IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL ROCK:

AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTOR-MUSICIAN

HARLAN STEINBERGER HATCHES HEN HOUSE STUDIOS

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This ingenious rooster merges film and music in a symbiotic exchange of info and experience so musicians record for free; promotes tracks on Hen House Studios label

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Critical Times: Fishbone's Hen House Sessions doc, John Densmore-produced

Ray of the Wine debut from Persian multi-instrumentalist-vocalist Reza,

Hen House Studios Anthology Volume Four - 2004 are three golden eggs in the Hen House

 

Giving musicians carte blanche in a recording studio is like letting wolves run amok in a chicken coop, but that's pretty much what Harlan Steinberger does every day at Hen House Studios (www.henhousestudios.com ), where bands record -- for free .

What?!

In a town where starving musicians pay premium rates for studio time, it's business as unusual when bands load in and set up in the state-of-the-art Hen House, without feeling the financial scorch of money burning through their pockets as the minutes tick by like an accelerated click track.

Producer and former Doors percussionist John Densmore , who has known Steinberger “for years” while working with several bands at Hen House, comments, “Harlan is a wonderful hand drummer, and he got this altruistic idea to open a studio and make it free to those who want to record. The vibe at Hen House is really great; it's like a global village in there. And then everybody working there is trying to help the artists get out their muse, say what they need to say, and then providing an opportunity for that. It's so... sweet . It's just unheard of,” he laughs, adding with amazement and admiration, “To reach out to the community, to form a community is just really rare .”

In terms of practicality, you may think Steinberger is crazy for sidestepping the straightforward monetary exchange that capitalism is built upon, no matter what drummer one marches to – or records with, but this ingenious rooster has the Hen House Studios thing all figured out. The multi award-winning documentary film director ( The Art of Survival , about artist and holocaust survivor Tibor Jankay, which earned Outstanding Documentary of 1995, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy Documentary Committee; CINE Golden Eagle Award, 1996, Washington, D.C., as well as several other honors), record producer ( The Spirit of Venice ) and former Inner Secret drummer built the Venice, Calif., facility five years ago, complete with a sound stage, in a commercial hen house that dates back to the

1940s. Steinberger's goal was to merge documentary filmmaking and music in a way that the information would come to him, rather than schlepping a truckload of equipment hither and yon.

“When we first started,” Steinberger recalls, “the bands came to us and we would film them, and told them they could walk away with their masters and use them any way they want – to get gigs, to finish records, or any way they could imagine. What we wanted in return was the right to use their music as long as it was in sync with the footage that we shot of them while recording. It was an exchange of information.”

“We work with a lot of young bands,” Steinberger continues, “and once word got out that there was no hitch, and that the fidelity was good, and we were putting together video clips of these bands and making movies, we started getting lots of submissions every day.”

Steinberger and his crew have shot more than 1000 hours of footage and recorded more than 100 bands, so far.

“We've figured out a way to provide musicians who can't afford it, to go into a nice studio and create something. We're trying to work together with artists and have Hen House come up at the same time that they come up. We promote them, and by promoting them , we're promoting us . Just by them offering their skills and their art to us, and to be able to capture it on video and release it on a record, it really helps them – and it helps us. We're at a much more level playing field with the artists, whereas record companies go through artists more and more quickly, it seems. The lifespan of an artist is two or three years at a label, if they get a big deal, and by the third record, they're gone. We don't sign artists, but we work the records for years.”

Funk-punk-ska heroes Fishbone were early benefactors in Steinberger's Hen House of magnanimity, where he filmed the quirky collective's creative modus operandi in 2001, which became the documentary, Critical Times: Fishbone's Hen House Sessions , recently released through Music Video Distributors.

In addition, there's the upcoming film, Welcome to the Hen House , which features 50 bands that have recorded there. Interspersed with cool Super 8 footage that Steinberger & company have collected through the years, it's a behind-the-scenes art documentary that gives the viewer a window into the bands' creative process and also exemplifies the Hen House concept.

Other golden eggs from the Hen House that Steinberger built are Hen House Studios Anthology Volume Four – 2004 , and Ray of the Wine , the debut from renowned Persian multi-instrumentalist composer and vocalist Reza , which John Densmore performed on and produced. These, as well as three other anthologies recorded at Hen House Studios are on its Hen House Studios record label. All CD and DVD titles are available online at www.HenHouseStudios.com and www.CDBaby.com , except for Critical Times , which is also available at brick-and-mortar retailers.

“Hen House is evolving, and the fact that it makes sense becomes more apparent to me every day,” Steinberger states. “The model that the music industry has been using for years is falling apart; distribution is changing because of the way we're delivering music through digital media. You don't even need a CD anymore. The Internet has opened the playing field.”

And Steinberger has opened the Hen House.