Sound studio Overcoast broadens its borders with downtown expansion

Travis Tucker, JL Hodges and Matt Whitworth, from left, in Overcoast’s new studio space. (Jonathan Spiers photo)

Recording studio Overcoast Music + Sound is doubling down on their downtown digs.

The studio in the basement of the former Gather building at Main and Fifth streets recently wrapped up an expansion that doubled its square-footage, from over 1,500 to 3,100 square feet.

The additional space came available when a neighbor in the building moved out around the time that Overcoast’s lease was up for renewal.

Desiring more room for a larger lounge and additional recording spaces, principals Colin Beckett, JL Hodges, Travis Tucker and Matt Whitworth said they considered moving, buying or potentially building a new space.

But they realized they didn’t want to leave their current building, having designed the previous space themselves and having stuck it out through a flood eight years ago that was caused by a running upstairs faucet and damaged their space but spared their equipment and instruments.

“We had a space that we loved,” Tucker said.

Working it out with their landlord, an LLC that includes the principals of UrbanCore Construction, Overcoast signed a five-year lease for the larger footprint and set about converting the next-door space into a more spacious lounge, additional offices, and a second, considerably larger control room.

The new studio features stadium-style seating areas overlooking the control board and screen. (Photos by Caroline Hubert)

The additional rooms complement Overcoast’s previous digs, which the principals set up when they moved into the building a decade ago.

This time, they enlisted professional designers and had a better idea of their space needs for the business, which Hodges said has shifted in recent years to include more post-production work on top of the music and sound they produce for commercials and films.

“When we were designing the new space, we’d taken 10 years to learn what we were doing day to day and where we needed more space,” Hodges said. “Versus in here, when we built it out, we built it out for what we were doing at the time, where we were still recording bands and didn’t quite know what we were going to be doing.”

They enlisted Brandon Nunez with Roman Construction for the expansion buildout, which started a year ago and had been targeted for completion last fall but stretched into this year – due to, as Tucker put it: “You know, construction.”

They also worked with Felipe Mesa Castillo, an acoustic engineer based in Colombia, and Mariya Boykova, a local production and interior designer.

The additional space provides clients with more room to stretch out and more options for recording small or larger groups. The setup provides a Studio A and Studio B dynamic that can accommodate multiple recording sessions at once, as well as smaller spaces for individual voiceover recording.

“Now with the two spaces, it offers both worlds,” Tucker said. “If we want to have a larger group in here, no problem. If it’s a larger audience but just one performer, then it makes more sense to be over there. You can pick and choose depending on the project.”

“Sometimes they’ll come and spend the whole day and be doing other stuff,” Whitworth added, “so it’s cool they can just sit around and do other things.”

“It’s really cool when a session finishes and the clients don’t want to leave; they just want to chill and hang around,” Tucker said. “You’ve done something good in a space when they’re happy to be here and don’t want to go somewhere else.”

The new lounge provides more space for clients to stretch out during sessions.

Clients that have worked in the new space so far include local ad firms The Martin Agency, Arts & Letters, Fable and Familiar Creatures, production studio Spang, film director Martin Montgomery and VCUarts Cinema.

The additional space is also welcome for Overcoast’s team, which has grown to seven including producers Andrew Carter and Scott Lane and audio engineer Jonathan Waller. The group declined to disclose how much was spent on the expansion.

Formed in 2012, Overcoast started with studios in Richmond and London, hence the name. Beckett, who like Whitworth is an England native, continues to handle work there but is now based in New York, where Overcoast opened a satellite recording studio in 2018 with Rainmaker Studios, now part of Tilt Creative + Production.

Whitworth formed Overcoast with Hodges and Tucker, who are Hampden-Sydney and VCU alums, respectively. A previous principal, Chris Brooke, is no longer with the company.

While the London studio is no more, Overcoast’s international reach remains. The company works with a global network of about 100 freelance musicians and composers who they can call on for projects, in addition to performing and recording music themselves. Their clients are likewise international.

Overcoast’s expansion adds to other upgrades for recording spaces in Richmond. Last year, The Bakery Recording Studio opened after a yearslong renovation of the former Sound of Music space in Scott’s Addition.