For the record

It’s a scene many musicians might be familiar with. Long nights locked in the basement, microphone cables and instruments crowding the room, working hard to perfect a sound while trying not to disturb the neighbors. Local musicians Chris Bedell and Jake Yoxsimer know this routine well, not as the members of Reno’s newest band, but as the owners of the city’s newest recording studio, Buxom Records.

The idea for a studio occurred to them several years ago. Bedell and Yoxsimer recognized a need for affordable, high-quality recording resources that weren’t available at the time.

“What do all musicians want to do?” Yoxsimer said. “We wanted to record our stuff and put some music out. We had the idea, ’Let’s get a space and maybe just by helping other people do what we’re trying to do, maybe we can fund our habit.’”

Residing in a basement suite of a commercial office building on West Second Street, Buxom Records is an atypical studio. Since acquiring the space in 2013, Bedell and Yoxsimer have soundproofed the room and installed new equipment. To avoid disturbing the neighbors, they operate outside of regular business hours, often working through the night when mixing and mastering recordings.

While finding a more traditional space is one of their goals, the owners say that Buxom’s priority is delivering quality recording opportunities to local musicians with few resources.

“We’re trying to keep our costs low so that we can bring a good quality to musicians who are just trying to put something out there for a really reasonable price,” said Yoxsimer.

One of those musicians is Molly Seals, a country singer from Carson City who returned from the advanced auditioning stages of American Idol. Seals recorded with Buxom Records several months ago when Bedell approached her about visiting the studio.

Seals believes that a studio like Buxom Records might serve the population of musicians in Reno that have yet to establish themselves in the local scene—those who are unwilling or unable to book time with a more established studio.

“I think it's perfect for somebody like me,” Seals said. “I feel like I’m going to walk into an established recording studio … and you almost feel like a little kid playing house. But with Buxom, it gives people that confidence to say, ’You know what, I could be a part of the music scene.’”

Evynn Tyler, who performs as Franc Friday, was voted the best local rapper by RN&R readers in 2014, and has also recorded several projects with Buxom. Tyler believes that by marketing specifically to Reno’s newest generation of musicians, the studio could potentially find unprecedented success.

“New artists will never stop emerging in this town, and if Chris and Jake are smart, they’ll know to get to them first and help them create their first big successes,” Tyler said. “This market is relatively untapped by legitimate, non-exploitative people, so I think that these guys will attain incredible success if they play their cards right.”

Bedell and Yoxsimer’s ultimate vision for Buxom Records goes beyond just recording, however. They eventually plan to market themselves as a fully-fledged record label with national aspirations.

“There’s so much music coming out of Reno and we would love to be a part of all of it—whether it’s recording, promoting, anything,” Bedell said.

“We want to be the hub of Reno music culture,” said Yoxsimer. “We want to be in the center of it. If we don’t all work together and we don’t all try to promote each other and try to get music out a low cost and all this stuff, then music in Reno is not going to go anywhere it hasn’t already been.”