Brian Bovenizer, one of the owners of the Rope Room, a recording studio in Astoria, described the space as comfortable and open, with a fireplace as its centerpiece.

“The rope, which is the namesake, was a happy accident,” Bovenizer said. “It’s an old locker room, and we went in there and did the clap test, and it sounded really good. We noticed there was a big pile of dock lines of 3-inch rope in the room and we thought that was pretty cool.”

When the rope was taken out, he said, the clap test did not sound as good. So the studio owners worked to weave in the dock line and place it on the wall for sound absorption.

“That’s what sets it apart,” Bovenizer said. “It’s a really good sounding room.”

Originally from the Midwest, Bovenizer trained in audio engineering and production at Western Michigan University. He had friends who had moved to Astoria, so he decided to make the move himself and started waiting tables at Fort George Brewery.

He became friends with Luke Ydstie and Kati Claborn and played as a member of an early version of their band, The Hackles. He also joined The Holiday Friends, another local group, for a few years while working on his music separately.

He later started booking music events for Fort George and began sound engineering. Bovenizer has also volunteered at KMUN and worked as the station’s operations manager.

Through that, he met Graham Nystrom, who made custom gear for music studios, and another mutual friend, Nathan Crockett, who became a bandmate with the local group Horse Feathers.

The three of them started constructing the Rope Room in 2017, and the studio opened on Exchange Street just before the coronavirus pandemic.

“Now it’s kicking it into higher gear,” Bovenizer said.

Ydstie and Claborn, known as members of the folk bands Blind Pilot and The Hackles, soon bought into the studio.

The Rope Room is an independent entity, but coordinated with Fort George and KMUN at its start. The brewery provided seed money and cross promotions, and the station produced a co-branded series of videos called the Rope Room Sessions.

Nevada Sowle, an Astoria-based musician and sound engineer, became the studio’s house engineer.

Sowle had started performing music in Moscow, Idaho. When he met audio engineer Bart Budwig, he was intrigued by what goes on behind the scenes.

“I gravitated toward all that goes into recording and how great an experience that can be, and how many directions you can take a song or album,” Sowle said. He attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Arizona and got into recording professionally.

He said working at the Rope Room has been an incredible experience.

“It’s a cool, quaint studio and all the clients I bring in there have a fantastic sound,” Sowle said.

In 2021, he got to work on an analog record using tape machines, called “Gleaner’s Joy,” for his friend Forrest VanTuyl. Another highlight was recording Desolation Horse’s 2023 album, “Biff.”

“We’re really proud of how that collection came out and it was a cool experience,” Sowle said.

Another spot for recording locally, Olaf Ydstie’s home studio began from an early interest in recording.

Olaf started making music as a teenager, and after a music recording program, he returned to Astoria and bought a house, where he decided to build a recording studio.

“I’ve done a few records with my buddies,” he said. “It’s usually free for my friends and it’s just my space so I get to curate it with the gear I want.”

One record that stands out is “Talk Soon,” by Carolina Chauffe, who makes folk music under the name Hemlock. Ydstie also recorded the first Desolation Horse record at his home studio. The album’s cover art features him on a motorcycle.

Budwig also engineered a record for the band Taco Tapes at the studio.

Ydstie has often played drums for other bands, including with his brother, Luke. He has also drummed for records at the Rope Room, including “The Time of the Foxgloves,” a 2021 release by folk singer-songwriter Michael Hurley, who has been performing since the 1960s and lives in the region.

Bovenizer said working with Hurley at the Rope Room was a memorable experience.

“He’s one of the greatest Americana acts of all time in the ’70s,” Bovenizer said. “It was really awesome to have this artist who had not done a proper studio album in 15 years come out on his 80th birthday and do ‘The Time of the Foxgloves.'”

Another acclaimed singer-songwriter, Alela Diane, also recently came out to Astoria to make a Christmas album with The Hackles at the Rope Room.

For Bovenizer, a dad of two kids, recording at the studio is much more convenient than recording in a rented space in Portland or Seattle. He can go to the Rope Room whenever inspiration strikes and take time on his projects.

Sowle said the studio is less than a mile away from his house.

“I can walk down there, and if clients are not from Astoria, I get to show them the town,” he said. “Artists gravitate toward an introspective experience of getting out of the city, and Astoria being quiet, rainy and dark lends itself to creativity and making art.”

Sowle added that the community in Astoria is supportive of the arts.

“There’s an undercurrent of creatives living here and there’s a lot of support from the community and the city,” Sowle said.

He said the local recording studios offer places for these artists to collaborate and bounce ideas off of each other.

Bovenizer said the Rope Room is affordable — and he wants to keep it that way. “We’re not trying to make money, just keep the resource available and make records,” he said.

There are no prerequisites to recording. “Come with an idea and we will do our best to make that happen,” Sowle said.

More coastal recording spaces

Acoustic Music Foundation studio

Peninsula Arts Center, 504 Pacific Ave., Long Beach

www.peninsulaartscenter.org

The Champion analog recording studio

Sou’wester Lodge, 3728 J Place, Seaview

www.souwesterlodge.com