Meet the Owners

Sharon & Dave Acosta, Skagway, Alaska, 2015

We're proud to launch our new recording studio located in beautiful Southern Maryland on the Patuxent River . We've been welcomed here with open arms and the transition has gone well. This is our third recording studio with our first being located in Tacoma, WA (Beach House Attic Studios, Inc.), then Folsom, CA (Willow Creek Studios, Inc.), and now here. Sharon continues to be my inspiration and best critic.

It's a blessing to have a life partner who gives me the space to lose myself and allows me to rejuvenate my heart, mind and soul through the magic of music. My musical roots and my experiences highlighted below have influenced my recording and mixing style over the years....keep the sound simple and pure, and provide the space that brings out the best in each musician's talent.

Dave's Early Roots...

My roots started in Southern California. It's been many years since the start of my first band, John-David - a local garage band and the immense privilege of being influenced and taught by my close friend John Breglio - an amazing guitarist and vocalist even at an early age. John had a steel 6-string Yamaha acoustic that his parents bought him but I was lame on equipment. My family was poor. I borrowed my older brother's steel 6-string acoustic (one that my parents had bought in Tijuana, Mexico) that he never played despite being the only person in our family that took private guitar lessons. Both families had pianos - we had an upright Wurlitzer and John's family had an old upright Steinway.

The first instrument I learned to play was piano and organ (church organ to be exact!). I became transfixed with the guitar and learned how to transfer what I knew about chords from the piano to the guitar (with the help of John as I said). After a couple of years of playing local gigs we progressed - and John got his first electric solid body guitar and amp.

I was in luck (still poor) when my dad's good friend, Marion Berry, an old jazz guitar player, heard us play and was impressed. He subsequently lent me his Guild jazz hollow body guitar (complete with 2 F holes!). I had no idea that this was truly a vintage piece that would influence me for the rest of my career. Since we couldn't afford much John and I began 'building' our own equipment, e.g. Hewitt DIY amplifier kit, a large speaker cabinet with two twelve inch speakers and two subwoofers. We were on our way!

At the same time I began to venture out as opportunities came my way. Another older brother, Bob Acosta, was lead singer in his own rock and roll band that played covers and they were in need of back-up vocals. Bob and I had already sang harmony together at home while listening to old R&R albums (the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Turtles, Everly Brothers, Herman's Hermits, Box Tops, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills and Nash).

Bob introduced me to home recording. His band had bought a

reel-to-reel ribbon recorder (16 channel) to create their demos. Man, using this machine required an art not to mention a lot of patience (wind...rewind...wind...rewind...wind)! This experience definitely was responsible for igniting my interest in recording and mixing and discovering the amazing sounds you could do with 'overdubbing'. My brother was kind enough to let John and I use the machine to record (alright, let me be honest - we used the machine when my brother wasn't around!). I'll never forget recording our first composition, e.g., "Sparrow", a CSNY thing with 3-part harmonies! I was hooked! Saved enough money to buy my first set of strings - a Hoyer 12-string electric acoustic guitar.

Then came Hendrix and Clapton. I borrowed John's electric guitar and our amp set up and played with a couple of high school buddies that were into acid rock (John wasn't into this type of music). This taught me the value of not being afraid to explore other music venues and playing with other talented musicians.

Movin' On...

John-David broke up once I found myself leaving the neighborhood and moving on to college.

This new journey opened up my eyes to an amazing array of talented musicians that I had the opportunity to play with. It took me a while to realize that playing with folks with much higher guitar playing skills was humbling but ultimately paid big dividends for my future guitar playing. But I have to admit, it was hard on my ego at first...to move past the humiliation and stopped taking things too personal. And looking back I see how lucky I was to encounter such great musicians who inspired me so much. My only regret was never having the chance to reconnect with John Breglio again.

In college I had the pleasure of playing with some incredibly talented musicians - Mark Prigatano (bass, vocals), Ken Costello (lead guitar, vocals), Tim O'Donnell (drums, guitar, vocals), Ray Santana (drums) and Ken Bedes (fiddle, pedal steel) - and formed the band Montana - a country-rock and classic rock band that played many gigs in Southern California - mostly in the Los Angeles and Pasadena regions. I played rhythm guitar (electric and acoustic-electric), dobro, piano, and sang lead and back-up vocals. We mostly played covers and never had the opportunity (or the money!) to do any studio recording. Ken and I were composing our own music but never had the chance to do any studio recording either.

Ken Costello and I had a spin-off duo known as Justin Uther Sideshow that played unplugged sets in local bars in between gigs. Getting into medical school (me) and law school (Ken) unfortunately led to the dissolution of the Montana after 3 years of success. Our bandmates continued on their own and formed Stampede that had some local success.

Today, after 40 long years, Montana has gotten back together at least virtually! Check out our new website here - we were able to lay down some tracks virtually since the pandemic has prevented us from getting back together in-person (something we hope to do in the near future!). The website includes some of the recordings we have recently done - some of the old Montana tunes - and some new tunes we experimented with.

Last phase...

In medical school and in residency I discovered that many of my colleagues that were amazingly talented in science & medicine were also incredibly talented in music. The stressors and long, exhausting hours that I encountered in medicine were easily defused by playing music. I will admit...music saved me! Playing music was rejuvenating and brought the balance I needed back into my life. Over the years I have played with incredible physician-musicians that I am totally indebted to and the bands we had formed. We were all tired of playing bar gigs and had no interest in going back to that scene. We found simple pleasure in getting together to jam for hours. Yes, we did play an occasional wedding for friends, an occasional party...but we also found a more meaningful role in contributing our talents and raising money for important causes, e.g., Relay for Life, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and others.

I 'tip my hat' to all of my past band members who taught me so much:

Cuttin' Loose (1980-1982) - Dave Acosta (rhythm guitar, organ, vocals, bass), Perry Fine (lead guitar), George Kent (piano), Russell Hands (drums, percussion), and Connie Ayers (lead vocals),

Dave Acosta & the Complimentary Hors d'oeuvres (1986-1988) - Dave Acosta (lead guitar, piano, vocals), Paul Pirruccello (rhythm guitar, vocals), Greg Stern (percussion), Fred Engel (bass)

Fat n' Hungry (1995-2008) - Dave Acosta (rhythm guitar, piano, organ, vocals), Michal Brennan (lead guitar, vocals), Doug Camp (bass, vocals), John Vangen (drums)

Ratz on Prozac (2008-2013) - Dave Acosta (rhythm guitar, piano, organ, vocals), Michal Brennan (lead guitar, vocals), Shane Sliva (bass, vocals), Denny Woyak (drums)