Every great music community needs both a quality instrument shop and a good recording studio.
Luckily, the Coachella Valley has Jace Levy. The owner of Sunny Sounds Recording Studio and Repairland is moving his business from Palm Springs to Indio with a planned reopening on April 5. He offers studio sessions with premium equipment and a comfortable recording environment under the name Sunny Sounds and is a master instrumental technician under the moniker Repairland. Since closing his Palm Springs location in January, Levi’s has been doing pickups, deliveries and pop-ups for Repairland.
During a recent phone interview, the New York native talked about his musical history.
“I started playing drums and percussion when I was in elementary school and I was in the state jazz band when I lived in New York,” Levy said. “When I was in high school I had a really bad accident – I fell and broke my arm and I couldn’t play the drums anymore, which was pretty terrible. I had based my whole life on my ability to play the drums, so I had to really rethink.”
After undergoing several reconstructive surgeries, he began playing other instruments and recording music.
“I still have a metal plate in my knuckle,” he said. “Now I am completely cured, but then I said to myself, ‘Oh, my life is over; I have to do something. I started recording myself, and I started going on MySpace and promoting myself on MySpace—and that led me to a record deal with Drive-Thru Records.”
It was with a band called Secret Secret Dino Club, whose first release on Drive-Thru Records was a split EP with Allstar Weekend. After several tours and albums since 2009 See cat meowLevy moved on to other endeavors, founding the band Astro Safari USA and writing much of the Allstar Weekend album All the way on Hollywood Records (owned by Disney). He was even in a boy band, Poop Emoji.
“I started writing for other people and I started writing music for TV shows — and I was kind of all over the place,” Levy said. “It was really hectic and after a while I wasn’t into it; I’m pretty burnt out. I wanted to do something a little different that didn’t necessarily depend on being involved in the industry. … I did about 700 concerts for kids, and that burned me out a lot, too, so I had to really reevaluate what I wanted to do.”
In search of a career move, Levy focused on his longtime love of repairing guitars.
“I’ve always fixed all my bands’ instruments on the road and other bands’ instruments, so I really focused on that and started honing my skills and getting certifications from different vendors and stuff to do repairs for them” , Levy said. “I worked out of my garage and then I started doing mobile services, and then when mobile services grew, I had too many guitars in my house, so I opened my shop.”
Repairland is born – and Sunny Sounds is close behind as Levi begins to offer recording and production services. Considering he’s responsible for more than 55 million streams across music platforms and more than a decade of music production, Levy felt he “has a lot to offer.”
“When I opened my shop and people said, ‘We want to record,’ I wanted to bring my skills back,” Levy said. “… So I focused my efforts on that. I was in Palm Springs for about a year. I saw the writing on the wall that everyone who came to my shop and my studio came from the east side of the valley… so when my lease was up and I really didn’t want to be in Palm Springs anymore I started moving to Indio and started talking to city officials about leasing space there.”
Levy said he really enjoys doing renovations.
“A lot of crazy things have come through the door of my shop,” Levy said. “… It’s really a blessing and it’s crazy how many instruments there really are in this valley and how many special instruments there are here from old rock stars. I’ve worked on a guitar played by Jerry Garcia and one played by Jimi Hendrix – so I’ve seen pretty much everything I can imagine and more out here in the desert.”
“I really feel like the energy is going to Indio, especially with the people I want to work with and be involved with — people who want to get better and further their careers or want to work really hard.”
Jace Levy
Levy said it lets owners watch what he’s doing with each tool.
“I think I’m the only repairman I’ve ever met that fixes things in front of people or does pop-ups and will fix guitars live in person,” Levy said. “I’ve never seen anyone else do that, and it’s always puzzled me. Why can’t people watch? Why can’t people participate in repairing their instruments? While I’m here, I hear all kinds of horror stories (about) other craftsmen and people who have had really bad experiences getting their guitars fixed, or pay $100 and have no idea what the guy did. I hear that almost every day, so I’m trying to really change the way business is done and try to bring more honesty and integrity into it. It’s like fixing your car: if you don’t know much about cars, you bring it in and put yourself in a position to take advantage. I was seeing a lot of people out here taking advantage and I thought that was wrong and I wanted to kind of reinvent the model of how guitars are repaired.”
Levi’s move to Indio comes at a time of downtown revitalization.
“I really feel like the energy is going to Indio, especially with the people I want to work with and be involved with — people who want to get better and advance their careers or want to work really hard,” Levy said. “… There’s a young scene here that’s growing very quickly.”
As for recording, Levy said he works to ensure clients get timely, cost-effective and useful recording sessions.
“I know people are tired of paying to have to set up their stuff, so my plan is to have everything already set up—you just plug it in and it’s ready to record,” Levy said. “It keeps prices down. … I’ve tried to use technology to automate the process a lot more so that you can get a lot more done in a lot less time than you can with other people. It might not be something that everyone is into, but there are a lot of people who just want to go in and record a song.
Sunny Sounds in Palm Springs featured open-mic nights where Levy recorded people’s performances—and gave them the recordings.
“I think it’s really important for people when they’re performing to be able to hear what they sound like — and not just on an iPhone recording, but what it would sound like if someone actually took the time to record you and make you sound your best.” their good,” he said. … “That was something that was important to me when I was in my last space, and I hope to continue that energy in Indio.”
Sunny Sounds and Repairland Recording Studio is scheduled to open April 5 at 45250 Smurr St., in Indio. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/sunny__sounds.
