By Brent Thompson

For more than a decade, TrimTab Brewing Company has offered an impressive array of IPAs, stouts and sours. Now, TrimTab is greatly enhancing its music presence in two different ways. While DJs providing background music have been a constant in the brewery, its revamped B-Side Room provides a space to host national touring acts. In addition, TrimTab’s B-Side Productions houses a recording studio, rehearsal pace and equipment rental company. Recently, we sat down with TrimTab CEO Bill Ritter and B-Side Productions producer and recording engineer Andy Jackson to discuss these exciting additions.

Southern Stages: Andy and Bill – thanks for your time. Andy, when did you come to TrimTab and did your arrival coincide with the music enhancements here?

Andy Jackson: January and yes, 100%. When I first got here, Bill told me he his vision and he wanted to bring music. The first thing I said was, “We can’t bring music here – not until we get it right. For the bands you want to bring, we don’t have the stuff they want.” Now, we have a place for bands to come hang out and a dressing room.

Bill Ritter: No one wanted to play here.

Jackson: We turned it into a venue and we’ve got touring bands coming through. We are working with WorkPlay and other venues and I love the community aspect of it. We have a warehouse and, eventually, I’d like to see that as a bigger venue.  I’m from a punk rock background, but I am definitely a big picture guy. I’m not a jamband guy, but we have a jamband that does really good and the Yacht Rock night was really successful.

Southern Stages: In addition to focusing on live music, you’ve added a recording studio as well. How did that come about?

Jackson: Stephen Gann is a really good friend of Bill’s. I worked at Atomic when they first opened and he was a neighbor of Atomic and we became friends. I was the food and beverage director for the Birmingham Barons for five years. I loved the job and it was high-volume. After that, I got offered a job with East West and I did that for two years. I loved the job but I was burned out. Then I joined the Pihakis Group for a couple of years and then I went to Soho. Gann came in and saw me working there – he runs the Alabama Beer Company – and we started talking. I had just gotten back from a tour and I was ready for a change – I was tired of the restaurant business. I knew that I should be doing something in music. One of my friends that does some stuff for Netflix reached out to me and I signed on and started doing some writing for him for a musical. He said, “Hey, you need to meet this guy [Bill] – he needs somebody,” and we just sat down together and we clicked. Bill said, “If you ever wanted to have your own place, this is it.” I had a lot of gear and this is a great space and they weren’t using it for anything. We came in, got a dumpster and tore everything out.

Ritter: We recently brought some P.A. equipment and lights and it’s available for rental. We are calling it B-Side Productions and we are working on a page on our website to add it. We have P.A. rentals, rehearsal space and the ability to record music.

Jackson: We are trying to generate other ways to make revenue and promote music that we do here. With the B-Side Room, I was responsible for re-doing the stage and lights. It was just a white wall and some crates when I got here [laughs].

Southern Stages: How does your recording studio generate business?

Jackson: It’s mostly word-of-mouth as far as the studio goes.

Southern Stages: Andy, as an accomplished musician and multi-instrumentalist, do you play on sessions or mainly spend your time in the control room?

Jackson: I’m mostly in the control room, but if I can’t explain something to the drummer, I’ll just jump back there and play and I’ll say, “Hey, try this.” Being a singer, I’m a very melody-driven person and people will hire me for that reason. They’ll say, “We have these songs, but they don’t go anywhere.”

Southern Stages: Though state-of-the-art home recording technology exists these days, it can’t be a substitute for a professional and traditional studio like yours.

Jackson: There’s no substitute for this and it’s a lost art. You can’t recreate it in your bedroom. The drums in our room sound like huge, Led Zeppelin drums. Everything you hear now sounds so perfect but it has no character – it doesn’t have any flavor to it. And I can get more done here in 20 minutes than I can in four hours at home. Everything in there is mine – all of the guitars, the Pro Tools rig and microphones. Bill helped out with some painting and sound treatments.

Southern Stages: I assume your studio charges by the hour?

Jackson: Yes, and I like to do flat rates as well.  The first time a band records here, I usually push recording one song. I’ll say, “Let’s do one song so you can see how I do it.” I have fun doing it and I love seeing the excitement from people when we get done. I got into music in the first place because I love the art of it.

TrimTab Brewing Company is located at 2721 5th Avenue South and online at www.trimtabbrewing.com.