A look at founder of Peach Street Studios, Jeremiah Slovarp
By Taylor Anderson
Jeremiah Slovarp, president of Peach Street studios
and owner of Emmy award-winning Jereco Studios,
has been in the recording industry since 2002. In 2011,
Slovarp won an Emmy for his work as Audio Director
with Montana PBS’s “11th & Grant with Eric Funk.”
Peach Street is a cooperative studio facility located
in Bozeman. Under its roof are Jereco Studios, Resonance
Studios (Jesse Barney), Blue Roan Media (Jason
and Jackie Wickens), Classic Ink (Kietra Nelson), and
Digital Outlaw (Doc Wiley). Not too shabby for an
economics graduate from Montana State University.
TA:Your slogan is ‘Helping you see with your
ears.’ This speaks to the way your brain thinks
and functions, doesn’t it?
JS: I believe that hearing is one of the stronger senses
to a person right after sense of smell, smell being your
strongest. You can close your eyes and hear the things
around you, and for the most part it will make sense.
You can go to a movie, close your eyes and listen and
you will know what’s going on.
TA: When a musician first starts playing an
instrument, it often tarnishes his ability to go to
a concert and just enjoy the whole band. He picks
apart the instruments and hears them individually.
Did this happen to you?
JS: I’m a musician, I sing and play
guitar, I played in many bands. I quit
the band, and now I just play with
myself (laughs). I have an awesome
partner in Luke. He and I have been
together since ‘97 or ’98. We played
music together in college. I always
liked music, and I could always hear it: In an orchestra
each string has a different pitch, and I could always
separate the different sounds in my head.
TA: Do you still enjoy going to shows even
though you’re so tied up in the business sometimes
it may feel like work?
JS: It’s really hard for me to go to a show. First off, I work so many shows that it’s hard for me on my nights
off to justify going to yet another concert after melting
my face off the night before. There are some shows that
I absolutely have to go to that I wouldn’t miss because
they’re so amazing, like Willie Nelson last year.
TA: I used to play at bars in Missoula before
moving out here, now I’ll play at the
Haufbrau. Are you still playing music?
JS: What’s funny is that I still play at the Hauf. I
used to play in bands all the time, and it burnt me
out. It was a job. For me, playing music should be
fun. I don’t want to make a living playing music.
I want to make a living in the entertainment industry.
I want to make a living rocking shows and
producing and recording and that kind of stuff.
I don’t want to struggle as an artist musician; I
want to struggle as an artist producer, an artist
creator, an artist nerd. We do very well, but I use
that word struggle because that’s what artists do.
TA: You once said that Bozeman is a hotspot
that is pumping out some seriously good records
by good artists. How can this be, when
there are big music scenes in bigger places
like Missoula?
JS: The more facilities, the more likely artists are
going to come to the area to work, because they
have a place to work out of, they have support. If
there’s no support, the artist can’t make great art.
So for the last few years in Bozeman especially
there’s been an advent and addition of recording
studios in the area. And it’s been fantastic.
A rising tide raises all the ships. If all the ships
are on the same plan, the artists are the water, and
all the water is coming up. The seas are rising, all
the ships are going to rise with it, if they’re bad,
the ships will sink.
