Thanks to the 97 WONDERFUL backers of the FrankenSound’s Warehouse Kickstarter, we have reached our $10,000 funding goal by our deadline, and so the all-ages venue we’re building near Rutgers/New Brunswick will be completed!

Frank and I will be ordering the materials on Monday.

The invitations to our private Soft Opening will be sent out shortly. I’ll keep you updated on the project and other opportunities as the Soft Opening draws nearer.

Thank you all for making this possible! Thank you for contributing! Every bit, big and small!

Thanks so much for spreading the word! Especially the people who spread the word hard, like Steve Bove (Home News Tribune, Metromix.com), Jeff Raspe (90.5 The Night), Gary Wien (NewJerseyStage.com), Eddie Trunk (Q104.3, VH1 Classic’s “That Metal Show”), April Smith, and members of Guns N’ Roses, Thursday, and Bouncing Souls (all with ties to New/North Brunswick).

More info to come, so stay tuned!

Floor Plan of Frankensound

Long has it been my dream to open my own venue, and with permits in-hand and construction underway, that dream is becoming a reality. But I can’t do it alone.

Frankensound is/will be: 7 Rehearsal Rooms, a Full Recording Studio (w/ additional editing bay), and a 150(ish)-capacity Live Showcase Room.

There’s a lot I want to do with this and a lot of services I want to make available to our musician clientele. As General Manager, here are the jobs I’m looking to fill:

2 Music Producers (working in the recording studio)
4 Engineering Interns (must be attending or a recent graduate of an audio engineering school or program)
3 Live Engineers (working in the showcase room)
4 Graphic Artists (must be a photoshop wizard and have industrial printing experience – available for freelance work from bands for album art, etc.)
4 Web Designers (available for freelance work from bands)
4 Photographers (available for freelance work from bands)

Competition will be stiff and portfolios/auditions will be serious. If you’re interested, please e-mail me your resume and portfolio/samples of your work, to ericg [AT] frankensound.com

PLEASE also pass this along to your friends who may be interested.

If you are a good friend of mine, please seriously consider how being declined or – even worse – getting fired by me might affect our friendship before applying, because I cannot hire someone that I wouldn’t be comfortable letting go if the circumstances called for it, and I don’t want to lose a friend over a job.

I’ve mentioned this to a few people over the last year, but hadn’t made an official announcement. I try not to count on things until they’re a “done deal” and I didn’t want to consider this to be such until I had ALL of the contracts signed and permits approved, and until construction had started.

It started.

…::Ahem::…

IT STARTED!!!!!

In the 9th grade, I thought I wanted to be a chef. Two weeks into the following summer, at 14-years-old, I spent all of my Bar-Mitzvah money to rent out the Stone Pony and throw an 11-band concert. I broke even, which was a great accomplishment. That night, I laid in my bed and knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life: I wanted to run my own venue.

This is the view from what will be my office

This week, construction began on what has been my dream for the last 13 years, 8 months, and 5 days.

My longtime friend and frequent collaborator, Frank Certo, owner of Frankensound Studios (7 rooms of rehearsal and a fully equipped recording studio) has trusted in me his latest venture – our joint venture – Frankensound’s Warehouse: a (roughly) 150-capacity, standing-room-only showcase room, located in North Brunswick, just off Rutgers’ Livingston Campus.

There’s a LOT of work to do and more news is forthcoming, but for now, I simply leave you with a picture of metal studs (no Queensrÿche or nipple piercing jokes, please).