The Story of Acoustic Haven
Share on linkedin Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Acoustic Haven is a showcase for up and coming musicians to grow from. They record at Riverside Studios in Riverside, CA. They create high quality video and audio recordings for early stage developing musicians. In early stages of musicians careers, they need high quality video and audio to present to potential venues and labels for consideration.
“It’s a production marvel to be able to capture the live music like that and it’s pretty tech dense on our side. The challenge is trying to capture the session in the most strange and difficult place, recording it live and making it sound like it’s in a studio. All the footage captured is the performance audio used; capturing the raw reality, mess ups and all,” says Ethan.
The main creators of Acoustic Haven are Nick Saldivar, the creative director from Victoriam Media, Ethan Castro, the lead audio engineer from EDGE Studios ( a division of EDGE Original Inc.), and Valtteri Solomaki, co-founder of Free Logic Media and creator of podcast series ‘The Brew’.
“The driving force behind it was bridging the gap between new musicians and getting their stuff out there,” says Nick. They had friends that were musicians that weren’t getting good performance videos. Hearing this, videographers Nick and Andrew from Victoriam Media, decided to help them since this was always something they had been interested in.
It wasn’t until the single release party for Delfino^2 that the first episode was created. It worked out so well that they all decided to do it again with other musicians.
So far, most of the artists featured have been through existing connections except for Andy’s Room, where the Acoustic Haven team reached out to them about performing in the show’s pilot season. “They were the most nerve racking because we didn’t have an ‘in’ with them and we had to view them as a client,” says Nick. Watch Andy’s Room performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxDlVq8tWLw
The overall process is very technical and they try to be very transparent about the show. Ethan often live-streams on Twitch to share the behind-the-scenes work that goes into editing the performances, fulfilling his ultimate goal of sharing “the raw power and beauty of music with my friends, family, and by extension, the masses.”
They believe it is in their best interest to share the process with others so that they may mentor and train them, which will eventually lead others on their own journey. “We want people to join the journey, compete with us, and keep the stuff alive for another generation. The journey is what creates the art you see.” They feel they have a great opportunity to combine each of their unique backgrounds and skills to make a product that is a testament to that. With each new Acoustic Haven they challenge themselves to continuously advance it.
They hope to continue and do another season in the future. Many artists have reached out to them and there is already a list for season 2. However, due to concerns about COVID-19, it’s very hard to redo the same process they used in season 1. Currently, they are working on a new cutting edge software that may allow for a virtual Acoustic Haven on a stopgap until they can be together in person again. They have big plans for Acoustic Haven’s growth and are “not standing still, but lying in wait.”
