.02

Experience

At West Side Sound, we want to give you the comforts of home but with the highest studio quality on-hand. We believe that you're at your best only when you're most comfortable doing what you love to do - we want to help foster that environment.

Apart from the cozy atmosphere, we offer an assortment of recording gear that we hope will get your sound where you want it to be. You're also welcome to bring your own gear if you have some you love like we love our stuff.

“I’ve been tripping over gear as long as I’ve known these guys. I’m glad they finally get to put it to good use. If you use the Harmony, it’s mine.”

— Melissa Kersjes

.03

who is west side sound?

IMG_0329.JPG.jpeg — Jacob | Founder/Engineer

Jacob has lived in many places over the course of his 31 years, yet Grand Rapids is where he chooses to call home. Graduating from Grand Valley State University in 2011, he decided then that one day he would have something to do with the music scene in GR that went beyond playing. He has many passions that include writing music, mentoring local youth, woodworking, and hanging out at his local neighborhood bar shooting pool. Bring up any topic and he is sure to have an opinion on it, but if you don’t want him talking all night, most certainly don’t bring up a conversation that involves American history.

Favorite gear:

2011 Standard Fender Telecaster
1990’s Refinished Gibson Special
1973 Guild D25 M

First and foremost, Kyle is a journeyman when it comes to the allusive "perfect sound." He's constantly looking for it - whether it be with his own musical productions, or as he engineers music for other artists. Kyle grew up in northern Michigan - where the cold pushed people to stay indoors and find something to occupy their time with. Kyle chose guitar and songwriting instead of just video games and tv (well, a fair amount of that too). When Kyle isn't helping music to come alive for any of the artists we partner with, you'll find him playing with one of his newest musical additions from Reverb.com.

Favorite gear:

1. 1973 Mustang

2. 2001 Fender Baritone Telecater

3. 1983 Gibson Sonex

Melissa helps out with things like the website, photography, and general marketing nonsense. She is the glue that holds this ragtag group together. If she's not tweaking a bit of HTML, creating content, or telling local artists' stories, you'll find her listening to some of her favorite bands:

1. Death Cab For Cutie

2. David Ramirez

3. Noah Gundersen

This is Ellie May. Resident studio dog and couch potato. If you're nice, she may howl on your record. Ellie has a couple artists she's fond of, though:

1. Howlin Wolf

2. Elvis Presley (Hound Dog gets her way too hyped, though)

3. Snoop Dogg

.04

who do we work with?

We want to work with as many artists as possible. Those with stories, those who have just discovered their gift, those who have had a life-long passion for music and are just getting into the recording stage, and everyone else in between.

It takes guts to record, to put your talents out in the world - we respect the hell out of those people that want to. We also know that recording your dream typically takes a decent sized checkbook as well. Our mission is to take as much monetary stress out of the picture as possible for you - this is why we started West Side Sound in a house on the West Side of Grand Rapids. Our point? Don't let what other studios have told you about price get in your way - your stories are too important to put a price tag on them.