SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa. – The peaceful chirping and buzzing of birds and bugs outside a remote cabin is being replaced by rock n’ roll.
Local, original rock tunes have been recorded in secluded settings like this for over a decade, by bands under the Blind Pigeon Record label.
“It’s kept a large group of people together,” said Bill Whalen, founder of Blind Pigeon Records and frontman for the band Gleason’s Drift. “Coming out, hearing new music. New music from old guys, new music from national and regional acts playing in our area.”
This year, the bands are taking over a different space in the form of a hunting cabin, fifteen minutes outside Pottsville, Schuylkill County.
“It’s like we step back in time,” said musician Ira Walton.
“These kinds of places seem to be conducive to creation,” said Whalen.
It’s a special space for musicians and those capturing the music.
“You have to work the room,” said engineer and musician Nick Meyer. “Which actually makes it fun, in itself. Just trying to figure out how it is, where we have to place the drums. To get the best sound out of those. Where we have to move the guitar amps.”
Ten artists will record over two days, including Lenhartsville-based Barren Wells.
“Berks. Yep, we have a lot of folks from Berks, a couple from Dauphin,” Whalen said. “Harrisburg and Reading are our two main places and a couple from the Lehigh Valley.”
“We all come out for the weekend. Every band gets an hour,” Walton said. “You set up, play your song and record it, and we mix it down later. You get to feel a community and you’re away from everything.”
The end result will be a compilation album released in December.
Will the rustic room make its way onto the record?
“We’re hoping that it seeps into the music at this joint,” Whalen said. “With all these ghosts of these animals looking over us, so I’m sure we will be all right.”