It鈥檚 a romantic notion: heading out to a cabin in the middle of woods, completely detached from civilization, ready to create whatever it is you were born to create.
Two Vermonters have taken this dream and turned it into reality with a cabin in the Northeast Kingdom set on 140 acres of solitude where artists can write, record and be creative without distraction.
Alex Lalli, co-owner of both Signal Kitchen in Burlington and Rebel Yell, joined Vermont Edition to talk about the new space in Craftsbury Common.
鈥淚 think it all started because we feel that all artists are inherently rebels,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is a kind of safe place to go and let their holler out. It鈥檚 a space for visual artists, writers and musicians as well, but that鈥檚 what really drove the name.鈥�
Lalli says the remoteness of the cabin isn鈥檛 its only attraction to artists. 鈥淚t鈥檚 off the grid, it鈥檚 all solar powered and it鈥檚 pretty buried in the wilderness on 140-acre plot of land. So you鈥檙e pretty far removed from the things that bog us all down, or certainly bog me down, day to day. So it鈥檚 a unique opportunity to just kind of focus on whatever that thing you鈥檙e focusing on is,鈥� he explains.
Two bands have spent time at Rebel Yell so far and have had positive experiences, Lalli says, despite some concerns he and his partner had. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 necessarily ready,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was the middle of the winter in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and these were city boys from Chicago and St. Louis 鈥� very downtown. But that鈥檚 what they wanted to experience and our generator blew out 鈥� but that informed their writing and their creative process and that was a big part of the experience for them.鈥�
Lalli says that both groups of artists left Rebel Yell with a lot accomplished. 鈥淭hey both went there not to record, but to write, and they both wrote a significant amount more content than they thought they would write,鈥� he says.
"I think it all started because we feel that all artists are inherently rebels. This is a kind of safe place to go and let their holler out." - Alex Lalli, co-owner of Rebel Yell
So how does Rebel Yell fit in with their Burlington-based recording studio Signal Kitchen? Lalli says they鈥檙e not quite sure yet. 鈥淭he way we interacted and met with these [bands] is they were playing a show at Signal Kitchen and we were settling up the night with them and at a certain point they said, 鈥楾his is a really strange question, but do you know of, like, a cabin in a woods where my band could just go write a record?鈥欌�� Lalli told them he knew just the place.
For that band, their recording label paid for the stay and set everything up. But it raises the question: How much does a stay cost and how will budding artists afford it? Lalli says they are working on ironing that out by applying for grants. 鈥淲e want to be able to get people up there for sessions that are paid for through grants. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e going through right now. Writing these things and finding out what鈥檚 available,鈥� he says.
In the meantime, the space functions very much like their recording space in Burlington, without the added noise.
Lalli believes recording in a space like Rebel Yell can change the tone of the art. 鈥淭he nature flavors it,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to sound different than a record that鈥檚 made in the woods in California.鈥�
