History

In 2003, Steve Wilmans left California and moved to the mountains of WNC to build his dream studio.  He found the perfect place in an old church on the edge of downtown Asheville.  The Church was upfitted into a state of the art recording studio while preserving as much of the original decor as possible.  The antique wooden doors were split down the middle and soundproofed.  The original wall panels were reclaimed and used around the newly built control room, designed by George Auspurger.

In 2006, Steve purchased the neighboring building, which originally housed the Asheville Salvation Army, and built the API Studio.  The tracking space is split between two levels, with the control and isolation rooms on the lower level and a large tracking room on the middle floor.  

Steve Wilmans

Owner

When Steve sold Stepping Stone, his Seattle based recording studio, he moved back to Southern California to escape the dreary weather of the Pacific Northwest, soak up some sun and spend time surfing.  When LA became a bit overbearing, Steve decided to help a friend move out of town, not knowing at the time that it would result in his relocation to Asheville.  Steve fell in love with the mountain town and decided to start his first East Coast studio, Echo Mountain Recording.  He has 30 years of experience as a recording engineer, mixing engineer and studio owner.

Jessica Tomasin

Studio Manager

When Jessica had her first studio experience at the age of 16, singing backup vocals on a hip-hop track in Detroit, she never thought it would be the start of her career in music.  In 2006 she become the studio manager at Echo Mountain.  Since then, her career has included artist and label management, booking and event production.  In 2014 she started her own company, Jet Up Productions and co-founded Asheville Music Professionals, a non-profit organization providing education, advocacy, connection and collaboration in the music community.

Autumn Greenfield

Resident Luthier, Book Keeper

Autumn has been working in the music industry since 1998, beginning her career in music retail and festival production.  She apprenticed to be a luthier (person who builds and repairs musical instruments) and started her own business in 2001 offering fretted instrument repair work and on-tour tech services.  Autumn owned an instrument repair shop, The Guitar Mama, in West Asheville for 5 years before coming to Echo Mountain in 2015.  Aside from taking care of stringed instrument repairs at the studio, Autumn produces and manages Casey Kristofferson Band.

Julian Dreyer

Chief Engineer/Producer

Julian grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina in the small artist community of Celo. After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science in Music Technology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, he spent 4 years as a live sound engineer at The Orange Peel in Asheville working with numerous national touring acts and large productions.  

Julian has spent the last 10 years at Echo Mountain Recording as a producer/engineer and the last 5 years as the chief engineer.  

Kenny Harrington

Engineer/Producer

Kenny earned his BA in Audio Production from the Art Institute of Washington.  He began his internship at Echo Mountain in 2013, shortly after relocating to Asheville from the DC area, and has since moved to the position of Staff Engineer.  He has engineered numerous sessions and continues to grow his career at Echo Mountain.  In addition to engineering, Kenny also manages the internship program at the studio.

Dowell Gandy

Engineer/Producer

Dowell graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Audio Arts and Acoustics. After working in the film industry as a location sound engineer in Chicago he moved to Asheville to pursue a career in music production and engineering which started with an internship at Echo Mountain in 2015. He has since progressed into the role of producer and engineer.

Josh Blake

Engineer/Producer

Josh is a Grammy nominated musician, producer, and engineer who’s shaped his talents in the studio with over 30 years of experience.  Spending over a decade as a nationally touring musician, and still gigging several times a week, Josh brings an approach to the recording process from a perspective rooted within a performing artists mind set.  Founder and CEO of the music web channel iamavl.com, Josh produces and engineers their flagship program Echo Sessions, a live in studio concert experience that takes place at the Echo Mountain. This series is live broadcast on iamavl.com, as well as rebroadcast PBS.  

Having a relationship with the studio since it first opened in 2006, Josh is a freelance producer and engineer, who both sublets Studio L and maintains an office for IamAVL at Echo Mountain.  

TaLiA Service

Assistant Engineer

Talia graduated Magna Cum Laude from The University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.S. in Music Technology in 2018. Talia is an experienced live sound engineer in the Western North Carolina region. She regularly mixes FOH and monitors at venues and events such as Salvage Station, Rabbit Rabbit, Sierra Nevada, LEAF, and AVLFest. She was an intern at Echo Mountain before moving up to an assistant engineer position. She has been an assistant engineer at Echo Mountain for 3 years, and also handles bookkeeping for the studio.