01/20/2022
TRANSIENT MIC RECEIVES $15K CHALLENGE GRANT TO BUILD A MOBILE RECORDING STUDIO OUT OF A SCHOOL BUS
Transient Mic kicks off its fundraising goal as part of Amplify Austin’s “I Live Here, I Give Here” Campaign in a $15K Matching Grant Challenge from the Surack Family Foundation
AUSTIN, TX, January 20 — Transient Mic, a local nonprofit arts and media organization, has been given a $15,000 matching grant from the Surack Family Foundation to be used towards the creation of its first mobile studio that will be built out of a 1990s GMC Bluebird school bus. The organization’s challenge is to successfully raise $15K in an effort to double its funding in the first quarter of 2022. The campaign will run as part of Amplify Austin’s “I Live Here, I Give Here” day of giving on March 2-3, 2022. Open donations towards the campaign have started online and run through March 3rd. The nonprofit mobile studio plans to renovate and convert a school bus into a fully functional recording studio that will drive across Texas and the nation to preserve both music and sound.
In 2017, Transient Mic established itself as a nonprofit mobile studio created to record artists without charge as a way to preserve the music and sound of deserving work. They also created a performance and interview podcast as part of their mission called The 4 Track Series using a Tascam 44 reel-to-reel tape deck donated by the estate of Houston radio DJ, Mike McCormick. They were also able to secure a residency as part of the Mosaic Sound Collective, another local nonprofit established as an incubator space for the creative community.
In 2019, the nonprofit purchased an old school bus that once served the Comal County School District and planned to raise additional funding for the studio conversion when the first wave of the pandemic hit and put their mission on hold. As the years dragged on under the grip of COVID-19, it was difficult to foresee the future of the organization and its mission. That is when their Executive Director reached out to the Surack Family Foundation in an effort to keep the mission alive.
“It has always been our dream from the start to build a mobile studio as a way to travel the country and help those who have devoted their lives to creating a sound that is uniquely their own but that might be limited by location or the financial resources to record their work,“ said Executive Director, David Ventura Garcia, “Under our nonprofit structure, we allow artists the right to retain the masters to their work at no charge in order to provide them with the ability to self-distribute and build an audience so that the media can take note.”
The challenge grant set forth by the Surack Family Foundation can provide up to a total of $30K in funding by way of a $15K matching grant provided by the philanthropic organization. The foundation, based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was established by Chuck Surack who recently stepped down as the CEO of Sweetwater after building it up to be one of the largest online retailers of music instruments and pro-audio gear. Under the challenge grant, Transient Mic needs to raise $15K by March 3rd in order to be matched by the foundation.
“The success of this campaign will allow us to equip the studio bus with the professional gear and a much needed travel budget to get our bus onto the open road in search of new music and sound,” said Garcia whose background in film production points to a shift in the nonprofit’s narrative, “…Suddenly, we went from a place where the future was uncertain under the dark cloud of this pandemic, to a place where we’re beginning to see the light. Austin has always shown so much support for nonprofits across the board. I’m hoping that our mission connects with the side of the community that is also keen on preserving the soundscape of Austin and all of Texas for that matter.”
The organization’s intent is not to compete with other larger for-profit studios, but instead, to foster talent and develop artists by providing a nonprofit service that benefits both sides of the music industry. By being mobile, Transient Mic creates a unique opportunity for volunteer producers, audio engineers and undiscovered artists to build and curate an archive of work that can create a devoted audience and allow the artist to succeed on their own terms. In this way, their mission becomes a bridge between the artist and the preservation of all the hard work and sacrifice that goes into music and sound but often goes unrecorded.
“Music and sound play such a key role in our own cultural preservation. The concept of a mobile studio isn’t the new idea. It’s the idea of a nonprofit mobile studio created to support and preserve the changing soundscape of our culture and the generations within it to reach beyond the for-profit corporate structure,” said Garcia whose face gleams yellow from the sun bouncing off the bus after a good scrub and a wash, “This bus is being built to help both artist and community alike… When we make the art of recording more accessible, we allow outside creative voices to be heard which in turn creates change and shifts the listener’s experience from one of outside discovery to an inner one that unites both the listener and creator.”
Donations to Transient Mic can be made online at
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