go on a couple of little tours up to Canada and back and got a taste of that and that was super fun. But recording seemed like so much more fun and at the time that I started doing it, the late ‘80s in the Bay Area, there was really no place for a punk rock band to go to get recorded in a professional or semi-professional situation, and no place that they could afford.
That was a big deal for me and at that point I started to know a lot of bands and they couldn’t afford to go to a big studio, and when they did go to a big studio, they would just get laughed at. The guys would be laughing behind their backs, “Look at these guys, look at these losers”. Luckily I was at the right place at the right time.
A: Did you start recording your own band first and then worked your way into bands you knew?
B: I recorded my own band but I really did just want to record. I originally had this idea that I wanted to record every band in the world once. What I did was open my first studio and I put out this flyer, I don’t even think I had to make that many of them. I still have this flyer, it had this illustration on it and it said “Punk rock special, 2 days $100 plus tape”. I’m not sure what that would be now, maybe $400 or something for two days but still it was super cheap and a punk rock band could afford it.
I wanted to record as much as possible so I could learn as much as possible, and I started getting a ton of local punk bands. That turned out to be a great thing because punk rock bands are super inclusive and they’ll just tell everybody as soon as they come across a good thing or something. They want people to know about it so they’ll just tell everybody.
I started getting tons and tons of bands coming in and it became like the root of the House of Faith tree that there is today (Note: House of Faith was the name of Thurber’s original studio). The bottom of that tree, all those deep roots are all punk rock bands. It grew pretty fast because nobody else was doing it at the price that I was able to charge. Punk rock bands are super fun people to hang out with, super energetic, super knocked out that I was doing this with them and working with them. It wasn’t me telling them what to do. I was like, “You want to sound like this, sure” or “How does this sound?” I was working with them, I was on their side. Not like when they went to the big studios and they’re getting laughed at behind their back and charged $1000. That’s how the whole thing started.
A: Somewhere I saw a number where you’ve recorded 1,000 bands. How did you come up with that estimate?
B: I don’t know if that’s actually true. That was my friend Eugene Robinson, who wrote that in an article. He and I were partners for a while in the first studio. He had a record store there and I had the studio and he was convinced that I’d recorded 1,000 bands and then I added it up and I think it was like 600 or 700 back in the late ‘90s. Now it’d be 1,000 for sure. The interesting thing to me is that even if it was only 500, there’s generally 3 to 5 people in every band so think how many people that is by now. I’m sure I’ve recorded over 5,000 local musicians. I always joke that I could run for public office. I probably would get a pretty good turnout.
A: Is punk your favorite genre to record?
B: I really have a soft spot in my heart for the punk rock people and also thrash metal. They’re really just super excited to be recording cause that’s their dream and you’re helping them. All those punk rock kids and all those metal kids are super loyal. I don’t know why people think that punk rock people are scary or bad because there’s so many good things about those people. If you like what they like they’ll bring you on board and they’re super aware of what’s going on in the world.
I used to get parents come by the studio sometimes because the kids I was recording with were pretty young back then, they would come over after school so sometimes the parents would come by just to check it out. I always wanted to say, “This is so important to your kid, you should not tell him that he shouldn’t do this. You should just be supporting it because this is just like his essence to be able to play this music. Who knows what’s going to happen like maybe he’ll go on to become a doctor or something but this is so just like good for him right now.” Some parents got it but there are some parents who would say to their kids, “What are you doing? You know you got to be studying, why are you playing this loud noisy music?” I always felt bad for those kids.
I think it’s good also if they’re going against their parents wishes because that’s the classic coming of age story, but I think in the long run it’s way more important to have the support of a parent. I used to record a band, they became The Donnas, before they were Raggedy Ann, and I used to record them and their parents (except for the bass player) were so supportive of that band. My mom was always super supportive of my music, she helped me buy gear. She loved the studio. She thought that was just so interesting. I think parents are probably more supportive now because they have rock schools for kids.
