ROSE GLEN — STL GLD’S “Extra” was Created Entirely Inside PEM’S Historic “Plummer Hall”

STL GLD's mobile studio set up inside Peabody Essex Museum's historic Plummer Hall. — Photo by Rose Glen

It was Summer of 2021. Roughly 6 months after I shot a music video for STL GLD’s MSK on the coldest day of the year when I got a call from my homie, The Arcitype.

He told me about this project STL GLD was working on in collaboration with the Peabody Essex Museum and asked me to document their creative process over the course of 3 days while they created a song from scratch inside one of PEM’s historic buildings in Salem, Massachusetts. Of course I agreed but that’s because none of us knew it would be the hottest and muggiest week of the summer.

It was at this point that I started to think these guys just have a fetish for working through extreme weather conditions. 😂

But in all seriousness this was an incredible experience to witness. I’m honored to have been a part of this process and to be able to share an inside look at how it all went down.

Day one consisted mostly of getting the temporary studio set up, familiarizing ourselves with the space and then the guys got right to work recording drums and grabbing sounds from all over the room. It became evident right away that Plummer Hall would become very influential in not only the energy and theme of the record but also the very sounds themselves.

Day two was a lot of recording, beat making and production. We also took some time to shoot a few of the interviews with band members that you’ll see in the short documentary below.

Day three was more of the same but with a lot more writing, recording and discussion. There was definitely slightly more of an urgency in regards to the ticking clock but overall there was never a sense that anything was rushed or that we were running out of time. It seemed like everything fell together exactly as it should.

You can watch the entire process unfold and hear the finished result in the video below.

This documentary film details the creation of a STL GLD song in PEM's historic Plummer Hall. The artists share their process and how this remarkable building influenced their sound. The video culminates in a performance of the song they created during the three days of writing and recording in the space. - P.E.M.