Cardinal Song is a full-service recording studio offering professional audio production, mixing and sound design dedicated to supporting artists through personalized services and collaborative, creative spaces.
Can you tell us how and why you started your business?
Cardinal Song officially started in 2012 as a mixing and production studio based out of my house, then in The Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma (ACM@UCO) while I was teaching there. My love for production all started from a true love of music and the mix of creative and technical skills. I was 15 or 16 when I began to fall in love with making music from a production perspective, the mix of curiosity about the technology and the joy of making music with friends just all made sense to me. I bought my first Pro Tools rig with the graduation money I got from high school and have not stopped doing it ever since.
What services do you provide within the music industry?
Cardinal Song offers a comprehensive range of services within the music industry, including full-service audio recording, mixing, music production, sound design and audio post-production for film and video. The studio has been designed to facilitate creative collaboration from the ground up. I designed and built the facility with one goal: to facilitate creativity. We work with artists at all stages of their careers whether you’re a touring national act or a budding local musician, the studio is built to house you and your project.
How has your company grown to meet the needs of Oklahoma’s music industry over the last 3-5 years?
Oklahoma’s music scene is unique, blending genres and styles. From inception I built the facility to be flexible in our approach, whether it’s capturing the raw energy of a band, designing a wacky sound or doing voice over for a film. We try to host events when there is down time, providing mentorship and staying involved with local musicians and organizations. This allows us to not only meet the technical needs of artists but also support the growth of the broader creative community here.
What are the benefits of basing your company’s operations in Oklahoma?
Cost of living and operation are chief among the obvious reasons, but beyond the obvious, Oklahoma has a rich and growing and creative network of incredibly talented people. We’re certainly a sleeper when it comes to raw talented people. I’m able to work with folks from all over the state, and touring acts that are coming through Oklahoma City on their way to Dallas, Tulsa or Bentonville on projects that are always unique and inspiring.
What would you consider your business’s greatest accomplishment to date?
We had Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit in the studio for a day when they were on tour recently. That was fun. The song ended up on the soundtrack for the new Vince Vaughn show, “Bad Monkey” on AppleTV+. Willow Smith did a rehearsal/tracking day here when they started their tour with Childish Gambino…these are the glitz and glamor sort of names that get folks excited. It sounds lame, but I’m most proud of the relationships that I’m able to foster with artists that I really care about. I want to see them succeed and they want to see that for me and the studio, too, so we really try to have a rising tide. It lifts all sort of mentality around the building.
Are there any recent successes your company would like to highlight related to work within the Oklahoma music industry?
I think that the Jason Isbell gig was cool, but all in all every single record that gets made is a little miracle. So we try to celebrate anything that comes to the finish line, and, luckily, we have had a lot of those.
What are you working on now/next?
There is always a flow of things coming through. I’m waiting on mix notes on a song for Hanson as I type this. Back in August, I visited Norway and Sweden while working a tour for Hanson. I reached out to several artists that have inspired me throughout my career and was able to work with a wonderful artist, Nicolai Dunger, in Stockholm. I’ve been a fan of his since I was in college. There is some more work to get those songs done, but that will be a cool slow burn project. Brandon Birdwell is coming by for a few days this week, he’s always a pleasure. Sno Bug, a project from the brilliant minds of some of the most creative people I’ve met in Tulsa, are working on a record here in fits and starts. I met with a lovely artist last week and we’re looking to make a cool record in 2025. I finished up an album from John Calvin Abney back in June. Beau Jennings and the Tigers’ new record just came out. American Stories Major Chords, we wrapped that up at the top of 2024. Heather Christian has been back and forth to the studio a few times for her new record, she is a true inspiration. Kid Again, a project from Aaron Newberry (the tenant in studio B), has been putting out really great things all year, and he is staying super busy with his own productions that come out of Cardinal Song. I’ve written a book about the recording application Pro Tools that is just about ready to publish. There is always something to work on.
What is your goal/vision for the future of your company?
I hope to grow the studio to be viewed as more than a single engineer/producer’s studio to a larger community where lots of engineers and producers come to work. I designed it that way, but it’s been hard to get people out of their shells to come and make things away from their own workflows. There are exceptions, and I would love to see more people renting the space. Obviously, I want Cardinal Song to be a cornerstone of the Oklahoma music community, while also attracting artists from across the country who are looking for a space that blends professionalism with a deeply personal and supportive environment. In the long run, the goal is to help shape the music made here by staying at the forefront of creative sound production while empowering the artist.
What advice do you have for others who are considering starting a music business in Oklahoma?
Hang on tight.
What opportunities do you believe await Oklahoma’s music industry in the future?
I truly believe that the future lies in not losing our talents to the larger markets. That being said. I left Oklahoma. I came back. Sometimes Oklahoma is a hard place to live, and at other times it’s the best. I think we all know that feeling as creative people in the area. The politics are wacky, but the Oklahoma spirit is infectious. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.
There are a lot of things going for Oklahoma, our blossoming film industry is a wonderful addition to the work and growing talents of many folks. We have stable venues in Oklahoma City for the first time in a long time. This, hopefully, can help stabilize the OKC music scene more. ACM@UCO and the University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab program are super cool things that foster a lot of talented people in the area and has created more bands than I can shake a stick at.
I get most excited about people making things together, so the more we can all grab an instrument and say to our neighbors and friends “Let’s start a band!” or “I have an idea for a movie!” the better off we all are and will be into the future.
Each featured individual or business is given the provided questions to answer in their own voice. Other than formatting and grammar, the answers are personal to each featured voice, and are not provided by the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.
