Photo via One Stone Studios
By DCist Contributor Danielle Ohl
One Stone Studios isn’t run by a big-wig in a black suit. Its not funded by a major label. It doesn’t thrive on ironclad contracts or feed on the talent of big-stage hopefuls. It’s not run out of a high-rise in New York or Los Angeles.
That said, it’s a pretty serious recording studio, operated out of a bright and cozy basement 20 miles from the Pennsylvania border.
Run by two college kids, Elie Rizk of the University of Maryland and Angelo Munafo of the University of Pennsylvania, One Stone is a cozy outfit in Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland where relationships are a side effect of a very personal music-making process.
Rizk and Munafo, both musicians in their own right, started One Stone to complete a mandatory senior project in high school. Using academic advancement as an excuse, the pair secured some willing investors—their parents.
Rizk admits, “We took their money, bought everything we needed and recorded three or four just terrible songs,” But the experience proved to the duo that they were capable of more.
Over time, the two accumulated massive amounts of recording equipment and found a permanent home in Rizk’s basement.
The space is snug, warmly lit and decked with psychedelic posters. Guitars, amps, pedals, microphones, headphones, maracas, and at least one ukulele comfortably clutter the space around a giant ornate rug. A blonde Kimball piano and a sparkly drum kit guard scores of other instruments.
As their motto states, it’s a place “large enough to serve” and “small enough to care.”
Photo via One Stone Studios
Though the pair has been recording since their high school days, One Stone only recently became an official LLC in the state of Maryland. Its first client was a friend, Joe Arcuri, who needed help completing his own senior project.
“From there, it just sort of came along,” Rizk said, “Friends know what you’re doing and they tell their friends. It’s this exponential thing.”
They’ve already written jingles for two companies — a Euro catering business called Cuisine A’Deux and a female empowerment start-up called GenHERation. The “mom network” scored the catering partnership, while GenHERation booked them after word spread around the Penn campus.
One Stone has several artists signed to record, but 16-year-old Grace Christian is its current focus.
Christian, who records under the stage name Mazie, is a classically trained opera singer who has “the craziest voice you’ll ever hear,” said Rizk. She sang opera until recently, when she decided classical music was too “rigid” and fell in love with jazz. With Stone’s help, she’s finding her own genre on a full-length album—her, and the studio’s, first.
“We don’t like to have several big things going on at once,” Rizk said. “The point of the studio is to focus on one person’s thing.”
Over the summer, Rizk and Munafo worked with Christian almost every day. Their intensive work schedule is indicative of the modus operandi at the studio: professional, tactical but nothing short of familial.
“I never expected to become so close or familiar with Elie and Angelo as I did, but now I feel like I have two older brothers and role models to look up to,” Christian said.
Even the professional attributes have an empathetic flair. One Stone signs contracts with its clients but gives them 100 percent of songwriting credits. They charge by the hour or song, but cap the price once an artist reaches a certain maximum.
“We do infinite work for you,” Rizk said, “until you’re satisfied. We stress that it’s really about the music.”
And that’s their edge. There’s no special interest, no conflicting motives. Rizk and Munafo invest all the money they make back into the studio. Plus, they understand what it’s like to balance artistry with calculus and extracurricular activities.
Christian’s friends and family members were skeptical when she first signed her time and money to two college guys with no professional experience, but after they heard the product, “everyone was on board.”
When she started, she had a few solid songs and that “sounded so depressing and terrible” played on the piano, the only instrument Christian plays.
“I burst into tears the first day of meeting them,” she said. “Angelo jumped on the drums and Elie jumped on the guitar and all of a sudden, this song I had for a year and a half became a completely different thing and they took it to another level. They have a genius behind their music.”
That genius is apparent in Rizk’s desperately scribbled notes, his immediate visualization of a song’s finished product. It’s apparent in Munafo’s keen instinct, causing him to spring into musical action after hearing a few notes.
Looking ahead, Rizk hopes to keep One Stone small, if not in size at least in feel, which he sees as an advantage over competitors.
“It’s hard to [have a relationship with young musicians] if I’m just some 40-year-old guy,” he said. “It’s just kind of cool to be able to connect with the people you work with. That’s all I could really ask for.”
