It's 44 years and counting of nonstop music at Trod Nossel Recording StudioFrom the Shags ("Hey Little Girl") in the psychedelic '60s to R&B star R. Kelly last autumn, Trod Nossel Productions and Recording Studios in Wallingford has been helping musicians turn their talent into records, tapes or CDs for 44 years.
The studio, tucked away at the end of a dead end street near Route 5, boasts a 2,000-square-foot main recording room as well as a separate building that bands can lease out for rehearsal. Trod Nossel ("tree of many branches" in a Scandinavian tongue) is a three-acre, fenced-in music compound with three buildings at 10 George Street. The business employs six full-time and 15 part-time employees.In keeping with its name, Trod Nossel has several divisions other than the recording studio, including publishing and licensing, consulting, concert booking and personal management. Trod Nossel also offers six different classes in audio and computer recording and engineering, along with a work-study program and accredited internships for college students.
The main focus, however, remains on the artists who come to Trod Nossel for help in turning what they hear in their heads into something others will hear on CD. "We all have a passion for music," says CEO Darlene Cavalier about the trio who run the business - she and her brothers Tommy and Robbie. "The original idea was to help local bands record less expensively than in New York City, and to find local acts to produce, and that is still what we do."
Trod Nossel was founded in 1966 by the siblings' father, Thomas (Doc) Cavalier, an oral surgeon who became deeply involved in the emerging rock 'n' roll music scene of the early 1960s, eventually leaving his dental practice to run the studio full time. He began by managing Connecticut bands such as the Shags and the Wildweeds, and later Trod Nossel became the East Coast recording home of Motown's Rare Earth label, through which Cavalier developed a partnership with legendary Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who still works closely with the Cavaliers today.
The concert division has booked talent of all types and helped launch the careers of Queen Latifah, Gilbert Gottfried, the Spin Doctors, Ellen DeGeneres and many other performers. In the mid-1970s, major acts such as Fleetwood Mac, Steppenwolf, Taj Mahal and Chick Corea played live radio concerts for the WPLR Concert Series from the Trod Nossel studios.
In the mid-1990s, Doc Cavalier was nominated for two Grammy Awards, for producing Pinetop Perkins' "Born on the Delta" and the Telarc release of A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf.
When Cavalier pere died in 2005 at age 70, three of his four children took on leadership roles and vowed to continue the family business. Their mother, Gail, remains an owner.
"I love the music business," says Tommy Cavalier, who heads up the concert booking division. "For me the arts represent freedom."
All three of the siblings worked at Trod Nossel as teens and then tried other careers before eventually returning to the studio. Tommy, 47, sold real estate and made fiberglass molds for Sikorsky Aircraft. Robbie, 44, who runs the technical side of the studio and does some of the books, previously worked at IBM. Darlene, 48, worked at IBM and held a management position at AT&T. As CEO she oversees the business and concentrates on contracts, royalties and hiring. Recording studios owned and operated by women are rare, she notes.
All three also occasionally write and record songs for the company's music catalog. "We were all aspiring musicians growing up," says Robbie.
That may explain why the siblings have continued their father's tradition of making musicians feel at home at Trod Nossel. "All of the couches open up into beds," Darlene points out. "We want them to feel comfortable."
Musicians often spend days or weeks at the studio laying down tracks, and the studio is available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "It's customer service, going above and beyond," Robbie says.
Celebrities know they will have privacy at Trod Nossel, which features a back lot in which to hide massive tour buses. "They come here to work," Darlene says. "We don't even tell our families they are here."
Sony Records brought R. Kelly to Trod Nossel to record a track for a new album when he opened his last tour at the Foxwoods casino. "He's a great guy, very down to earth, and he loved that it was quiet and private," Darlene says.
Given the reputation among musicians of indulging in drugs, Trod Nossel strictly enforces a "no drugs on the property" policy, the siblings say, noting that drugs are illegal, children are often at the studio, and drug use is counter-productive. "When you're high you think it sounds great," Robbie explains. "But when you listen the next day - well, often the engineer gets the blame."
One of the challenges of running a business that serves creative people is the need to work within a budget, Darlene says. "Artists are very different types of people, and sometimes they want to do things that just aren't in the budget," she explains.
In fact, keeping within a tight budget is one of the primary missions of Trod Nossel, a policy designed to help the artists, Darlene says. "We keep our costs low because musicians typically don't have a lot of money," she says. "Keeping a low profit margin on the studio side of the business gives more artists a chance to hone their craft."
Robbie says an emerging challenge is the increasing sophistication of home recording equipment, which allows musicians to do their own recording. However, he says most musicians don't have the time or inclination to do a lot of the technical work, so he believes professional studios will continue to play the major role in producing CDs and digital recordings.
In the meantime, a third generation of Cavaliers is starting to take an interest in the family business: Tommy's 18-year-old daughter Alaina is working there part time. "She's very artistic," he says with a smile.
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