Boston musicians feeling at home at new rehearsal studios created after closure of Allston’s Sound Museum
Guitarist Jim Johnson, left, and bassist Jim Donovan, right, both of the heavy metal band Everything Belongs to the Brave, unpack a drum set as they move into their rehearsal space, as musicians now have a new place to practice after being displaced from their space in Brighton, to The Record Company on Morrissey Boulevard Saturday. (Paul Connors/Boston Herald)
By LANCE REYNOLDS | lreynolds@bostonherald.com |
March 11, 2023 at 6:22 p.m.
Inside a spacious second-floor room in the former Beasley Media Group building in Dorchester, Boston-based musician Jeison Peguero has spent the past few days acclimating to his new rehearsal studio.
The room is decorated with flags from Peguero’s native Dominican Republic, pictures of his music idols, a couch, rug, keyboard and more items — evidence the 26-year-old Boston resident is amped up for life after Allston’s Sound Museum rehearsal studios closed in late January.
Peguero and hundreds of musicians have spent the past week moving into an interim music rehearsal site featuring 88 studios at 55 Morrissey Blvd., a space that looks to fill the void left by the Sound Museum closure which displaced at least 800 musicians.
“I feel like I have a lot of support from the city,” Peguero told the Herald on Saturday. “I really put time into teaching and showing that music is this thing that could save people and help them find themselves and triumph in life. This studio shows the progress.”
Peguero never rented a studio at the Sound Museum, but he’d often go there either to listen to friends who were in bands or record his own music with other peers. They were left devastated when the property at 155 North Beacon St. was sold in December to IQHQ, a commercial realtor looking to turn the site into a life science campus.
The Art Stays Here Coalition — artists, musicians and advocates that work to prevent arts and cultural displacement throughout Greater Boston — quickly found the vacant 55 Morrissey Boulevard building and selected nonprofit The Record Co. to operate the space.
The Record Co. transformed the 40,000-square-foot former home of several Boston-based radio stations, which moved to Waltham last May, into a mix of small and large rehearsal studios in just six weeks.
The Dorchester property is just temporary as the site is slated for redevelopment in two years, but musicians, like Peguero, are welcoming the new studio space as a needed refuge.
More than 300 musicians have already visited the studios since the March 3 opening, with several hundred more expected to use the space in the coming days and weeks, said Matt McArthur, founder and executive director of the Record Co. Roughly 65% of the studios from the Sound Museum have at least some representation at 55 Morrissey.
The Sound Museum isn’t the only rehearsal space that has closed in the city.
The Berwick Building in Roxbury also recently shuttered, and Charlestown Rehearsal Studios is at risk of closure, with a portion of the building already repurposed into storage space, said Sasha Pedro, general manager of 55 Morrissey.
“There’s really never been an artist space like this on the southern side of Boston,” Pedro said. “The musicians down here have been traveling to Allston, Somerville and Charlestown to rehearse, but now that we’re down here, we’re able to serve a community that hasn’t been served in this way for a while, at least.”
The New England Musicians Relief Fund has made a $12,000 commitment to help musicians from the Sound Museum relocate to 55 Morrissey. Those funds are going toward moving trucks to haul over instruments and other equipment, said Joseph Wang, clerk for the nonprofit that started to help musicians amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The fact that this place is alive and as vibrant, full, noisy and joyful as it is today is tremendously gratifying,” Wang said. “It’s something that we need to see more of.”
Drummer Sam Corman Penzel, of the band Jesus Camp, jams in his rehearsal space Saturday, as musicians now have a new place to practice after being displaced from their space in Brighton. (Paul Connors/Boston Herald)
Bassist Jarrod West, right, and drummer Gary Mendoza, both the band The Ray Liriano Experience, jam Saturday in their rehearsal space, as musicians now have a new place to practice after being displaced from their space in Brighton. (Paul Connors/Boston Herald)
Members of the Waylon Jennings cover band The Western Faults, from left, Jason Diliberto, Tristan New and Charles Rivers in their rehearsal space on Saturday. (Paul Connors/Boston Herald)
Jonathan Braun, left, and Kevin Walsh, both of the alternative rock band The Most Americans, move amplifiers into their rehearsal space Saturday. (Paul Connors/Boston Herald)
