A well established recording studio in Anchorage, Alaska is opening it's doors to local Rock, Metal, and Punk bands...for free. Kurt Riemann, born and raised Alaskan, husband, and father of two, built Surreal Studios on Potter Drive in 1984 with renowned studio architect Jeff Cooper. Kurt saw a large portion of the small music community leaving the state to record their music, specifically to Seattle, and wanted to create a space for Alaskans to create legitimate recordings.

Surreal Studios.  Photo by John Nyman.

Kurt has engineered and produced all genres of music, soundtracks for movies, he's composed albums of electronic music, Christmas collaboration albums, hundreds of miscellaneous projects (some with his wife, whom Kurt works with on a regular basis,) including a project with Imogen Heap, and even had a record deal in Germany that got him distributed world-wide. The man has some serious experience.

Unfortunately, this trend of disappearing and reappearing Alaskan musicians, all returning with 'professionally' recorded albums, continues, and baffles local studio engineers like Riemann. These days, there is a much bigger musical community in Anchorage, Alaska, coincidentally in the rock genre, and even a few more local studios. In my opinion, their frustration is completely justified. I am writing this as a professional endorsement -- there is absolutely no reason to outsource Alaskan music, especially with this new development. In my personal opinion, however, Surreal Studios stands above the rest, and Kurt has the most skilled ear in town. He is giving local bands a chance to find out what they can do in-state.

This is an epic opportunity for local Rock, Metal, and Punk bands to come into a super-equipped studio and work with a producer/engineer that has an overwhelming resume of over 450 studio albums. Riemann is opening the doors of Surreal Studios for free, but it's not a free for all. In his own words, in a recent Anchorage (and surrounding area) Facebook group 'Music Punks':

Okay, Punks. I'm pulling the trigger.

Here's your chance to do something much more than a demo. It's an opportunity to work with rock producer Kurt Riemann in Surreal Studios, with all of Surreal's great rooms, gear and production chops. For free. No holds barred. We're going to be doing an iTunes / online download only release compilation of Alaskan Rock Bands and we want it to be incredible. That's where YOU come in.

Email me a link to a demo of a song you'd like to record. Give me a link to where I can find a bio about you and your band, like on your www.anchoragenightout.com page. Any other material you have done would be great to hear. Tell me how long you've been together and all that. Why should you be on the compilation? Give me a good picture of who you are and where you're going with your music. Don't worry if you don't have a great demo of yourself, I'll be focusing on the songs and how to make it all come together.

This isn't an Idol contest with votes; I'm picking the artists and songs to produce myself. Once again, this is a Rock / Metal / Punk album, other genres will have their turns later. The important thing is how the collection will work as a whole, not as a bunch of single songs. I'll be listening to songs with an ear as to how it will fit together into a single concept. That's how things will be selected or not...

Riemann has set the deadline for demo submissions as midnight on February 5th, but implores that bands "get moving on this in the next week or two." He has also mentioned the possibility of a physical CD release of this compilation along with a coinciding Kickstarter funding campaign. The rest of the expenses for this project will be paid for out of Riemann's pocket, as Producer. This is a for-profit project, and "the trick will be having the bands NOT give the music away when we're done," says Kurt. Financial specifics, among others, will be discussed between Riemann and the bands participating in the project.

In my first few questions for Kurt, I asked him why he was putting this project together. "Well, there's about eight reasons to do it. One of them is, I can, and why not? I like doing this kind of stuff anyway, and you get a little bit of money back out at the other end of it." It really isn't about the money, though, at least for Riemann. "If you look at any other industry in the world, you would expect others [in the music industry] to be doing something along these lines, and they're not."  Not on the local front, and to this magnitude, anyway. Kurt also feels that the scope of Surreal Studios in the Anchorage community is shrouded. "There are a lot of misconceptions about Surreal Studios. People who have never recorded here don't realize what this place is really about." Kurt wants musicians to experience Surreal Studios first hand, for what it's worth.

When bands or artists choose Surreal Studios, the end result is "a much bigger baseball bat that's going to send you down the field afterward. A lot of these guys are recording themselves, and I need to be generous about what I hear, but I hear a lot of work that is going to keep people outside of everything. In the industry, it's kind of a new term, it's 'outsider music.' It's never, ever, going to be something audiences totally connect to...so what I want to do is get in a bunch of these bands that have been doing that kind of stuff, and put some big charges underneath them and set them off."

"There is a reverence for all the bands that have made it out of Alaska. [For them] it's all about the quality of what it is that they do. NONE of them did what people are doing...Demos and giving them away, and not being serious about it. People are dismissing their own music as 'demos.' A demo of what? Something you're NOT going to do?" As it says on the Surreal Studios profile at AnchorageNightOut.com, "There's nothing worse than being in a studio that can only do an impression of what you want. Don't spend a bundle trying to get it right. Get it right."

Kurt got his start as a rock engineer, and about two-thirds of his work output has been in this genre. As a personal testament, I recorded bass tracks with Riemann in Surreal Studios in October of 2010 with my band Robots Helping Clones. Kurt, and the music he produced for us, went well above and beyond our expectations, and the experience was one-of-a-kind, but don't take it from me. Go in for a visit and check out Surreal Studios, and you will feel at home. Kurt now uses our self-titled track as an example on Surreal Studio's website.

Robots Helping Clones by Robots Helping Clones by Surreal Studios

As stated in the ad, don't be dismayed if your band doesn't have a decent recording. Kurt doesn't care if you stick your iPhone in the middle of the jam room and hit record, as long as he can hear the song, and all it's parts. He isn't looking for quality, after all, that's where he comes in. He's looking for a group of songs that overall, displays a theme, or set of emotions. "The title of this first compilation will emerge from what it becomes musically," Kurt may even add his own composition to the album in the form of segues, interludes, or transitions from one song to another. Depending on the songs selected, there might be a real effort to make this thing into a sort of concept album.

Kurt has around ten submissions so far, but would like more. "I'd like to not have to choose." Ideally, he would like his selections to be overwhelmingly obvious. To submit your band's demo, e-mail the track, or a link to the track, and the other information requested in Kurt's ad (above) to surrealstudiosak@gmail.com. Riemann asks that you let your music speak for itself, and not try to 'sell him' on your track, as this will not help you in any way. He will be in contact. Include the required information in a professional and timely manner, and things will sort themselves out. Be patient, as this is an extra-curricular project to his busy work schedule.

Kurt Riemann (left) and Stu Schulman circa 1988.

Kurt will start bringing in bands to record as soon as he begins selecting demos, and will continue for the next few months until all the bands are done tracking. The clamor of the project will surely die down while Riemann takes his time in the production stage of this album, including the time it takes to mix and master. Look for this album for sale (possibly) in late 2012.

As a musician and artist, myself, and advocate of 'local-motion,' projects like these excite me. To NOT submit a song, as a capable, working rock band in Alaska, would be a gigantic opportunity missed, if only for the experience alone. I implore you to consider submitting your material, and if you don't have a local rock, metal, or punk band, joining one, and cutting a demo quick. This project is something you'll want to be a part of.

Red Brick Cell by Will Johnson by Surreal Studios

Surreal Studios is located at 355 W. Potter Drive, Anchorage, Alaska.