Mike Gordon invites fans and design enthusiasts inside his meticulously crafted Vermont home studio in a new video produced by Dwell in conjunction with a full profile of the Phish bassist’s distinctive retreat.
“I like the idea of keeping things simple,” Gordon proclaims as he guides viewers through what he calls his “living and working facility.” “I’ve been renovating places in interesting ways with some visionaries for many years, but I’ve never started from scratch.”
Constructed in collaboration with Vermont-based architectural firm Birdseye and interior designer Brooke Michelsen, the home is the result of many years spent traveling, collecting ideas and inspiration. Gordon said he spent over two years finding the perfect sofa for the studio, testing thousands of options between workouts and sound checks. The bathtub was selected through the same painstaking process. “He sat in so many tubs,” Michelsen explained. “Like, so many tubs.”
“This is what I do. I travel around the country and sit in things,” Gordon concurred.
Each room bespeaks Gordon’s exacting attention to detail. From the recording studio, with its faceted glass walls and custom psychedelic rug, specially designed to match the vibrant purple sofa, to the all-pink kitchen inspired by his grandmother’s house and the kitchen in Rick Rubin’s famous Shangri-La Studio, to the hidden “spice room” accessed through a door disguised as a spice rack, every space was deliberately crafted so “the way it would feel—the energy, the Feng Shui, and the functionality—could match what I’m looking for.”
In addition to bold, mostly monochromatic color schemes—including an orange bathroom stocked with orange toilet paper—design themes common throughout the house include hyper-organization and symmetry. “There were a lot of designs that were asymmetrical, and I just get uneasy,” Gordon explained. “I like the symmetry. My tastes are really particular. But in working with Brian, the architect, and Brooke, the interior designer, they’ve learned that I’m impossible to deal with. I like low contrast, but then I needed it to be rock and roll, so to bring in the ultraviolet purple, and then to design my own rug to match some of those patterns and colors and have it be all crazy, but still kind of match the dark, rich tone of the wood.”
More than just a building, the space serves as a creative laboratory, where Gordon and his collaborators can work without distraction. “I’ve never had the experience of everything just being right here like this before,” Gordon gloated. “And it’s flowing. I can already feel the flow in working on these songs.”
Take a peek inside Mike Gordon’s home studio below, and click here to read more and view additional photos of the space.
Phish Bassist Mike Gordon’s Home Studio Is Just As Psychedelic As You’d Expect
[Video: Dwell]