Doug Malone, 33, has worked as a recording engineer since 2015, when he began interning at Humboldt Park studio Minbal while studying music composition at Columbia. In 2017 Malone bought the business, renamed it Jamdek, and took over as lead engineer. (He also plays in local trio Courtesy.) Jamdek suspended sessions for live tracking during the March shutdown, but resumed them in May.
When essential businesses were allowed to stay open, that conversation with a band was like, “OK, we’re gonna record, but don’t bring anyone in here. Just the band.” The less bodies, the better. I normally have four interns. I’ve made them all stay home.
A lot of bands are coming in and making records because they just want to feel that they’re still being productive. But they’re just holding onto it, like, “Well, when should we do this? How should we release this? Should we even shop it around? Is anyone even signing bands right now, or putting out records?”
I was applying constantly for different grants. I did receive a grant from the City of Chicago—it was through the City of Chicago artist community grants. Basically, if your spot that you’re applying from has some significance in the artist community—which this studio does—then they were accepting applications, asking about the business.
