KS music studio aims to build bond with local artists

Hidden behind the mysterious “Brunjo” sign on Snake Hill and the steepest driveway you’ll ever see sits a music production studio. If you brave the driveway, first you’ll see a beautiful house with a pool. Then, if you stay the course you’ll find a big white warehouse. 

The unassuming exterior hides one of the most beautiful and serene spaces in Kingston Springs. The walls are adorned with soundproofing handmade from old shipping pallets. A warm, cozy light falls over the interior of the entire building – all the way from the small kitchen at the entrance to the recording rooms throughout, straight through to the artist lounge at the rear of the building. 

The decor matches the location which matches the wonderful team of 20-something-year-olds running the “studio in the woods.” The team hopes to share this space with artists looking to create everything from the next viral hit to a song to prove to your grandkids you’re a songwriter.

A team of three talented musicians from around the country run the show at Brunjo: Amelia Eisenhauer (originally from rural Southern Illinois), Jordan Ezquerro (originally from Orange County, California) and Tanir Morrison (originally from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania). 

Amelia Eisenhauer, Jordan Ezquerro and Tanir Morrison graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2021, where they met and formed a collective under the name they still use now: Brunjo. / Mac Kelley

The Brunjo team met during their studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. During their college days the team started working as a collective under the name they still use now: Brunjo. They started their music production company as an excuse to book more studio time, but this crazy dream quickly grew into reality with a full studio, and more talent than they knew what to do with. 

All of this eventually culminated in the team moving to Kingston Springs and beginning renovations on an old studio in the woods. 

“I lived close to the airport,” said Amelia on when her family initially moved to the greater Nashville area where they’ve lived for the last 12 years, “We weren't happy, because where I'm from is very rural. So we wanted to get out of town, if you will. So my parents were really just looking for an out, looking for a basically friendlier, smaller community to be a part of something that felt closer to home. I'm from a town of 5,000 so this definitely reminds me a lot of home.” 

Eventually, the Eisenhauer family settled on the home in front of the Brunjo studio, in part because of the warehouse filled with recording equipment and instruments that came with it. However, the studio desperately needed remodeling if it was going to be a professional studio. While the team was finishing their degrees at Berklee on zoom – due to the COVID-19 pandemic – they began the herculean task of renovating the warehouse to be the studio it is today.

In terms of accessibility, the Brunjo studio is also top notch. Brunjo aims to be an affordable option for all musicians to come and get help creating the projects that they want. The team offers their space for $350 a day or $35 an hour for studio A as a baseline. This base price includes one of the three members of the Brunjo team on site to help with engineering. The price can fluctuate depending on the needs of the project, but the team is happy to take on whatever project comes their way. 

The community can rent out the studio space at Brunjo for $35 an hour or $350 a day. / Mac Kelley

“We've definitely had pricier projects come through here. We've also had complete independents come through here. More than anything, what we wanted was a space for everybody. So that means the person who wants to throw a bunch into it, or even the person who just wants to come and record their demos – it is for everyone. The goal was to create a quality place where somebody could record right within the community whatever they want to record,” Amelia said about the types of projects Brunjo works on.

The team has had everyone working in the studio, from a musician flying in from California to an entire high school choir recording demos in the live room. They don’t only accept all sorts of projects, they welcome them.

The Brunjo team has a real focus on the people coming into the studio. They take the time to get to know each person and each project they work with, so that they can help their clients create something that both the artist and the Brunjo team can feel great about.

“This space is open to anyone who wants to create. And not only that, they're going to get a product that sounds competitively professional. It's not just a pay and play, come in, here's a microphone, hit record, and then you're done, and we take the money. We actually do care about every single thing that comes in here. It's not just the process of getting in, getting out, and then the next person. We want to get to know every person and what their story is, and what they're doing and the story that they're trying to tell through their work,” Jordan said about Brunjo’s process when it comes to working with clients.

Brunjo wants to help everyone in the community enjoy music making, and really get the opportunity to leave with a professional collection of work. They have worked extremely hard to get to where they are now and hope to continue engaging with musicians from the community and growing their reach. 

Tanir’s explanation of Brunjo says it best: “Our first chapter was solidifying ourselves and understanding who we were and getting the space to what we dreamed of. We are really excited to start the next chapter where we're now working with the community and the artists in the area to do whatever it is that they need to do …We really just want to be a part of the community that we have around here.”