A: Are there certain things that stand out over the years, like bands you recorded or really cool moments?
B: I don’t know, it’s always been pretty fun. Everybody’s fun because everybody has something to work on that makes them special, and I always like to find that little thing and try to pull it out and work on it with them. I never had anybody come in and I thought, I hope they don’t come in again. It’s never happened to me. I’m lucky I guess. I think maybe this is the right job for me. I thought about that because I like people and now I’ve recorded so many people and so many of them have been coming around for 30 or 35 years now that I know them really well, I know their families, their kids. It’s like you guys come over and we spend a lot of time just catching up. It’s like recording your friends except I happen to have a lot of friends (laughs).
A: When people come to your studio do they usually have their songs worked out and they’re ready to record or are they just working it out on the fly?
B: That’s a good question because both my studio partner and I had the same epiphany around the same point: right now everybody is in a lot of bands at the same time. Nobody really seems to be in just one band at a time like they used to. Nowadays, I feel like that people are multiple bands and when it’s time to record, they might practice once. Sometimes the recording is them figuring out parts as they go along. Sometimes that’s a good thing, it’s not necessarily bad because it makes for spontaneity, but sometimes it’s not a good thing, it makes for slop. I’m good at working with the bands to fix the slop, but it just slows the process down. My partner and I have been talking about how in the old days you just had one band. You really worked the parts out between you before you came in the studio so I didn’t have to worry about the parts so much.
Over the past five years or so playing in a band has become a social thing because you can’t get anywhere like you used to be able to. There used to be a ladder to success and if you were in one band you could focus on your look, your sound, your songs, the places you want to play and the things you had to do to get there along the way. If you were a good band and you had good luck and you might make it up the ladder pretty far. Nowadays there is no ladder, but it’s different because people have access to your music easier but you’re not really going up. There’s no real label to help you along the way to get you up to the next level. So people tend to play in more bands ‘cause it’s more fun, cause it’s a social thing and that’s cool too, but it makes a challenging recording wise. People are a little under-rehearsed.
I’m not the most expensive guy but it’s still money and I’m so conscious about people spending money. I really want to maximize the time in the studio so that when you leave you really achieved all your goals and hopefully having the parts all worked out beforehand means that we can really move forward.
A: I know we decided to record with you because Kerry (my bandmate) had already recorded with you, is that how it usually goes?
B: The flyer I had was way back in the beginning. That was the only advertising I’ve ever done so it’s all word-of-mouth. It’s great because then I know who told them but yeah, it’s all been word of mouth.
I just decided that I was always going to be at the low end of the price scale because I would get the more interesting bands, which was true. I got the more interesting bands and I got the devoted bands and the loyal bands and that whole thing just took off like a rocket. As soon as you get up into the higher price point you start having to compete more and also then I would really be worried about people’s money. Like, are you sure you want to spend this much money? Also now a lot of people record themselves.
A: That can sound good, but you have an amazing ear and you really know what you’re doing and I feel there’s just no replicating that no matter how nice your software is.
B: It’s always nice to get a second opinion and I feel like that people trust me and they know that I’m going to advocate for them and their sound. They listen when I give them my opinion, such as “That’s a good part” or “That part doesn’t quite work there. You should modify it.” I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t really have to think about it. My gut just kicks in and says there’s a problem, let’s fix it. It won’t take that long.
A: I’ve definitely experienced this myself. Something I’ve noticed is that there’s tons of gear in your studio, do you sometimes use that gear while recording?
B: Yeah because sometimes it can give the sound a different flavor. Having all those different kinds of amps around comes in handy. Sometimes what people bring is not going to work for the studio, but that doesn’t really happen that much. That used to happen for a while back in the ‘90s, but I think people are way more on top of their equipment because now there’s so much available. It’s so good and it’s not that expensive. You can get a good small amp that’s not super heavy and it’s great, so people haven’t really been coming in with something that’s not suitable. I’m not going to name the band, but someone came in and they insisted on bringing in like three Marshall stacks, full stack top and bottom and it was so much, so loud that it just didn’t translate well to the recording and it was a struggle. Smaller always records better.
A: At some point in the last ten years you switched from tape to digital. What made you switch?
B: Different reasons. There’s only so many tracks on the tape machine. It’s sometimes quicker to be in the digital domain for that because you could just move along faster. Tape is fun but tape is also finicky and can slow the process down. The kind of things that tape brings to the party are always pretty good but it’s got to be a pretty long party for you to maximize tapes’ little gifts. It tends to sound like a band quicker when you play it back. It gels everything together in a musical way. When you’re on the computer, you have to do a little bit of fiddling to get to the same point. So there’s more of a payoff with tape, it just sounds kind of like the band, bigger and more in your face. There’s issues with both formats, but the tape issues are more distracting. The digital issues are more like, how can I make the sound more like tape? That’s easier to deal with.
Up until 2014 I was always recording on tape and then our DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine broke, an archaic finicky format. Everybody was like come on man, get a computer. So finally I gave in and I swear it was so much fun. I’d been getting so discouraged by the tape thing, I felt like I was just doing the same thing every time, I had a way I was doing it on tape. I knew it would work. I only had so many tracks. On the computer I could see how the song was laid out, I didn’t have to go looking for tracks, and could really have fun with overdubs. It was this totally different thing. It got me excited about recording again. So eleven years later I’m way more comfortable with it.
I still like to sometimes track a full band on tape and then dump it into the computer and then go from there. I did that for you guys on your first recording. I remember you guys came in this last time and I asked what type did you guys end up liking the sound on the best, and you told me the last one. That was all digital so I said okay. That way we had more options with your guitar and I think the guitar sound became much better.
It’s 2025 and they’ve figured out all the problems and you can get really super good quality high-quality converters for not a lot of money. The software is good if you don’t get too carried away with overdubs and just pretend like it’s a tape machine and think, do we really need to do this? I have the sound of tape in my head for 25 years recording exclusively on tape and I know what that feels like, what that sounds like.
A: Do you think you’re always going to do this work?
B: I don’t know. I am getting pretty old now. I did stop once and it lasted for three months. It was when they closed the Palo Alto studio down in May 1995 and I took the summer off and worked at my girlfriend’s dad’s place and I was listening to the KFJC college radio station because I had a bunch of friends that DJ’d there. I would often hear songs that I recorded come on the air. I heard one of the songs I recorded and I thought, “That sounds pretty good.” That got me going. I got a van, I got a little mobile set up so I would drive around to all the bands recording them. Then one of my bands brought me into the Oakland studio and somebody else had known the guy who built it and was running it, and he said, I kind of don’t like running the studio and I’m going to go over to San Francisco and build another one, so if you want, you and this other guy Miles (who’s my studio partner) could just take it over and buy me out. So we took it over and I started doing it again.
I was going to keep on doing it as long as my ears held out. Even if my ears didn’t hold out I might keep on doing it because I have an auditory reference level. A lot of older guys like me, including famous recording engineers, have pretty severe ear damage now and they’re still top of the game because they’ve all learned to find out what it is, recognize it, and work around it because they just have so much knowledge and experience of recording. That doesn’t stop. I’m just making sure my hearing loss doesn’t get worse, that’s the whole thing once you realize you’ve got it. It’s pretty easy to make sure it doesn’t get worse.
If I had to stop though I’ve had a 35-year career that’s pretty good. That’s pretty incredible so thank you universe. I’m so lucky I got started at just the right time. I was in the right place at the right time and the Bay Area is such an incredible place for music.
A: Did you want to add anything else?
B: House of Faith, that’s my studio. I have faith in the bands, and they have faith in me.
Interview and photo by Artemis Jones
Flyer illustration by Jaime Hernandez, used with permission
