Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex St Cin.
Hi Alex, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Back in 2016 my business partner and I decided we wanted to open a studio after I had moved back to St. Louis from the Chicago area. We found a building in downtown Alton that was suitable for our studio build, so we moved forward with the lease for two years to make sure our business model would work out with the expectation that eventually we would purchase our own building.
After getting through the first year or two, we decided we did want to move forward with purchasing our own space and found our current location at 626 E. Broadway. It was in dire need of a full renovation, which we began in mid 2018.
We completed the new studio build in the summer of 2019 and opened our new location in August of that year. We have been running strong in that location since and this year we celebrate our 10 year anniversary since opening our initial location!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think anyone who tells you starting their own local business was a “ smooth road” is likely yanking your chain, haha.
As with any startup, we had our struggles, but we also found a community of artist and musicians who would come to rely on Lighthouse Sounds for their recording needs, and that community has helped keep us afloat since our inception. The main struggle with any studio is finding clientele, but being in the St. Louis area has actually been somewhat advantageous compared to other studio-centric parts of the country like Nashville or LA since there are far less Studios here and a lot more work to go around amongst the engineers and producers in this area.
We have our slow and busy times, but we have enough guys on staff that we are able to keep the schedule filled and we’re always meeting new clients and taking on new projects.
We feel very lucky that so many musicians have chosen to work with us.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Amongst myself, my studio partners, and the amazing engineers that we have on staff we have recorded or worked with pretty much any type of genre and musical artist you could think of. Our engineers are very diverse, and we have a suitable engineer for pretty much any project you could throw at us.
That said, our bread and butter is definitely bands and or rap/hip-hop artists, both of which are very prevalent in this area. Historically, we have also done a decent amount of podcast and voice work as well.
As far as what sets us apart, our studio is outfitted with one of the best sounding live rooms in the area and I think our space is second to none when it comes to recording things like drums or full band live sessions. We have one of the larger live rooms in this area which lends itself well to a wide variety of projects.
It’s hard to say what we are most proud of considering all the amazing projects we’ve got to work on over the years, but if I had to chalk it up to one thing it would probably be our client diversity. Some studios in the area tend to specialize in certain genres or music types, while we pride ourselves in having an eclectic group of engineers who can handle any and all genres.
As previously mentioned, we are also celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year, which I am incredibly proud of and can’t believe the time has flown by so quickly
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I am not a big app or podcast guy myself, but I am absolutely an avid reader. Some of my most read authors in the past year or so have been Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, Brandon Sanderson, and Steven King.
Reading tends to be my favorite way of relaxing,so most of my books are fiction and no really music or studio related.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://LighthouseSounds.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lighthousesounds?igsh=N2RsZXBxeHYyOGxr&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCF2GqFbgGKFbssN3akA92CQ
