Over the past year Jeff Rose and Dustin Chaffin have endured their fair share of problems in establishing Jivemind, a cooperative music lab geared towards facilitating local musicians with a central resource center and musical hub.
Rose and Chaffin initially tried to set up shop in downtown Phoenix, but the location never panned out. Along with struggles to get the building up to code, the pair say ultimately it was a lack of support from the city of Phoenix that doomed the project there. Last month the Glendale City Council approved a lease agreement of the former Bead Museum in downtown Glendale.
Now that Jivemind has a place to call home, the duo have begun work on preparing the nearly 8,000 square foot building. They hope it will eventually become the music community's dream work environment with plenty of rehearsal space, a "small but well-designed" recording studio, and small venue gig site.
Hoping to open their doors by early March, Rose and Chaffin have issued a call-to-arms to Valley music lovers and musicians, asking for input as well as volunteers to help with decorating, painting and preparing acoustic treatments for the space.
To get things rolling they're launching a pilot project and recruiting five bands or artists to record a sampler EP. A newsletter announcement says:
At this point, our biggest resource is our time, and we want to spend as much of our time as we can doing good things for musicians in the Valley. That's why we want to gather together five young bands or artists to bring into the studio to record a Jivemind-sponsored sampler EP, so we need recommendations for talented, hungry artists. The five best and brightest of all the recommended artists will receive a complimentary session in the Jivemind studio and recording/mixing/mastering lessons upon request.
For more information on how you can become involved in this super cool initiative, check out the Jivemind website where you can subscribe to the site's newsletter and check out the co-op partnership plans the team has already come up with.