Citrus Heights’ DNL Studio Solutions is one of many resources for up-and-coming artists in the Sacramento area who want to find affordable spaces for rehearsing, recording and production..
Derrick Thompson, owner of DNL, says Sacramento’s music scene sits in a “Goldilocks Zone” of creativity. Compared to some artists in big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, musicians in Sacramento are more down to earth, Thompson says, and willing to carve out a space for affordable music services, while still maintaining a large enough scene for musicians to find a fanbase.
“People are still real here, but there’s a fertile ground for lots of artists … in a way that you might not see in another small town,” Thompson says.
At DNL, musicians are offered rooms to rent, with 24/7 access. In the rooms, musicians have free reign over their space. They can practice, jam or record — sometimes with help from Thompson, if they need it. DNL is one of a handful of local spots where musicians can rent spaces at an affordable price.
Thompson said that his ability to provide an affordable space is partly out of the goodness of his heart, part market economics.
“There’s a market price that’s kind of established by all the other rooms. If I charge way more than them and I’m not offering more, people will leave. One, I want to make it fair. Two, it’s just the hand I’ve been dealt. Three, I spend too much time with these people,” Thompson says. “It’d be really weird for me to be living off of them without offering a major service. … As long as it’s just paying the rent, then I feel good, you know?”
Trading the private sector for the studio
Thompson grew up in Sacramento, going out to see live music with his parents, but he didn’t start playing music of his own until he moved to Santa Cruz for college in 2012. When he moved back to Sacramento in 2018, he began working in the private sector, but it didn’t suit him. He found a culture of hyper-capitalism and hyper-masculinity that he wanted to avoid, and he was inspired by his experiences with the Sacramento music scene to find different work.
“I work with people that when they say they’re going to do something, they do something,” he says. “They hold accountable to themselves. … I just really wasn’t getting that in the private sector. I was feeling like it was a lot of chauvinism, a lot of ego.”
So, in 2021, Thompson opened DNL Studios with help from his mom and grandmother, who he named the space after: Derrick, Nicole and Linda.
Hailey Court, a band who rents a room at DNL for $500 a month, just recorded an album with Thompson, which is getting released later this month. Thompson is a fan of their work, and wanted to help them with recording and production to get an album off the ground.
“We’ll worry about money later. We’ll figure it all out,” Thompson told them. “Let’s just do it. Let’s get it started, let’s get it recorded. Whatever comes of it, we’ll worry about it then.”
Thompson also partners with Hot Mic, a music repair business and booking service that operates out of DNL. “When they moved in here I told them, ‘I’m not going to charge you anything. You guys just [operate] as your own business,’” Thompson says. “It means that I get to say, ‘Hey, we offer more services here.’”
Jesse and Jesse: growing with Sacramento
Jesse Szabo and Jesse Hanes of Lets Go Studios also support the Sacramento music community with rehearsal studios, recording, photography and lessons. They met in American River College’s recording program, and were working together giving lessons at Guitar Center when they decided to go into business together. They opened their first studio space in 2018.
“We want to make the tools that maybe we didn’t always have coming up as musicians,” Szabo says. “The main reason we wanted to do this was to provide tools and resources that we didn’t really have.”
Hanes says that over the years, the music scene here in Sacramento has just grown bigger. “Before, you could throw a flyer on MySpace. Now, Instagram is flooded, the internet’s flooded,” Hanes says. “It’s a little harder to get a flyer out there and have more random people show up. On the bright side, though, if you do catch attention, it’s bigger than ever.”
According to Szabo, it’s important for musicians who need a song or record produced but are low on funds to come to the studio well prepared.
“If someone comes in with a really well-thought-out project, they’ve got multiple songs, their vision is very clear. … I’m much more willing to work with somebody and work with them on price,” Szabo says.
Sacramento’s scene: from playing to promoting to performing
Aspiring musicians have many options for venues to perform in Sacramento as well. Thompson at DNL books shows, and venues like the Red Museum, the Golden Bear and the Hearth host shows in intimate settings that are well-suited to first-time performers.
Another space that hosts shows, Musiclandria, also offers a program that operates on a “take what you need, leave what you can” system of distributing instruments and audio gear.
First-time bands or musicians looking to promote these shows may look to Lee Osh, who has been running a blog simply called “Sacramento Punk Shows”for over 15 years where he posts flyers of shows in the Sacramento area. He also updates these flyers constantly on his similarly-named Instagram.
Hanes says that the best way to start as a musician, especially in a town like Sacramento, is to show up in the community.
“Go to the studios, go to the shows and talk to people. Don’t just sit at home and wonder,” Hanes says. “It’s all out there. Information is free and available. It’s the effort behind it that really counts.”
This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics, the city had no editorial influence over this story. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Hmong Daily News, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.
By Ruth Finch
