Nelson and Garcia support an array of local musicians
Surprisingly set up in an inactive church formerly known as the Soul Saving Station on Dodds Avenue, La Blanca Studios houses so much opportunity for musical creativity and has astounding acoustics. It’s not like you hear angels sing, but there is definitely something heavenly and jaw dropping when you walk through the dusty, outdated building to find yourself in a pristine, high-tech studio.
It simultaneously looks vintage and modern. It’s being preserved yet rejuvenated. It is an inspirational space of spirituality and sound like no place I’ve ever been. So it makes complete sense why Daniel Nelson and Ivan Garcia would decide to redesign their recording studio in such a unique place.
Ivan grew up playing Latin jazz in Mexico and “is not afraid to say I’ve always been a sucker for pop, so I love Britney,” and Daniel is from the Michigan’s upper peninsula and studied vocals for a year. Every studio has their own style and La Blanca’s is a constantly evolving blank slate.
Previously, La Blanca was set up in a smaller, less welcoming rehearsal space and, after ample time spent crammed in a second-rate set up, they decided to fine tune their business plan and move up and out. The church location made sense for this duo: Daniel and Ivan have religious backgrounds in that Daniel plays for his church and Ivan’s parents are missionaries.
The Soul Saving Station, with some of its boarded windows and unkempt rooms, is a multi-level facility with bygone remnants. It is a perfect space for artistic endeavors.
Just celebrating their first year at 1518 Dodds Avenue, Daniel and Ivan occupy a large two-room loft on the second floor. First greeted and awakened by the amazing air conditioning, as the historic building has no breeze yet nevertheless boasts central air, you’re then in awe at the bountiful selection of instruments.
There are five pianos/stage organs, ten guitars, a banjo, a flute, a xylophone, seven drum sets, and lots of snares and amps. Any artist coming to record can have access to their analog equipment as well as any digital sounds, which are endless.
The production room is lined with keyboards and organs from the ‘70s and a mustard-yellow couch to match. Daniel says they are a commercial production studio but it has a personal vibe because “it’s not like we have the best gear but we have enough to do pretty much anything.”
When asked how they met, Ivan quickly replied “Instagram” and Daniel jokingly responded to that with “Tinder”, but their passion for making music forced their paths to cross one day in a Guitar Center.
“I knew who he was because I saw him play in shows before,” Daniel explained; they then began to disagree on the years they’ve known each other like an old married couple. I think the final answer was eight years.
Ivan tours with a Nashville-based band, Luthi, and he plays locally with Monomath. He’ll be playing a show at JJ’s Bohemia on August 16th. Daniel occasionally performs in Chattanooga with Ben Strawn and records the backstage performances at Moon River. Ivan’s specialty is drums and Daniel’s is guitar and they do agree that they argue about bass.
“Even though we run the studio together, we still do our own thing in this shared space,” Ivan said as he described how their styles complement one another. “Everything really is 50/50 and we’ve been working together more lately to create a portfolio.”
They provide engineering, production, and mixing as well as an array of instruments for musicians to experiment with while on-site. Currently, Daniel is producing two records, Ivan is producing a record, and together they are working on Daniel’s first record.
La Blanca is open 24/7, with the help of coffee, as they understand everyone’s schedule is different, especially when it comes to multiple parts. For instance, Ivan is producing a record for a professionally-trained cellist who has fifteen musicians contributing.
“So when it comes to pricing, my favorite response is ‘let’s go have coffee,” laughed Daniel. More seriously, they say their pricing is different for every person, every project. They stress that they are making relationships and they want to be flexible with the artists, so a conversation has to be had.
With the dynamics of these two characters, both musically and personally, you are going to want to have a conversation with La Blanca Studios because a glorious compilation will arise from a good cup of coffee and great acoustics. Email LaBlancaStudios@gmail.com