Passion, dedication and sheer willpower from six college students who combine their strengths to bring together an entire community. Kind of sounds like the plotline to an epic movie, right? Well, it’s not. It’s actually the story of Telos Studios,@@http://www.twitvid.com/telosstudios@@ Eugene’s hidden “wonderland” of music, recently geared up and open for business.
Maintaining a rather disguised appearance from the outside — due to its location in the industrial area of Eugene, and the fact that the building was originally designed for offices — the student-run studio officially opened for business in December. Newly refurbished, it houses professional-level equipment and facilities and is prepared to record and master full bands. But also beyond this, it hopes to open itself up to multimedia and web projects.
“One thing that we hope will continue to attract groups in here,” said Max Barkley,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Max+Barkley@@ one of the founders of Telos Studios and University journalism major, “is that we want to be working with them when it comes to producing photo and video and promoting them online and in the multimedia landscape. We’d really like to have fun with the groups while they do their stuff.”
This wasn’t always the focus of the studio. Initially started by University junior James Aronoff,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=James+Aronoff@@ Telos operated for a short time under the name Living Room Sound, with a different sound engineer and a focus toward a more specific market. Deciding to go in a new direction, Aronoff brought on fellow students Barkley, Taylor Parrish,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Taylor+Parrish@@ Max Sugerman,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Max+Sugerman@@ Aryeh Goodblatt @@called reporter…he spelled it out to her in recording@@and Matt Greeley-Roberts@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Matt+Greeley-Roberts@@ with the new aim of offering their production and multimedia services to the community for various projects.
“I think that’s really what we’re trying to do with this place in general, is help everyone reach their potential by utilizing this space,” Aronoff said of their current set up and why they chose to offer multiple creative features.

Not limited to recording music, Telos has set up the space to also operate as a photography studio and a concert venue, and they hope to host an interactive, “fluid blog-style” website similar to Reddit@@http://www.reddit.com/@@ or We Are Hunted,@@http://wearehunted.com/a/#/emerging/@@ Barkley said.
Brought together through previous connections (most of them knew each other before joining in with Telos), the six students all specialize in different areas, majoring in subjects ranging from economics to digital arts to religious studies, which helps them when running the studio.
“We keep each other in check really well, I think,” Parrish said, “but we also augment the strengths of each person.”
Barkley agreed. “We’re very good at using each other, because we all know our different skill sets. So we’re kind of like (Constructicons),@@you don’t know your transformers, brah! it’s the constructicons (6). megatron…pheh!@@ you know. All different parts working together.”
Through these different parts, Telos Studios has big plans for the future. Local Eugene bands The Great Hiatum@@http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Great-Hiatum/166657620054673@@ and Adventure Galley@@http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventure-Galley/67202667577@@ recently worked in the studio — and more is to come.
Outside of producing music, Barkley and Sugerman, who are in charge of the multimedia for the studio, plan to work with students who are putting on an event at the Downtown Initiative for Visual Arts. Another local band, Hamilton Beach,@@http://www.facebook.com/hamiltonbeach52?v=info@@ will be performing at the opening, and the two want to produce multimedia coverage of the event which will later go up on their website.
Telos also hopes to team up with Cozmic Pizza to create a five-day, battle of the bands. Hosting up to 20 bands, the idea is that the bands will be competing for 20 hours of free studio time as well as a free photo package at the studio, said Greeley-Roberts, who works as Telos’ sound engineer.
Though their clients currently consist of largely musicians, the group emphasized their openness to all project ideas.
“I think we want to bring in the whole artistic community — all the different veins of the artistic community,” Greeley-Roberts said. “Be it, you know, pen on paper, paint on canvas … journalism or photography or video or music or whatever it is that you like to do that helps you express yourself. We’re open to everybody. We’ll do anything. We just love music.”