How Jason Jet Built His Own Haus

The great Booker T. Washington once said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” After spending a cool, December afternoon with Jason Jet — a music industry veteran and Charlotte native— you might be led to believe he is the voice behind that quote. In actuality, the Producer-Songwriter-Recording Engineer-Educator-turned Part-Time Carpenter is the most recent addition to the pantheons of Black Excellence, by way of his brand new collaborative arts facility GrindHaus Studios.

Greeted outside of a modest brown building with his signature loc ponytail— now sprinkled with a dash of distinguishing grey— the multi-talented singer unloads a iMac from his truck, leads the way into his not-yet-open recording studio and into his handcrafted, visually pleasing musical oasis.

“I gotta put another coat of paint on that,” Jason told The Block while gesturing toward the heavy, double layered studio door. “But, you can see enough of the vision to see that this is something. It’s just a dope, dope vibe to see people actually paying attention, because I’ve been a construction worker for the past six months. So I’m not able to actually see all of the connections being made, but people are really talking.”

..and rightfully so.

Photo by Mullah Mugzie, staff photographer

Outfitted with a master control room fit for a King, the architecture is literally ‘wavy’ with hand-constructed ceiling aesthetics, mood lighting, plenty of space, 2 additional smaller studio rooms and a podcast studio to boot. All wrapped in the most official soundproofing, and a unique theme for each space.

With the help of Cupid, the Master Carpenter that just so happened to be the Dad of one of Jason’s vocal students, Jason traded in his keyboard for some plywood boards to make his dreams reality.

“We had to literally bend sheetrock to create the wave pattern in the ceiling. We had to wet it up and bend it along a frame we built out of plywood. It’s alot bro. I learned so much I could probably build a tiny house now, real talk.”

Traveling out of the main studio to the assortment of other rooms, Jet pointed out exactly how much of the space was actually built from the ground up and for a self-proclaimed, first-time construction worker, he put in an astonishing amount of manual labor.

The two smaller studio rooms are going to be made available on a subscription-based service for any artists needing acoustic-treated spaces to lay down ideas. Depending on the level of subscription, they will be able to access Jason’s vast network for sync licensing placement opportunities as well.

With another assist, this time from marketing and branding specialist Jordan Nicholson, Jason has tailored specific experiences to each ancillary studio space. The first room doubles as an art gallery, where local visual artists will have an opportunity to rotate pieces or perhaps even contribute to murals and other installation types. The second room has a 90s theme complete with a framed Jordan jersey, and fully-functional classic Nintendo.

The podcast room (named ‘The Calm’), gives a ‘Joe Budden Podcast with a dash of Jhene Aiko’ vibe, with the hip furniture and hammock hanging from the ceiling.

“This is something that hasn’t really been done before,” Jet said. “It’s a co-working space that’s a studio. So my main thing is that, when people hear my name they associate that with a certain level of quality. Our business model keeps changing, and I want to make sure that whether I’m the one running the session or not, clients are getting quality.”

It’s always been Jet’s vision to have a space to facilitate artists. After months of thinking it through with his wife, the couple decided to live intentionally by selling their home and consolidating their lifestyle.

During a random trip to a business park on the Eastside to grab some products for his wife’s business, the space that would become GrindHaus Studios was lying in wait. From that point, it was his commitment to the vision that brought everything into fruition.

“I think it’s just time. The times we’re in and world events, have highlighted the importance of arts and music in the city. I feel like with COVID, people are forced to respect local talent now because no big artists are traveling. Everything is local, in-house or streaming online. At first I didn’t think anybody was trying to make any music. I thought everybody was in doomsday mode, looking to save their coins. My wife and I took a trip to Colorado for a month right before the first lockdown, and I had to come back because everybody was trying to come work. So I was like “well shit, let me feed the people!’”

Opening a brand new studio in a city infamous for constraining the arts, in the middle of a pandemic, is the very definition of an obstacle. Yet, Jason Jet has given us a shining example of a Black man overcoming the worst that 2020 had to offer, and realizing his own version of success— while simultaneously giving those around him opportunities to do the same.

Booker T. Washington would definitely be proud.