Musicians, artists can rent rehearsal rooms

With a focus on art and creativity, local recording studio Space provides musicians and artists with rehearsal rooms on a 9-acre property in Southwest Austin that aims to inspire but not intimidate, co-owner Will Harrison said.

Professional and aspiring musicians can bring their instruments, plug them into speakers in rehearsal rooms and practice before upcoming shows or recording. Microphones are available on-site for singers, and musicians can store their instruments in lockers in between rehearsals, Harrison said.

"It's a rehearsal space for musicians or anybody else who needs a place to practice or perform," he said. "Our goal is to have a cross-pollination of art forms—music, theater, videographers, photographers [and] yoga instructors."

Harrison, along with friends Sonny Bishop and Pat Mulligan, opened Space in August 2012.

Harrison and Bishop are both musicians, and Bishop had worked at another local rehearsal space and recording studio for about 15 years. Harrison wanted to build a studio with inspiring rehearsal spaces for musicians. A friend introduced him to Mulligan, and the team of three formed a partnership and set out to find a site.

"I love music; that's why I gravitated to this," Mulligan said.

In spring 2011 the team decided the 15,000-square-foot Manchaca Road location, once a private school, would be a perfect fit. Acoustic engineer and architect Steve Durr worked with Space to design the studio, which includes a recording studio, library and 30 rehearsal rooms.

"We wanted a cool [design], a cool room that gets the creative juices going," Bishop said.

Black-and-white rehearsal rooms feature sound-absorbing panels to improve sound quality, hooks on the wall to hang up guitars and bright-red tables for mixing boards, Bishop said. Some rehearsal rooms have no natural light, but other Space rooms have windows, he said.

"By providing something special and outside of the box, with windows and natural light, [and a design that is] nice, modern, clean and inspiring, we were hoping that it would tap into people who just want to come in and sing or [hold] tryouts," Bishop said.

Clients can rent rooms for $10 to $25 per hour depending on the room size, Bishop said.

Mulligan said professional photographers, education organizations, dance teams, and theater and step troupes are among the clients who have rented rooms.

Harrison said the company makes every effort to help facilitate creative endeavors.

Recording at Space

Professional and aspiring musicians can record on-site at Space with Tim Gerron, owner of Gerron Music. Recording rates start at $60.

Gerron, who has been recording, mixing and mastering tracks since 1990, said he feels satisfied when an artist tells him his recording sounds the same way he or she heard it in his or her head.

"It's such an emotional and personal thing when people are creating their own art," he said. "So to be engaged with them in that and for them to trust me and allow me into that personal space, it's a very rewarding position."

Artists who have used Space:

• Alejandro Escovedo
• Alpha Rev
• The Black Angels
• Depeche Mode
• Heybale
• Joel Guzman
• Kevin Russell
• The Peterson Brothers
• Reckless Kelly
• Skyrocket

Life imitating art

Local artists can submit paintings, drawings and photographs to Space for consideration as studio dcor, owner Will Harrison said.

"The hallways are designed to be an art gallery for people to exhibit their work," Harrison said.

If someone buys the art, Space does not take a commission, he said, explaining the business wants to help raise awareness of local artists.

Space, 7915 Manchaca Road, 512-448-9518, www.spaceatx.com, Twitter: @spaceatx, Hours: 11 a.m.–11 p.m. daily