Meet Sam Cook-stuntz

We recently connected with Sam Cook-stuntz and have shared our conversation below.

Sam, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

For me, there’s nothing more creatively invigorating than working directly with other artists. The times when I find myself in a creative rut tend to be periods when I’m spending a lot of time working on projects by myself. When there’s nobody to bat ideas back and forth or bring a different skill set to the table, it’s easy to repeat yourself or get stuck in patterns. But when even just two artists put their heads and their distinct talents together, the possibilities suddenly feel infinite.

That’s actually what made me want to become a producer in the first place. When I first started learning the basics of recording and mixing music, it was purely so that I could eventually produce my own music without needing to rely on anyone else. But as part of the learning process, I’d ask my musician friends if I could try recording them to give myself some practice – and I quickly realized that I was having WAY more fun and feeling way more creatively stimulated working with other people on their music than I was when I was the only one in the room.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m the owner and founder of Homespun Audio which is a home recording and music production service in Seattle, Washington. Since March of 2021, I’ve been lucky to get to work out of a converted detached garage studio which, even though it’s a pretty small and cozy space, is still a full-featured recording studio stocked with professional equipment and instruments!

One of my goals in starting the studio was to provide a space for musicians who fall into that middle ground where they want to venture beyond their own bedroom recording setups, but they might find bigger studios either intimidating or financially out of reach. The overwhelming majority of people I work with aren’t full-time professional musicians – they’re teachers, students, service workers, business owners, retirees, etc. No matter what someone’s musical background or experience level is, I want my studio to be a comfortable and pressure-free environment for them to create, and I want it to be within reach for everyone.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

For anyone who wants to take up music production, being self-motivated is enormously important – especially if, like me, you end up mostly learning on your own. I did take an electronic music class back in college, but other than that, I’ve never had any formal education in music production or audio engineering specifically. Everything I’ve learned has come from a mixture of books, YouTube videos, articles, and just picking the brain of anybody in my orbit who already knows what they’re doing. It’s absolutely possible to build up the necessary knowledge and skills without any formal training, and the resources are thankfully VERY accessible and easy to find. But you have to be a big enough nerd to want to immerse yourself in it without anybody pushing you!

Second, I think empathy is an undervalued quality in music producers. Recording and sharing original music can be an incredibly vulnerable process for a lot of artists, especially if it’s a new experience for them. A client once told me “I know this may be just another day in the studio for you, but for me, this is my dream” – that’s always stuck with me. It couldn’t be more important to understand the emotions that musicians bring with them into the studio and to take them seriously. Get excited about their music. Geek out with them. Lift them up when they’re feeing discouraged. Remember that even the best artists have good days and bad days and that their bad days don’t define them. I hope people who work with me never walk away from the experience feeling like their music was just the to-do list item I had to check off that day. We created something! It should be exciting and the artist should see that.

Lastly, this isn’t a strictly necessary skill, but one thing that’s been enormously helpful for me is being a musician myself as well as a producer and an engineer. I’ve played piano, guitar, and bass since I was a kid, and I can play some guitar-adjacent instruments like ukulele or 6-string banjo passably as needed. Since I work with a lot of artists who don’t have a band backing them, I get the chance to be a session musician on a lot of people’s projects – which is a win-win because it’s fun for me AND it saves time and money!

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always looking for artists and other producers to collaborate with! If anyone is interested in working with me (or even just connecting to nerd out about music, which I’m always down for), please feel free to email me or message me on Instagram or Facebook, or email me at [email protected].

One of my favorite things about my job is that my level of involvement looks different on every project. I have several clients who do most of their music work on their own but might come to my studio for an evening just to record lead vocals or drums – and even when I only briefly touch on a project like that, it’s still a thrill and makes me proud to have been involved. So whether an artist is just looking for someone to help facilitate one small step in the process or have me on board from beginning to end, I’m always down.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.homespunaudioseattle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homespunaudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homespunaudio