{"id":1083,"date":"2025-07-08T12:02:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unlockhost.com\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2025-07-14T12:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:47:09","slug":"phish-bassist-mike-gordons-home-studio-is-just-as-psychedelic-as-youd-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.unlockhost.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/08\/phish-bassist-mike-gordons-home-studio-is-just-as-psychedelic-as-youd-expect\/","title":{"rendered":"Phish Bassist Mike Gordon\u2019s Home Studio Is Just as Psychedelic as You\u2019d Expect"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The musician bucked convention with his new space, channeling the playful rigor that\u2019s been central to his decades-long career.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
\n

“This is what I do,” Mike Gordon deadpans.<\/b> “I travel around the country and sit in things.”<\/p>\n

We\u2019re touring his new home studio in a serious-looking modern building, but this remark reflects the sense of humor that pervades his decades-long career and his space. Mike is best known as the bassist for Phish, the iconic jam band that\u2019s ruled festival grounds since the 1990s with shows that incorporate in-jokes and elaborate gags for their devoted fans. He also has a prolific solo career on top of that. Considering his packed schedule of touring and recording, it\u2019s hard to believe that he has much time to sit.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"As<\/a>
\n

As the bassist for Phish and a touring solo artist, Mike Gordon is on the road a lot. So for his new lakeside home studio in Vermont, he wanted somewhere he could be immersed in nature and also relax while enjoying the perfect couch\u2014or bath. The tub is from Hydro Systems, and the plumbing fixtures are from Phylrich.<\/p>\n

Photo: Peter Fisher<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

But Mike is indeed a big sitter. During the design process for this 3,175-square-foot recording studio and living space on the grounds of his home in northern Vermont, Mike was far from the aloof celeb directing a team from a distance and was very hands-on (or butt-on, as the case may be). He estimates that he sat on a thousand sofas over two years when looking for one for the studio, spending a few hours a day testing them out between workouts and sound checks\u2014and then there were the bathtubs. “He sat in so many tubs,” Brooke Michelsen<\/a>, the interior designer for the space, tells me. “Like, so<\/i> many tubs.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>
\n

The whole building is nestled into the earth, making the surrounding woods feel even closer. “I\u2019m not the outdoor type,” Mike says. “I wouldn\u2019t want to be outside, but it\u2019s the closest thing to it while being inside.” Microphones on the balcony can pipe the sounds of the outdoors into the recording studio instead of keeping them out.<\/p>\n

Photo: Peter Fisher<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

“Mike\u2019s an architecture buff,” says Brian Mac, principal architect at Vermont firm Birdseye<\/a>, which designed and built the structure. “He loves design.”<\/p>\n

As we sit in the glass-walled recording studio overlooking Lake Champlain, Mike says that he “would rather design stuff than write songs,” but he quickly walks that back. “I mean I have to be careful because I am so into aesthetics and space.” With such a packed schedule, design could be a distraction, but it\u2019s been one of his lifelong preoccupations.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve been dreaming about creating places to hang out in and to work in since I was a kid,” he tells me. In high school he built a secret cabin<\/a> in the woods with his friends, and he installed a hanging platform in his teenage bedroom with a ring of recording equipment that sounds more like an art installation than typical home decor.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mike\u2019s<\/a>
\n

Mike\u2019s gentle sense of humor permeates the space, along with his penchant for midcentury modernism. He wanted a pink kitchen, so his designers, architect Brian Mac and interior design-er Brooke Michelsen, gave him one accented by a vintage pendant with a custom banquette and cabinetry filled with pink appliances and cookware. Birdseye Woodshop made the cabinetry and banquette. The cushions are from Designers Guild, and the ceiling pendant is from Door 15. The Eos Neo pull-down faucet is from Franke.<\/p>\n

Photo: Peter Fisher<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See the full story on Dwell.com: Phish Bassist Mike Gordon\u2019s Home Studio Is Just as Psychedelic as You\u2019d Expect<\/a><\/b>
Related stories:<\/span><\/p>\n