A Refuge To Create And Gather: The Sound Wall
“For us, it’s like a little refuge. …It’s a barrier to keep all the extra noise out for you to focus on your art and your craft and your passion.”
Words By Hueman Collective | Additional photography by Ashley Kickliter
“The idea is to get out of the big cities,” says Rob Slocumb, sitting in a renovated, 111-year-old home in historic Opelika, Alabama.
“If you Google ‘sound wall,’ it’s a barrier to keep noise out,” his wife, Jen Slocumb, adds. “For us, it’s like a little refuge. …It’s a barrier to keep all the extra noise out for you to focus on your art and your craft and your passion.”
And that haven has taken shape in what the couple once saw as the “sleepy town” of Opelika. After decades of writing and recording across North America, the Slocumb’s—also known as the husband-wife duo Martha’s Trouble—put a year and a half into renovating a deteriorating house in a burgeoning Alabama town for artists to take a step back, zero in and write, record—all within the refuge of the Sound Wall.
The Sound Wall is a full-service recording studio on Avenue B in Opelika that opened in 2017. Complete with two studio rooms, an isolation room, a control room and a 1,000 square-foot loft apartment, the Slocumb’s brought everything a traveling artist might need to make an album under one roof.
“You can literally stay here and never leave and get your project done,” Rob says. “We’re a one-stop shop.”
In the middle of it all, there’s a chefs kitchen and a long wooden farmhouse table with benches. While not essential to the recording process, the Slocumb’s wanted the Sound Wall to be more than a destination for traveling artists—they wanted it to be a gathering place.
The kitchen gives musicians a space to cook or have catered meals during the recording process, and often the Slocumb’s open up their kitchen for a community supper club. They invite a local chef to prepare a special menu for about 10 to 12 people who just come to hang out and eat.
“It’s personal,” Rob says. “The idea is you come in as strangers and leave as friends.”
“We want the non-artists community here to feel like they’re a part of this too,” Jen stresses. “It’s for people that love music and love food—we’re here for the community as a whole.”
〰️
Settling Into Opelika
Originally from Canada and Nashville, respectively, Jen and Rob’s first encounter with Opelika was years ago playing a show at Eighth & Rail on Railroad Avenue.
“We were like, ‘There’s a venue here?’” Jen says. “It was a little sketchy to be honest. But we got in there and it was such a great night. …Soon it became a regular stop.”
Over time, while visiting Rob's parents who retired in the area, the Slocumbs got to know the little town with its growing arts community. When the time came to relocate from Canada to the U.S., someone at Eighth & Rail suggested Opelika, and the couple thought “Eh, why not?” Self-prescribed non-planners, the couple found themselves living in a loft in downtown Opelika, and it’s there they really fell in love with the city.
“There is just something special about Opelika… You can’t put your finger on what it is, but there is,” Rob says.
So they let their roots grow deep, which for the couple means getting invested. They got involved in the Arts Association of East Alabama and helped form Cottonseed Studios. They worked with local nonprofits and community organizations, performing at fundraising events. And they started a family.
“There is just something special about Opelika…You can’t put your finger on what it is, but there is.”
“I feel like it really is part of our responsibility as artists to invest,” Jen says. “If we’re going to live somewhere, we feel like it’s our job to contribute… We always support whatever is coming through here and help as much as we can and help other artists in the area and other businesses in the area.”
〰️
The Great Restoration
In the midst of it all, the dream of a creative space to record their records persisted. So they poured themselves into renovating an abandoned, historic home. As the process began, they started to think of all the musicians they had encountered over the years. All of the pieces of the community they had tethered themselves to, and it suddenly wasn’t about just the Slocumb’s or Martha’s Trouble. They realized the Sound Wall was going to be for more than themselves.
“As we got more into the construction, it was like, ‘Man, this could really be a huge asset for the community,’” Rob says
“Our love for music has kind of merged together (our passion for the community and the arts) to where we have a place for other musicians and other things in the community now, too, not just for ourselves,” Jen says.
So they took a risk. The little house at 605 Avenue B in Opelika isn’t just a space for Martha’s Trouble to record—it’s now a place for sharing a meal and conversations with new friends, a place for crashing in the loft and waking up in the middle of the night with just the right verse you were looking for to finish that song, a place for creating community. All in Opelika.
“You could go to Atlanta and be the next studio on the block. You can go to Nashville—I mean they’re everywhere, right? So it’s not everywhere here… There’s not really a facility like the Sound Wall that’s offered,” Rob says. “The idea is to get out of the big city to get away from all that and come to a quiet town where you can really just hone in on what you’re working on.”
The Sound Wall can be found at 605 Avenue B in Opelika. To experience there supper club, attend a concert, or sign up for music lessons and recording sessions, visit thesoundwallopelika.com or follow Sound Wall on Facebook and Instagram @TheSoundWall.
Visiting Opelika or looking for your own weekend “Haven?” Book the amazing loft on Air B&B here: Tree Top Loft in Historic Downtown Opelika, Alabama
