Denver Has Its Own "Tiny Desk" Series With Studio (Apartment) Sessions

Like many music lovers, Chad Weber enjoys checking out NPR’s intimate Tiny Desk series.

The long-running concert segment, which has welcomed more than 800 artists since its debut in 2008, does a great job of making audiences feel like they’re hanging out with their favorite musicians in an intimate pop-up show. As a filmmaker, Weber always wanted to try to do something like that on his own.

“Through the years, you bounce the idea around different people — like, ‘Man, it would be cool if we could grab local artists or people coming through town and record a Tiny Desk-type show,’” he says. “Plus, it would be fun to hang out with musicians.”

After moving to Longmont in 2019, Weber decided to turn his apartment into a small performance space and do just that with his most recent endeavor, Studio (Apartment) Sessions. The series showcases not only performances, but conversations, too.

Boulder singer-songwriter Jackson Maloney, one of Weber’s music buddies, was recruited for the first episode, which officially came out on YouTube in February. “He was all for it,” Weber says.

Since then, Weber has shared four more Studio (Apartment) Sessions, the latest being June’s sit-down with Boulder musician Thom LaFond, bassist Chris Duffy and singer Katie Mintle.
At 34, Weber’s been working in video production for more than twelve years, and even started his own company, Free Range Films. While he must balance his professional freelance work with the new passion project, he’s committed to making Studio (Apartment) Sessions a regular occurrence, in whatever form that may be.

“The theme that I found for a couple of these ventures in my creative career is just finally taking the initiative to make it happen if you want it to happen,” Weber explains. “I decided to stop waiting for permission to go make cool stuff. I have the capacity, privilege, ability and access to be able to spend time on these things.”

But he had to do some redecorating and rearranging first.

“I was just looking around in my studio apartment. I never had the space to do it. I just had this couch sitting there,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Man, I’m tired of this couch taking up so much space,’ so I called up the disposal people and was like, ‘Let’s get this out of there.’ That opened up the space for it. Then I put the TV in the bedroom area of the studio apartment and had this space for creating. It went from there.”
With the room’s new feng shui, he took care of the technical aspect first by filming himself strumming a guitar in order to get the lighting just right. Of course, that wasn’t much of a problem, since he’s used to doing that as a movie maker. He wanted to have “a little bit of higher-end cinematography and visuals.”

“It feels a little bit more curated and less of a Camera A, Camera B cutting back and forth," Weber explains, "so [it's] more of a crafted experience."

And it is. But while he has cinematic experience, he had never professionally recorded music before. That made for a "challenge and an opportunity, since I needed to learn about how to record and mix music,” Weber says. “I do filmmaking and I do sound design, but recording and mixing music is a different thing. It was a cool way to think about it as an opportunity to learn a new skill.”

So he started watching YouTube videos and studying the Logic Pro Mac program. Now, other than posting the full Studio (Apartment) Sessions videos on YouTube, Weber also shares the conversations as podcasts.

Under the Free Range Films umbrella, social media has proved to be the most effective way to spread the word so far, particularly by sharing short clips and soundbites from each episode, even though it can feel a little difficult at times. As Weber notes, “It’s hard to start from nowhere and reach out to people and be like, ‘Hey, I got this idea. I can’t show it to you. It’s in my head, but you want to be a part of it?’”

Luckily, people have wanted to be a part of it and share their stories as well as their musical talents. The third Studio (Apartment) Sessions episode, with Denver sitar master Roshan Bhartiya and Boulder tabla player Zach Hedstrom, covers some interesting topics. Similarly, Weber and Boulder singer-songwriter Dan Hochman talk about the potential pitfalls of artificial intelligence during another chat.
The discussions are just as important as the performances, according to Weber. That’s the documentarian in him.

“I’m trying to put together these short video segments about themes like hope or worry or spirituality, two people exploring a theme together in the moment,” he explains. "As a documentary filmmaker, I’ve been yearning to capture this feeling of being in the conversation, being in the moment between two people. I’m always searching for authenticity, and so often [with] content, you can tell it’s being delivered because a person is being prodded or asked to deliver it.

“I’m always trying to get closer and closer to a pure, authentic way of experiencing somebody’s thoughts,” he continues. “The purest way is when somebody, in a sentence, is trying to discover and express what they mean by a concept.”

Each Studio (Apartment) Session is anywhere from thirty-plus minutes to over an hour. Typically, editing everything after shooting the initial video is spread out throughout a month. “I’ll do all of this spaced out between other work,” Weber says.

“They take a long time to make,” he adds. “It’s a tough balance when you’re a freelance editor and cinematographer to work that in your schedule and maintain a good mental health, where you’re not just working all hours of the day.”
Much like documentaries he’s worked on, the DIY music series isn’t funded from some outside source, so there’s not necessarily a rush to get the videos out. Nor does he want to self-impose deadlines when it comes to the progress of this particular project.

“I want it to be fun; I’m making it because I decided to make it,” he says. “It’s not something that I’m trying to make an assembly-line project or get out as quick as I can. That kind of goes against my ethos on creativity, as well — not to rush something, but to follow where something takes you.”

Where that is, Weber isn’t quite sure, but he’s thought about welcoming touring musicians or changing up the format, depending on how it evolves. He’s already sat down with one out-of-town group, the Way Down Wanderers.

“That was fun. I just texted them on Instagram,” he recalls of connecting with the band from his hometown of Peoria, Illinois. “They were between shows in Colorado Springs and Greeley and just parked their big ol' van with their trailer, and all five of them hopped up in my apartment and we recorded.”

Talking turkey with musicians is one of the main reasons Weber wanted to start his own version of the Tiny Desk concerts. He hopes it will attract some national acts eventually. So who would be his dream guests?

“Sturgill Simpson,” he says without hesitation. “Maybe, for some reason, Bob Dylan would decide to do it.”

Given his Boulder connection, maybe Gregory Alan Isakov would like to swing by Weber’s studio sometime. You never know. Right now, he “barely” has the room at his studio apartment to handle the current workload. As the name Free Range Films implies, the series might do best with a change of scenery here and there.

“I’m definitely open to different things. I might have to alter the name. I thought about the idea of recording bands in interesting locations,” he explains. “I know I’m not the first person to think of that, but just the name of my film company lends itself to that. It can be anything anywhere — no constraints. Let the ideas take you where they will.”

Right now, Weber doesn’t have any upcoming release dates or a list of future guests to share. He just hopes people will join him in his living room — whether that’s whenever the next Studio (Apartment) Sessions comes out or by checking out one of the previously released episodes — and enjoy a more up-close and personal experience with musical minds they may or may not be familiar with.

As Weber says, we've “got to create while we still have the time."

Watch past Studio (Apartment) Sessions on the Free Range YouTube channel.