BURKE, Va. — A northern Virginia recording studio is hoping to equip women with the tools they need to thrive in the male-dominated industry.
Trilogy Sound Studio opened its doors in March 2021 in Burke, Virginia, with the goal of empowering local talent.
“The DMV area is kind of very ripe with talent, but the problem is that that talent always leaves," co-founder Sarah Benrazek said. "They go to New York, they go to California, they go to Miami. So we wanted to harness that and be able to provide a place to build a platform for music independence, for education and music technology.”
One of their current students is Emily Gill.
“I've started from zero," Gill said.
She's part of their four-month audio engineering and music production education program.
“I like got sling-shotted out from knowing nothing to knowing a lot -- a lot more than most people now, which I completely hand to Trilogy," Gill said.
That's the goal behind Trilogy Sound Studio -- giving young people the tools to enter the music industry.
Right now, Benrazek is focusing on empowering women.
“It's almost like, it doesn't come naturally for some people to accept that, you know, women are behind the scenes, they're doing a lot of important work," she said. "I'm a producer and engineer and songwriter myself. And I just want to be able to give that opportunity to people and you know, inspire them to go after what they want to do."
She's already inspiring young singer/songwriters, like Heaven Hall.
“I feel like Trilogy has really helped me to stay consistent," Hall said. "And it's also really helped me in my journey of like, just performing in general, like I said, and making connections and really like collab-ing. I think this studio has really helped me open up my like creativity to other people.”
Benrazek said they're starting to work with high school students, too. (Both Hall and Gill are in college right now.)
She said they recently formed a partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools to give their students access to their studio.
"Really give the students a real sense of what it feels like to be in the studio and work with professionals," she said.
Right now, that room full of professionals is rarely all women.
Spotify funded this "Inclusion in the Recording Studio?" study that shows in 2021's Billboard Hot 100 year end chart, women made up less than 4% of the producers on those songs.
They're also vastly under-represented in award categories and songwriting.
“It's like very man centered when you go behind the scenes," Gill said. "So it's weird, being like, wanting to do that, but it's doesn't stop me.”
That's music to Benrazek's ears.
“What I would like to do, using this platform, is to make sure that young women, young girls know that there's a place for them in the studio," she said.
Certainly, there's a place for them at Trilogy.
Trilogy offers a membership, that gives you access to their recording and producing booths.