WCA #605 with Chris Mara – Building Welcome to 1979, Restoring Tape Machines, and Saying Yes to Everything

Chris Mara owns Welcome to 1979, one of the larger recording studios in Nashville, along with his wife Yoli. He joins Matt for episode 605 to talk about moving to Nashville at 20, building Mara Machines and a vinyl mastering department alongside the studio, and running it for 18 years with no partners and almost no borrowed money.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Growing Up in an 800-Person Wisconsin Town With No Internet and No Roadmap
• Community College Recording and Moving to Nashville at 20
• "I Am Working Class": No Safety Net, No Umbilical Cord
• The Unpaid Internship and the Downtown Bellman Job That Funded It
• Trading Every Favor to Pull Studio Shifts
• Keys and Alarm Codes to Ten Studios
• Seeing the Same Gear Used a Million Different Ways
• Working Across Every Format: 2-Inch, RADAR, DAT, and Early Pro Tools
• The Nashville Number System and Country-Session Efficiency
• Bringing in Rock Bands and Running Them Like Pro Country Dates
• Justifying Your Existence When the Guitarist Has Pro Tools at Home
• Coming Up With Welcome to 1979 (and the Runner-Up: "Simulated Wood Grain")
• Pitching a Studio to His Pregnant Wife for $1,100 a Month
• "You Can Break Even As Long As You Want"
• Yoli Quitting Her Job to Run the Business Side
• How Mara Machines Was Born From a Side Hustle
• Multiple Income Streams and Why They Carry the Weight
• Watching Your Overhead Before It Sinks You
• Is That Gear Going to Make You Money, or Just Sit There?
• Renting Rooms Instead of Buying Them
• Saying Yes to Everything and Learning on Someone Else's Dime
• 18 Years, No Partners, Almost No Borrowed Money, Still Married
• The Recording Summit, Tape Camps, and Vinyl Camps

Matt's RANT!: A Brain Dump

Links and Show Notes:

• Welcome to 1979: https://www.welcometo1979.com/
• Mara Machines: https://www.maramachines.com/
• Recording Summit: https://welcometo1979.com/events/#recordingsummit
• Tape Camp: https://welcometo1979.com/events/#tapecamp
• Vinyl Camp: https://welcometo1979.com/events/#vinylcamp
• Lij Shaw / Recording Studio Rockstars: https://recordingstudiorockstars.com/

Credits:

• Guest: Chris Mara
• Host/Engineer/Producer: Matt Boudreau
• WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell
• The Voice: Chuck Smith