Meet Max Clark | Studio Owner, Musician, and Audio Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Max Clark and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Max, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My thought process toward starting Maxed Out Studios was a culmination of a few different things. For one, I’ve played music my entire life, and by the time I was leaving for college, I was confident I wanted to pursue a career in music. At this time I had started to enter the world of audio engineering through recording and producing friends and a few clients out of my basement home studio in the Vail Valley, while also working on my own side projects (entering remix contests and producing electronic dance music). In college, I continued honing my craft in recording, editing, and mixing, while working on degrees in Music Technology and Business Marketing at Montana State University. Around this time, an opportunity came up to move my Colorado home studio into a commercial space in Gypsum, and after a lot of research, I decided to go for it. While the general advice for chasing a career in music is that it’s highly encouraged (if not necessary) to move to one of the well known “music hubs” of the world such as Nashville, New York, or Los Angeles, I knew I wasn’t willing to give up the outdoors and sense of community found in a mountain town, and starting my own studio business was a way for me to both live in a place that I loved while also working in an industry I loved. I had also seen from living in the Vail Valley prior to college that there were a lot of really talented musicians out there with great music, but nowhere to record, and I wanted to provide them with a place to come and just focus on their own music without having to travel long distances or pay the extremely high prices of some of the other major studios.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Maxed Out Studios is a full service recording and audio production facility located in Gypsum, Colorado. It contains a live room with a house drum set and baby grand piano, 2 vocal booths, a control room featuring a full size 32 fader mixing console and several guitars, as well as a “studio b” room. It is setup to be able to record anything from a singer-songwriter to a full rock band.

My vision with starting this business was to provide the Vail Valley (and further) with a place musicians, voiceover artists, podcasters, bands, and anyone else could come to create high quality recordings without having to break the bank or travel long distances. It doesn’t matter whether it’s someone’s first time or hundredth time setting foot in a studio, I want them to have a place where they can come in knowing there is an audio engineer handling everything at the board so all they have to focus on is their own music and performance. The studio is also there for post production work including mixing services, audio restoration, and other editing tasks. I also teach guitar, music theory, and recording technique from the studio. Essentially, if you need anything audio or music related, we can probably help!

My favorite thing about running this business is all of the different people I get to meet! Everyone has a unique story and I think music is a great outlet to share that story with the world. I love getting to see the creative visions of different artists who come into the studio and getting to be a part of bringing that vision to life!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Vail Valley has some amazing places, but most of my favorite spots are all outside. In the summertime, hiking is a must for any trip out here! Whether it be the Booth Falls trail just east of Vail, heading up to Vail Mountain to hike up some of the most popular ski trails, or heading out to one of the lake trails near Piney or Sylvan Lake, you really can’t go wrong. Another great activity is paddle boarding at one of the nearby lakes. My personal favorite is Nottingham Lake in Avon because of the background view of Beaver Creek Mountain. They also have some great concerts in the summer at the stage area on the east side of Nottingham Lake. As far as food/drink, I’m always a fan of places that often have live music, such as Pepe’s in Vail, The Westin Riverfront in Avon, and Boneyard and Grand Avenue Grill in Eagle. Grand Avenue also has an outdoor window for ice cream, so grabbing some ice cream and taking it down to the whitewater park in Eagle to watch people surf, kayak, and tube down the river is always fun too.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are tons of people who have helped get me to where I am today! First of all, my parents have always been huge supporters of my passion for music, from my mom teaching me how to play piano when I was 4 years old to them encouraging me in my choice to go to college to study music all the way to where I am now. Even when in the process of setting up the studio, my dad played a huge role in building all of the acoustic treatment panels, building framing to hang guitars, as well as helping design and put together the main studio desk.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to my high school music teacher John David Webster, who gave me some of my first professional audio editing jobs, and helped give me the confidence and encouragement to pursue music as a full time career. I’d also like to shoutout Jason Bolte, Linda Antas, and the whole Montana State University School of Music staff!

Website: www.maxedoutstudios.com

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxedOutStudios/