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Micah Carli spent 12 years as a member of Hawthorne Heights, the most successful rock band to emerge from Dayton in the 2000s. In January, the Sidney native announced he was leaving the hard-touring act to focus on operating his Popside Recording Studio in Troy.
“I’d been thinking about leaving for a while, but it was a little tough to actually pull the trigger,” Carli said. “It was time. My heart wasn’t in it the same way any longer. There’s a huge difference in touring when you’re 25 and touring when you’re 35, physically and mentally. You get burned out with that part.
“The fickleness of the career of a musician is difficult,” he said. “You never know when you’re working or when you’re getting paid or if you’ll be home for events. That takes its toll. I still love music — it’s very deep in me — but I’m not in love with the business part of it. It has changed a lot, and I don’t like some of the things that have become necessary.”
Carli, who opened Popside Recording in April 2010, started recording on a four-track cassette machine as a teenager in Troy. He later attended the International College of Broadcasting, where he studied with Dave Doughman of the band Swearing at Motorists.
Carli also gained plenty of practical experience during Hawthorne Heights’ sessions with audio engineers such as David Bendeth (Breaking Benjamin, Bruce Hornsby), Brian Virtue (Deftones, Jane’s Addiction) and Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Kelly Clarkson).
“I had the luxury of recording with some awesome engineers and producers in some world-class studios,” Carli said. “I learned a little bit from all of them. Each time I went into a studio it was like an internship for me. I’d take photos of mike placements and EQ settings. I’d walk away with notes of little things I noticed. It was an invaluable learning experience.”
Since opening Popside, Carli has recorded 35 clients. There have been some out-of-state bands, but he has done many sessions with local favorites including Nightbeast, Kris N., Starving in the Belly of the Whale and The New Old-Fashioned.
“I do a little bit of everything, but I take stuff that interests me,” Carli said. “Obviously there’s not a huge amount of business in Ohio, but it’s worked out OK for now. Of course, until recently it’s been a secondary income, so now I’m in the process of trying to make it more primary. We’ll see if a move is necessary at some point, but for now this location works out great.”
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