Erwin Musper used to travel the world to record some of the biggest stars in the music business. David Bowie. Metallica. Elton John. Jon Bon Jovi. Jeff Beck. Mick Jagger.
Now, they travel to him -- to his studio, The Bamboo Room, in Highland Heights, Kentucky.
Eight years ago, Musper was living in Hollywood and getting most of his work from major record labels. But the industry was in a tailspin, and the offers weren't coming in like they used to.
"Record companies are not investing in artists anymore," he says. "I thought it might be a good time to build my own studio, search for talent, make records, and see if bigger record companies are interested."
Los Angeles real estate costs would have devoured most of Musper's budget, so he launched a worldwide search for the perfect spot. He found it in Northern Kentucky, where a house built for a jazz singer was on the market. The studio was built in, and the price was right, to say the least -- Musper estimates that he paid 10% of what he would have paid in California. So he could spend where it mattered: a wish list of state-of-the-art recording equipment 30 years in the making that would bring his studio to the standard of the finest in the world.
Saving on overhead was Musper's "main and only reason" for relocating to the region. When he got here, though, he found something surprising.
"This part of America is filled with talent," he says. "The music is very original, very high-quality, and there are so many great bands, from here to Detroit to Nashville to Chicago. And they all flock to my place."
"I never saw this in Los Angeles," he adds.
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Five years ago, Chris Brewer came to Northern Kentucky from Denver -- where, in the '90s, he published the Denver Scene, Colorado's largest regional music publication.
The local music scene impressed him right away.
"I'd never heard anything about Cincinnati's music scene," he says, "but everywhere we went, we couldn't help but run into some band playing somewhere."
"I was absolutely floored," he says. "Knocked off my feet. The quality of the musicianship was amazing."
Brewer set out to merge his lifelong passion for music with his interest in publishing and his expertise in managing the online space. He also wanted to provide opportunities for local musicians to connect and collaborate.
He launched
GrooveRiver.com, a niche social network supporting Cincinnati-area musicians, a year and a half ago. Recently, he left his job at Northern Kentucky University's College of Informatics to pursue the site and related projects full-time with his new company, Zavoodi.
GrooveRiver's first phase was geared toward linking up local musicians; now, in a second round of development, Brewer wants to make the site a robust resource for local music fans, as well. (Current features include an in-depth video series about the history of the
Southgate House, featuring interviews with lots of movers and shakers in the local music scene.)
"This is an opportunity to create something that reveals the talent that's out here," he says.
Oh, and Apple's on board. Using the code platform he created for GrooveRiver, Brewer and his four recent hires are creating Apple's first social network for educators.
"We're powering five distinct business lines for Apple, right here in Ft. Thomas. Yeah, there's some pretty cool stuff happening in this new economy," he says with a laugh.
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That Cincinnati's music scene is in good health is no big secret.
MusicNOW just wrapped its fifth year celebrating adventurous contemporary music with a performance by homegrown indie stars The National. (Festival organizer Bryce Dessner is in the band.)
Midpoint Music Festival -- which Chris Brewer calls "completely underrated nationally" -- marks a decade of showcasing indie up-and-comers this September. From James Brown and The Isley Brothers to the Greenhornes and the Afghan Whigs, the Queen City has launched its fair share of luminous careers.
But it does tend to surprise that music could make such an impact on the local economy, and play such a prominent role in the region's relevance to the world.
Musicians come from all over to take advantage of Erwin Musper's expertise, and they spend weeks at a time in Northern Kentucky. In that capacity, Musper acts as sort of a concierge, booking hotel rooms and arranging catering, transportation, equipment shipping and entertainment. Some of his international clients spend thousands of dollars at local record stores, where "it's still cheaper than Europe," he says.
Musper also operates a mobile recording studio for touring bands and venues that want high-end live audio/visual recording. That's part of what makes his enterprise "more than just a little room where I record on my computer."
And he serves the local music scene as faithfully as he does his globe-trotting superstars. Sometimes, he says, he even prefers to work with newcomers.
"I don't care if you're famous or not. I love working with great musicians," he says. "Younger bands are hungry for knowledge. Sometimes established bands are only hungry for sushi."
Chris Brewer, a musician himself, says the local music scene is gaining in national prominence. It's that fire, and that potential, that he wants to GrooveRiver to serve.
"My work with the music scene is really a tip of my hat to the people out there currently playing," he says. "It's so powerful that people out there are passionately following their dreams."