Remember that one summer you were going to start a band? Sure, you didn’t know anything about playing an instrument and your fearless vocal talents were limited to the shower, but you could be a rock star. Maybe you even took the plunge…until Jimmy quit and Jody got married, so that was that. Or was it?
Madison Music Foundry is giving musicians of all ages, skill levels, and genres a place to grow as artists. There are rentable rooms for bands to practice in, used for individual lessons in the late afternoon, and programs designed to give students the tools and experiences needed to catapult their music careers and side gigs.
When owner Mike Olson first bought the space that would become Madison Music Foundry, his vision was much more focused on the rock band side of the equation. He grew up playing in garages with his punk band, so he just thought bands would need a place to practice. If larger cities can’t keep up with the demand for rehearsal space, how far behind was Madison?
Hearing the music down the hall—seeing the writing on the wall—in 2001, Mike started 24/7 Rehearsal Studios. During that time “People were calling saying, ‘I need a place for the weekend,’ ‘I need a place for an hour,’ ‘I need a place to teach saxophone.’” Five years later, he responded with Madison Music Foundry.
The whole place is mapped out to create as little sound transfer as possible between rooms. Even the HVAC is designed for proper sound transfer, and the walls are independent of each other, leaving only the hallway to link one room to the next.
Now you might imagine that the whole facility is just a place where people come in to practice for Solo & Ensemble, but that’s only blowing the dust off the vinyl. Mike aims to create the bands of today and tomorrow, and his Rock Workshop is the perfect roadie for the job. It started with Mike being a good listener, something he credits from his past as a packaging engineer. “A customer was like, ‘When I lived in California, they had this youth band program.’
“And I was like, ‘Tell me more. That sounds cool.’”
To date, over 180 bands have been assembled through the workshop. “Ninety-five percent of the time, what people do is sign up and say, ‘I play guitar. I’m intermediate. I like metal. I like indie. I like pop.’ And then we do a placement audition. The audition is just to see where they’re at, so we can pair them with other musicians.”
There’s one caveat. Musicians aren’t signing up to play in a cover band; they have to write originals. The journey to the stage means learning to work as a group, to rehearse as a group, to communicate and share ideas. But the payoff is an experience well worth the price of admission: recording their originals in Blast House Studios and playing a concert at High Noon Saloon.
“Then we have another program where we have performance bands that students of Madison Music Foundry can enroll in,” says Mike. “We have a band called the Sandblasters and a band called Slag, and there’s a jazz group called Blue Dyes. We started that program for people to just meet once a week for a two-hour rehearsal, and they do covers. They don’t do the recording; they just practice a group of cover songs, and then we book them shows.” As of the beginning of July, the bands were booked through the summer at various events, including AtwoodFest, Willy Street Fair, and Concerts at McKee.
Throughout the year, the Foundry also puts on student jams, where students can sign up to play a part in a song that fits an overall theme. Say there are nine songs to be performed, and you’re a drummer. You can sign up to play drums for one song, and then you practice that song with your instructor. Everything comes together in the end as a large concert at High Noon Saloon, filled with the families of the 70 or so participants. It might not be realistic for someone’s first concert to be in front of 400-plus people, but it could very well be the highlight of many musicians’ careers.
Of course, there are also lessons available from 27 different instructors, and the Madison Music Foundry staff works hard to shift the mentalities of students concerning what a lesson is. “Don’t think of a lesson as a unit. You’re not just paying for 30 minutes. You’re paying for someone who spent their whole life learning how to play this instrument—learning how to teach this instrument.” It’s part of a tuition model that gives students a stronger grasp on how an instructor can be one of their greatest resources.
The successes of Madison Music Foundry are credited to many individuals involved. Mike says it was thanks to the strength of his team that his business overcame hurdles in the industry where others were failing. He’s also providing his instructors with fair compensation and believes that allowing those he works with to do something they love full-time has given the facility an atmosphere of professionalism and excitement. When a young student is sitting in the waiting room and a local band comes in to use one of the rehearsal rooms, Mike is reminded of when he was young and visited a punk rock show in Eau Claire watching musicians five years older than him rocking out. It made the dream feel attainable.
There’s no doubt that things will keep evolving at the Foundry. Mike remembers the beginning working alongside his dog, Sandy—founding member and loyal companion—and the joys that came with having an office pet. He’s taken on the responsibility of memorial scholarships honoring Alex Linden and Sean Scherer. “My background isn’t the talent of music, it’s the community in music.” Whatever the future holds, Mike is ensuring it’s going to sound good.
Kyle Jacobson is a writer who has found folk music to be the power metal of his 40s.
Photographs provided by Madison Music Foundry.
Madison Music Foundry
2818 Index Road
Fitchburg, WI 53713
(608) 270-2660
madisonmusicfoundry.com