It’s a rainy June morning. The stairs descending into the studio echo with the skillful noodling of an electric guitar. At the base of the stairs, a room lined with keyboards, vintage guitars, drum heads and auxiliary percussion is dimly lit by the orange hue of the '70s era lamp in the corner. In the center of the room sits guitarist Seth Hedquist, his Marshall combo amp to his right. With his tone preferences dialed in, he cues producer Bryan Vanderpool, and the recording begins. First silence, then the solo, and after a masterful bit of improvisation we listen back with the full context of the track itself. An unreleased Weary Ramblers’ song plays over the studio monitors. It's one from their upcoming second album. As the colorful cascade of the solo’s closing notes begin their descent, the concentrative expressions of Hedquist and Vanderpool’s brows turn to ones of mutual agreement. That was the one.
Bryan Vanderpool is reshaping the sound of central Iowa’s music scene. Tucked deep within a residential neighborhood on Des Moines’ north side, in the basement of a seemingly ordinary home, Vanderpool has created something extraordinary: Golden Bear Records. In an era when home studio equipment and digital audio workstations have become increasingly accessible for artists on a budget, the small independent studio has found a way to stand out as the premier recording destination for musicians and bands across the Midwest.
Golden Bear Records has produced albums for a number of Iowa-based artists, including Abbie Sawyer, Andrew Hoyt, Lily DeTaeye, Robert Deitch, Keslie James, James Tutson, Deb Talan, Annie Kemble, Weary Ramblers, Sara Routh, Eleanor Grace, The Bird Hunters and Dickie, just to name a few.
“In the last 5 years we’ve produced about 1,000 songs. 75ish full-length albums, 25ish EPs, and a smattering of singles,” Vanderpool explains, adding “about 80% are Iowa-based artists and the other 20% are mostly from neighboring states.” With that level of output, it's safe to say that Golden Bear Records is having a big impact on the regional music scene. So why are so many musicians flocking to this small, basement studio in Des Moines?
“The (sound) engineering is what made me want to record at Golden Bear,” says Iowa music legend Bo Ramsey. Ramsey is a Grammy Award-winning producer in his own right, and has been a mainstay of the Iowa music scene for over 40 years. “I could hear that he had the touch. I got his name and number and I drove from Iowa City to Des Moines to meet Bryan and see his workspace. We connected immediately,” he adds. Vanderpool has produced Ramsey’s last two albums as well as multiple singles.
Gino Hale, guitarist and frontman for the band 28 Days Later, agrees. “We spent a lot of time considering where to record our debut album, listening closely to work that had come out of various studios,” says Hale. “What ultimately drew us to Golden Bear was the quality of Bryan Vanderpool’s mixes. There was a richness and depth to the sound he was creating that really stood out to us.”
“I definitely have the ’10,000 hours’ thing where it’s like ‘okay, I have a personality that I love to bring to a record,’” Vanderpool explains. “For one thing, I never use virtual instruments. If you want a “Rhodes” sound, we have a real Rhodes. If you want a “synth” sound, we have an analog synth. We don’t use weird plug-ins.”
Using real instruments and rejecting the increasingly common practice of using digital samples means packing the small studio space with as many analog instrument options as possible. It also creates a need for studio musicians who have the skills to play them, and Vanderpool has a lot of options. Hanging on the wall just behind his workspace is a cork board full of polaroid pictures of all the contributors his studio has seen over the years. It is a “Who’s Who” of Central Iowa talent, most of whom are simply a phone call away.
Hedquist is one of the most sought after guitarists in the state, and is a mainstay of Golden Bear’s arsenal. “With Bryan, it’s all about collaboration and serving the artist and the composition,” says Hedquist, “I love working with him at his studio because it always feels like we’re creating something special.”
Deb Talan, who has made many albums with Vanderpool, had similar sentiments. “Bryan’s production sensibility is to serve the song ... I’ve found his openness in collaboration and kinda boundless creativity with finding sounds to be totally inspiring, not to mention really effing fun.”
As an example, Talan points to her song “Just You,” from her latest album I Thought I Saw You. “I can immediately think of three unusual Bryan contributions: taking his vocals from the reverb channel for this sort of unbodied ghostly harmony effect, whale-like background sounds from bowed bass harmonics and using a Moog synth bass for a warm, subsonic sound on the low end. There are literally hundreds of more examples from this project alone.”
For Vanderpool, the creativity of production is an artform all its own. “You have to really not care what other recordings sound like, which is very difficult for producers to get past,” says Vanderpool, who spent ten years working as a producer in Los Angeles. “In L.A., in the industry everything is references. They call it ‘Writing by Committee.' You’re just kind of part of the machine. There’s like five guys producing all the records and they’re doing it the same way. Nashville is the same thing, I can smell a Nashville record a mile away.”
One of the reasons Vanderpool settled on Des Moines for the location to build his dream studio was the free and creative atmosphere that artists in the area had been developing. “There is just such an insanely vibrant arts community, people with points of view and personalities, and there is just a lot of art being made. So we said ‘Let’s try out Des Moines’ and it was the best decision we ever made.” Vanderpool also noted that “Out here, because we don’t have the pressure of the industry, people are way more open to chasing their own sound, doing their own thing.”
That freedom, combined with Vanderpool’s talent for helping others realize their visions, has resulted in the rejuvenation of the central Iowa music scene. His talent for crisp vocals and instrumentation, his rejection of homogenized sound samples, his musicianship and endless creativity, and his willingness to use the resources provided by the immensely talented pool of studio musicians at his fingertips has cemented his status as the preeminent source for quality music recording in Iowa.
And, as Talan says, “He’s a treasure of a human bean, kind and funny and fun, and a deceptively deep soul. Like an otter, who is also a Buddha.”
