Recorded on July 5, 2023

We begin our 8th season with a conversation with musician Gareth Auden-Hole, the producer and proprietor of La La Studio, a recording studio in Gatineau, Quebec.

Là Là  Studio: https://lalastudiolala.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lalastudiolala/

Jack Pine and the Fire: https://www.jackpinefire.com/

Gareth is here as part of the extra-literary/off page thread we’ve been doing this year.

We discuss the studio, Gareth’s background and education in audio recording, what production of music entails.

We discuss some of the artists the studio has recorded, including Johnny Eaton https://tunesdayswithjohnny.bandcamp.com/. I talk about Ron Sexsmith’s production on various albums. Gareth likes song-focused production. Every artist has their own identity. We talk about different versions of songs being recorded.

La La Studio also offers assistance with song writing. I compare the role of the producer to that of the literary editor. I praise Gareth’s song writing for Jack Pine and the Fire.

We talk about the ideal studio space as needing to be both technical and creative in a space that artists feel comfortable. Gareth’s partner and a friend from the Grassroots Festival, Riley helped a lot in the creation of the studio. We also discuss dealing with sound at a live venue. I talk about my poor skills at the microphone and the need for poets to learn how to properly use a mic.

We discuss some of the community outreach Gareth has done as part of Jack Pine and the Fire and the studio, such as The One Thing (https://www.jackpinefire.com/theonlythingvideo), a video he made to raise awareness about gun violence and support the Toronto charity, Leave Out Violence.
We discuss doing sound to help volunteer run local spaces such as Propulsion Scene https://propulsionscene.com/ and being involved with queer groups, such as a queer showcase last August for Pride at Live on Elgin and performing, for Qu’Art https://www.qu-art.ca/ .

We discuss Gareth’s environmental focus and the land acknowledgement on the Studio site. We also talk about the trees in the backyard and respect for nature. It’s a good place to hang out between takes of a song and enjoy nature. We talk about the role of art in the climate emergency. We go off on a tree tangent.

I ask about the advice to give to someone who wants to be a producer. We talk about the need for flexibility in what you want to do. The studio is open to recording spoken word or audio poetry and other media as well. He talks about the fun of working on Nathanael Larochette’s project, and recording at Gareth’s mother’s cottage on the lake.

I ask about musicians recording in their own space vs professionally in the studio. He talks about offering both end to end production and individual services that the studio offers.

Gareth talks about recent and forthcoming projects, including Johnny Eaton’s Here’s the Thing and a project with John Ian.
He spoke of a recent project with Graham Lindsey at the Ontario Folk Music Conference in which musicians who hadn’t worked together before record a video performance together. The Collab Sessions should be coming out later this month.

Thanks to Gareth for being on the show, to Jennifer Pederson for the intro and the outro assistance, to Charles Earl for processing and to all of you for listening and sharing the podcast. Stay tuned for the next episode with Nimra and Manahil Bandukwala who will talk to us about Reth aur Reghistan, their South Asian folklore project and Women Wide Awake, Stories, Sculptures and Poems for Sindhi Folklore..