The light from a low winter sun streamed in through the windows of the massive tracking room at Tank Recording Studio in Burlington, illuminating the wood bones of the old building. Standing in a shaft of sunlight like a house cat was Ben Collette, his tall frame and long brown hair glowing for a moment as he smiled in appreciation of the musical legacy contained in the room.
“Those baffles are from the old White Crow studio Todd Lockwood used to run,” Collette said, gesturing toward the barriers he uses to redirect sound waves while recording bands. “That organ was in Dan Archer‘s old studio. The upright piano was Gordon Stone‘s. And, man, there’s so, so much old Phish gear in here — just a lot of local music history right in this room.”
And more is being made there every week. Since opening the Old North End studio — familiarly known as “the Tank” — with his then-business partner Rob O’Dea in 2007, Collette has cut records with an exhaustive list of local acts, from twee indie-pop outfit the Smittens to jam band Dopapod to experimental musician Greg Davis to the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to rocker Grace Potter.
O’Dea left in 2020, and Collette moved the studio from its original, cozier North Winooski Avenue location to a 3,000-square-foot building just down the street. Since then, Collette has begun hosting a unique concert series, TRS Live, where fans can watch their favorite local bands cut live records. And he’s partnered with musician and radio DJ Arty LaVigne to broadcast “Local Music Showcase” on WNCS-FM the Point, on Sundays at 6:30 p.m., featuring music recorded at the studio and performances from TRS Live.
Those endeavors, born equally of the financial realities of running a pro studio in the age of GarageBand and a desire to contribute something good to his community, have made Collette and the Tank pillars of the local music scene.
“I’ve definitely had to redefine what success means to me,” Collette, 42, said. “There was a time when I dreamed about bringing in all these international and touring acts, and while that might still happen, I’ve learned to focus more on this community and music scene. Which is really a full-circle kind of thing for me, since this is my home.”
Collette, a South Burlington native, started taping shows to his DAT machine when he was just 16 years old. In 1998, he began an internship with the Vermont jam band Strangefolk. But it was two years later — when his father, a music journalist, suggested he directly contact Phish for a job — that things really started to happen.
Collette took a job at the Burlington jam kings’ merchandise wing, Phish Dry Goods. He was there for two years while working toward a small business degree at the University of Vermont. After graduation in 2004, he asked the band for a full-time gig. He got it, but his timing was terrible.
“My literal first day as a full-time employee of the band, and they gather us together for an announcement,” he recalled with a rueful grin. “The band was breaking up. I couldn’t believe it. My heart just sank.”
The heartbreak didn’t last long. Soon after, the band’s guitarist, Trey Anastasio, informed Collette, “Hey, you work for me now.” It began a relationship that has proved fundamental to Collette’s career.
As in-house audio engineer and archivist for Anastasio — and, once they re-formed in 2009, Phish — Collette has worked on dozens of records within the band’s orbit. He’s worked beside some of the best record producers in the world, including Steve Lillywhite and Bob Ezrin, all while honing his skills — Anastasio even sent him to New York City to get Pro Tools-certified in 2006.
The following year, feeling ready to start recording beyond the Phish world, Collette went into business with O’Dea.
“Part of the reason for starting a studio was the need to sharpen my skills,” Collette explained. “But really, I just wasn’t thrilled with the quality of the production I heard on a lot of local records. And I love the local scene. I want it to sound as good as it deserves to.”
Sure enough, high-profile Vermont acts such as Swale, Ryan Montbleau and Kat Wright have tracked some of their best-sounding work at the studio. But Collette is just as adept at helping lesser-known acts find their voice.
Singer-songwriter Reid Parsons, 31, recorded at the Tank in 2021, making her No. Blood EP at the studio. Recording that album was such a formative experience that Parsons decided to lay down a brand-new LP with Collette — the first single from Back to Back drops this Friday, March 14.
“I was a younger, inexperienced musician when I first started working with Ben,” Parsons said. “It might have been easy to dismiss what I had to say, but he was always so supportive and easy to collaborate with. It took any anxiety away.”
That attention and encouragement are part of why Parsons opted to return to the Tank rather than record at home. The Tank’s day rate for recording, editing, mixing and mastering is $1200, though Collette knocks that down to $900 for local artists. But for Parsons, the choice was about more than money.
“Recording at an actual studio isn’t cheap, and you can get a decent sound by yourself at home if you know what you’re doing,” Parsons acknowledged. “So if you’re going to spend the money to use a studio, you really want to make sure you get the best engineer you can find — and that’s Ben. Anyone can learn Pro Tools, but not everyone has those kinds of ears.”
Collette’s reputation in the Vermont music scene certainly helps bring in clients. But especially given the increasing ease and sophistication of home recording software, he’s had to be clever about making the Tank financially stable.
“When I was a senior at UVM, one of my projects was to draw up a pitch for a recording studio as a business,” he recalled. The pitch was quickly scuttled after he realized the plan was a horrible money loss on paper. He thought to himself, “There’s no way I’ll ever do this. It’s completely unfeasible.” But, he said, “Twenty years later, and I’m writing up a business plan to renovate a 3,000-square-foot space in the middle of a pandemic while my wife is pregnant with our first child. Brilliant, Ben!”
He realized he needed to do more with the Tank than just be the go-to studio in the area. And he wanted to engage with Burlington’s musicians on an even deeper level. So last year he launched TRS Live, an intimate series that, for the ticket price of $35, allows just 40 fans the opportunity to see their favorite band play — and record — live. The series has hosted the likes of Emma Cook & Questionable Company, LaMP, and Matt Hagen.
The TRS arrangement is a pretty sweet deal for local artists. While they don’t get paid for the gig, they get a fully mixed and mastered recording of their live performance, as well as a full-song video edit and a photo gallery from photographer Luke Awtry. And the entire show gets broadcast on the Point’s “Local Music Showcase.”
The radio collaboration is another way Collette is diversifying what the Tank does. The idea for a local music program came to LaVigne, 74, while he was tracking a record at the Tank last year with his own group, the Arty LaVigne Band. The station’s local music show had recently ended, and LaVigne was looking to shine a light on Vermont musicians.
“When I started in broadcasting, I was in school in San Francisco and loved programs like ‘Live [at] the Record Plant,'” LaVigne said, reminiscing about the 1970s show on Bay City station KSAN-FM where artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Warren Zevon recorded live albums in its famous studio in Sausalito. “So I inherently love when radio showcases live music like that.”
Together with Collette, LaVigne dreamed up “Local Music Showcase,” where the Point could play songs recorded at the Tank. Some weeks feature an entire TRS Live set, as will the Sunday, March 16, episode when electro producer Willverine holds court. The following week highlights Americana act Kyle Chadburn & the Earthbound Spirits, who recorded a TRS Live set on March 8.
“I have to tip my hat to Ben,” LaVigne said. “He’s so locked into the local music scene and has so many great ideas for artists we can feature. He’s such a talented, genuine guy who really cares about local music and wants it to sound as good as it can. And that is invaluable to a scene like ours.”
As Collette walked around the upstairs tracking room at the Tank, mapping out how he was planning on miking up nine players in a jazz ensemble that was due to come in, he paused, looking at the empty room that would soon be full of musicians and gear.
“I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but it makes me feel so good when I realize that the space I’ve created is being used,” he said. “Because I’m not sure some of these things would be happening if the Tank didn’t exist.”
Listening In
PLaylist of Vermont jams
Doomsbury
by Farnsworth and Slayton
Learn more at tankrecording.com.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Sonic Temple | Ben Collette helps Vermont artists make the records of their dreams at the Tank”
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2025.
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