Canton's music man: Ron Flack of Realgrey Records lives dream working with 'my heroes'

CANTON − Ron Flack compares recording live music to being a schoolboy at recess.

"When the bell rang at 10:15 a.m., there were two big glass doors," he said of East Linden Elementary School in Columbus. "And you would just blow them open. You would just run onto the playground.

"At 10:15 a.m., there was no question what was in your heart."

Decades later, Flack enjoys a different kind of playground, one where music is created and recorded at Realgrey Records, a studio he owns and oversees in northwest Canton.

The earliest incarnation of what became Realgrey Records dates to 2003. And the recording studio itself began at Flack's home around 2011 before finding a permanent location in 2015 at a neighboring property.

The studio is celebrating the addition of a new recording room with an open house from 2 to 8 p.m. Sunday. Realgrey is also marking its 20th anniversary. To make reservations for the public event, go to https://www.realgrey.com/.

Live performances will be given by Lila Farris at 3 p.m., Josh Compton at 5 p.m. and Cody J. Martin at 7 p.m. Tours will be given at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. with control room demonstrations.

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The studio has come a long way from its origins as an "old, rickety carriage house," Flack said of the 1914 structure.

During an interview, the 63-year-old music lover sat at a mixing board, where a maze of switches, buttons and levers were at his fingertips.

Rustic, cozy and brimming with character, the oak-floored studio is efficiently designed and goes by the name of Our Carriage House Recording Studio. The expansion added 525 feet for a total of around 1,000. Technical music types will recognize the control room's PhantomFocus monitoring system.

Realgrey Records is Flack's full-time gig; he's also recording engineer and works in artist development.

"We're not here just to push the record button," said Flack, whose musical tastes are eclectic, including The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Boston, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Billy Joel, Snarky Puppy, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Black Keys. "We really want you to discover your music and discover it with you."

Gold and platinum records don't hang on the walls. Neither do photos of famous musicians. Concert posters and album covers also are absent. Flourishes are limited to the local and regional musicians who have signed their names on doors.

Flack's reward comes from the artists who put songs to analog tape or digital files. That's Anya Van Rose, Lila Farris, Yankee Bravo, The Scenic Route, Urban Honey, Rock Salt and Nails, Austin Wolfe, Julia Taylor, Brandon Covey, Ashton Wood, Run Red Cassette, Josee McGee, Indré, The Got It Got It Need It and many others.

"They're all my heroes," Flack said while standing in the live room, surrounded by drum gear, a vocal booth and relic Hammond organ. "I feel like I'm getting to record our local heroes."

"I care about the people, and I care about the success that they want to have," he said. "Not society or popularity. I really hope when artists get to a place, they look at their work and they feel really inspired to do it − that's mission accomplished."

Anya Antonavich, who performs under the name of Anya Van Rose, credits Flack and the studio for helping her evolve as a musician.

First recording there as a singer-songwriter in the alt rock pop genre, she now serves as studio manager. She also recorded her 2023 album "Lucky Stars" at Realgrey.

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"It’s a place that many of us have developed as artists and have learned to find our voice," she said.

"Ron likes to call himself an instigator, and I laugh about that, but I like to call him a friend of the music community," Antonavich added. "His gift is bringing artists' creative vision to light, to help them consider what crossing into new territory looks like, and to help people face their potential."

'I wanted to hear someone breathe into a microphone.'

Realgrey is a hybrid of analog and modern equipment.

Talking analog gets Flack excited. Recording so heavily with digital equipment and modern technologies in Nashville years ago burned him out.

"I wanted to hear someone breathe into the microphone," he said of the abundance of analog equipment filling the studio. "I wanted to hear the guitar pick fall on the floor."

At heart he's a music purist, appreciating the beautiful simplicity of a $45 pawnshop guitar. Prized studio treasures include a 1960s Hammond organ, which he saved from being thrown into a landfill. A 1913 Everett piano was another reclamation project.

"I don't feel like art has ever been about who has the most expensive chisel," he said. "It's about the art that they produce at the end of the day that people look at and are inspired by it."

Flack's first song: 'Hello, I Love You' by The Doors

Flack's appreciation for music and the equipment used to record it was born at home as a child.

His dad was a pastor who recorded church services. Reel-to-reel audio equipment, high-tech for the era, also was at home.

"The first song that I sounded out and played was, 'Hello, I Love You' by The Doors," he said with a laugh before tapping his foot to the famous tune while singing the words in a pleasant pitch.

Musical interests only grew stronger as a student at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, although he faced doubters who told him a career in music was more of a fantasy than practical ambition.

When math, history and English classes didn't keep his interest, Flack would sneak into a piano room to coax music from a Yamaha C7. He also organized an annual concert on campus.

Poor grades got him booted from college, but a music professor who heard him play by ear in those impromptu sessions urged him to enroll again.

"I only went to art classes," he said. "I didn't do anything else. I wasn't a deviant; I just loved art and music."

But professor Bob Finnie "saw something in me that I just couldn't see in myself," Flack said. "I didn't have the lens to see what could happen (with music), and he did."

'It's not just my dreams anymore.'

Following college graduation, music was a thread in Flack's work with youth from the late '80s through mid-'90s. Moving to Nashville, he was accepted into a music camp and also spent time working on his own songs, as well as helping others.

Flack moved to Ohio with his wife to be closer to family. Working in freelance web design and on the graphic arts side of the music business, he eventually found himself leading songwriting groups at his home until the permanent studio was opened next-door.

Now he's living his dream working with musical artists and helping them accomplish their own lofty goals.

"It's not just my dreams anymore," Flack said. "It's just whoever has one."

'Bring Your Song' is singer-songwriter showcase

Realgrey also fosters and supports songwriters outside the studio.

Bring Your Song is a nonprofit program and showcase for Northeast Ohio musical artists hosted by The Auricle Venue + Bar in downtown Canton.

Open to all songwriters, the sessions are at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday of certain months. Individual artists are featured such as Josh Hancock, but others are welcome to take their turn at the mic performing original music.

The next Bring Your Song session is Monday night at The Auricle, featuring Matthew Hostetler. For more information, and to sign up or to be a monthly sponsor, go to https://realgrey.com/index.php/BYS.

The group, which includes producers and engineers, offers feedback and encouragement to musicians, as well as networking opportunities, said Antonavich, the studio manager.

"We love to see artists supporting artists and help songwriters find themselves doing things they never thought were possible," she said.

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com

On X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Realgrey Records in Canton is where Northeast Ohio bands go to rock