TRAVERSE CITY — Matt Noveskey has to be one of the busiest men in rock music.
The Traverse City native and Blue October bassist has his hands in a good number of cookie jars.
Blue October, of course, is one. He's also involved in several side projects, tries to help where he can in raising a family with three children and runs his own recording studio. All while Blue October tours fairly relentlessly.
Noveskey and former Blue October guitarist C.B. Hudson started up Orb Recording Studios in Austin, Texas, in 2013. In 2014, it was selected best recording studio in the Austin Music Industry Awards.
"There's a lot that goes into it to keep it working, but it's so much fun," Novesky said. "I'm beyond blessed to be able to do that. The whole creative part of it has always been my favorite."
The studio has seen hundreds of artists walk through its doors to record music, like the Beach Boys, Third Eye Blind, Skrillex, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Alan Parsons, Cavo, Anberlin, Nothing More and Chance The Rapper.
Noveskey and another Traverse City musician, guitarist Kenny Olson, recorded a track with Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC at Noveskey's studio that will be on an upcoming Olson album.
"The studio has really taken off," Noveskey said. "We've had a lot of great stuff produced there and stayed super busy, which is awesome."
The state-of-the-art studio has been an alternative to Texas' more established venues, and is even slowly creeping into the country music market.
"There are some great studios," Noveskey said. "But I don't see a lot of pop artists at other studios. Other studios have a rich history with Austin. There's just something about being a little bit more of an L.A. or New York type facility. It's something a lot of pop artists look for. When they see what we have to offer and the aesthetics of the building, the gear we have, we resemble more of a Los Angeles kind of place. That's something they're familiar with and they've sought us out and been really happy."
Thanks to the smartphone, Noveskey can remain more hands-on in the studio's day-to-day operations while out on tour with Blue October. Orb Studios also has a head engineer and manager that help with the workload.
"They really pick up the slack when I'm out of town," Noveskey said. "But I can still handle bookings and stuff when I'm out on the road. I don't know how I would have done this back in the day without a smartphone. I think back to when I first joined the band and I had to find a pay phone or buy a calling card to call my girlfriend. You can be everywhere at once now through your phone."
Noveskey also co-manages Dalton Rapattoni, last season's third-place American Idol finisher. They are just finishing his debut record which will be released later this year.
"Man, I can't wait for the world to hear this record," Noveskey said. "It's going to be phenomenal. I'm really, really proud of it."
All the while, Noveskey is touring with Blue October and working on a side project called Harvard of the South.
The outfit consists of Blue October veterans Noveskey and drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld, as well as songwriter and vocalist Steve Schiltz, formerly of Longwave. Much of the album has been finished since 2014, but not released.
"That's been a process," Noveskey said, laughing.
They recorded the whole album in Jeremy Furstenfeld's home studio, starting off in the morning, writing a song, working on it and having it recorded by evening, except for vocals.
They did that over and over again until they had a whole album's worth of material. Blue October singer Justin Furstenfeld and Schiltz collaborated on lyrics and melodies to match the music.
"We thought, 'This is really cool. We should actually consider releasing this whole thing and going out and doing shows,'" Noveskey said. "The reception has been awesome. It's a lot of work to be in both bands at the same time, because you don't get any down time. But it's worth it, because it's so much fun and it's a different vibe from Blue October that it's nice to get up there and rock out to something totally different."
Harvard of the South's debut album has no release date as of yet, but Noveskey says it will definitely be released later this year. For now, the band has released a five-song EP in 2014. They've played dozens of shows, including opening up on Blue October's current Heart Go Bang tour for six dates in May.
Blue October played June 14 in Traverse City as part of that tour. And, while Noveskey generally uses tour days off to catch up on work for the studio, on June 13, he spent the day relaxing at Cedar Hedge Lake, on West Bay and Sleeping Bear Dunes.
"That's one place that is really nice to hang," Noveskey said. "We have a place to stay. It's really nice."
He's coming back up in August to visit family in between tours, so it allowed for hanging out with the band and some friends in Traverse City this last trip.
The band has tour T-shirts for sale with "Made in Texas" on them. They could very well also say "Some assembly in Michigan."
The group played multiple gigs in its early years at the old Loading Dock in Traverse City, and has since played multiple times at the Streeters Center and Leelanau Sands.
"Everybody loves Traverse," Noveskey said. "We've just got a lot of great memories there. We look forward to getting back.
"The guys really like — not to sound corny — but it became kind of like a second home for them. It was always something everyone always really looked forward to. They developed this really cool bond with where I grew up. When we get up there, it's kind of spiritual."
