North Kingstown native and Brown University graduate Nick Sarazen has accumulated quite a resume when it comes to music. He was involved in the soundtrack for the 2020 hit superhero flick “Birds Of Pray” by writing the song “Sway With Me” that was performed by pop artists Saweetie and Galxara. He also collaborated with the likes of Snoop Dogg, D Smoke and Sofi Tukker among others when he was based out in Los Angeles. These days, Sarazen is back home in Rhode Island and he’s been working on setting up a recording studio in Newport. Specifically, he’s been pursuing this endeavor at Belcourt, a former summer cottage located on 657 Bellevue Avenue.

We had a talk about what gave him the idea to start up a recording studio in “The City By The Sea,” hoping to build up the local creative community and being as inclusive as he can when it comes to getting talented people involved.

Rob Duguay: How were you able to make this recording studio idea happen? It’s not everyday that you hear somebody doing something like this in an historic building.

Nick Sarazen: It’s currently in progress and I’m expecting it to be fully up and running probably by the spring or sometime right before the summer of next year, and It’s almost that time already. At the end of 2023, my wife and I got a place back in Newport, and so during the beginning of this year between going back and forth between here and L.A., I didn’t have a studio where I live in Rhode Island. As I was spending time here, I was just putting feelers out to friends and people in the community who I’m close with and I was initially just looking for a barn. I needed a separate building and I didn’t care if it was totally run down, it could have been something where I would come in and fix it up a bit, put some drywall up, get some electricity in there and just kind of have my own studio. Then through a couple friends, I connected with Carolyn Rafaelian, who is the founder of Alex and Ani, and she is the owner of Belcourt.

She bought it and restored it back in 2012 and she spent years restoring it, it’s an unbelievable restoration. We connected due to somebody suggesting that I talk to her and I didn’t really exactly know why, but we instantly hit it off. I thought that I was going to have to really pitch this idea to her, but she surprised me. She was telling me the storied history of the building, which includes music, and it was intended as the original site for the Newport Jazz Festival. It had so many amazing jazz figures come and play there during the ‘40s and ‘50s, but Carolyn was telling me that she got the place when it was in need of a ton of repairs.

It was really in disrepair when she got it and she put a lot of love into it along with a lot of money, but she basically told me that the real intention for this mansion is music and the arts. She was trying to figure out a way to make that happen and she set me up perfectly to talk to her about my idea for a recording studio. We started getting into the specifics of it and I quickly realized that this wouldn’t just be some small place that I would put my personal studio in, I wanted to turn it into this dream I’ve had since I was a kid of creating a state-of-the-art studio that’s available to global artists from around the world. A real studio that’s modeled after Conway Recording Studios and Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, which are two of my favorite and two of the most famous studios out there. That’s the gist of what’s going on, so we’ve been putting it together, trying to design the rooms, getting the sound right and doing it in a way that’s totally non-destructive to the history of the building itself.

Everything is going to float inside of these rooms while not touching walls and not being destructive of the history in there in any way, so yeah, that’s kind of the idea.

RD: Outside of moving there, was there any specific reasoning for establishing a recording studio in Newport versus other cities? Was it because you have ties to Rhode Island and were there other reasons?

NS: It’s always been Rhode Island for me and being from Rhode Island, I’ve always been so inspired here. Even in my time while living in L.A. since 2019, I would come back for a good chunk of the summer and come back during the holidays. I would always feel my most inspired here, even when I didn’t have a studio. Before my wife and I got our place in Newport, I would come back home and be at my parents’ house while either sitting on the couch or being in the basement and I would feel more creatively free there than anywhere else. Especially during the summer, being by the beaches and doing all of the things I grew up doing with friends, seeing all the beautiful nature and the communities here, I’ve always had this idea since I was 14.

I wanted to become a producer and hopefully make a name for myself so I could start to attract and bring my work back into the state because I’m convinced that Rhode Island is one of the most inspiring places creatively. I think that the way Rhode Island makes me feel, just from being here and everything the state has to offer, I’m convinced that any artist who would come and discover the place for the first time will feel the same way. In selecting a place for a studio, you can build a studio anywhere. If you have a big enough space or a building, you can fill that studio with whatever you want, but I think the most important thing about building a studio really is selecting a place and an environment outside the studio that is as inspiring as possible. You can step outside, take a breather, live a normal life and really get inspired by the community and the place that you’re in.

I think Belcourt takes that one step further in that I think people will be inspired by both the community of Newport and of Rhode Island, but also by the inside of this 50,000 square foot building and getting lost in the history. No matter what, it was always going to be Rhode Island and the situation with Belcourt is better than I could ever imagine, it’s certainly a more inspiring place than I could ever build myself no matter what.

RD: You just wrote and produced a single that was exclusively made in Rhode Island and reached number one on the dance radio charts, and it’s kind of a crossover with the Dutch DJ Tiësto and country singer Alana Springsteen with the song being titled “Hot Honey.” How did this all come about? Were they both in Rhode Island with you or was this done remotely?

NS: That one was completely remote and it was one of the first songs that I started working on when we got our place in Newport back in the summer of 2023. It was one of my favorite songs that I was working on at the time, but it was a personal challenge for me to sort of prove to myself that I could make an effective and meaningful record remotely by myself while passing files back and forth to the artists and the other songwriters. It really was the first one that I did here in Rhode Island and even though I didn’t have a studio, I spent time on friend’s couches and my couch with the headphones on and it consumed my life for a couple months. It took a long time and a lot of production, revisions and just going back and forth, but I never left Rhode Island the entire time I was working on it. It’s a longer process for songs, we were making it last year and it went into the beginning of this year, and then we had to let go at a certain point.

The label took the song, then the artists took the song and when it was finished, we all crossed our fingers while waiting for it to come out. It came out last July and it was so fun to start hearing it on the radio and all of that. What means the most to me for this song by far is that it was able to climb the charts and go number one and knowing that it was from my proof of concept of making records in Rhode Island, it’s kind of like a symbol to me and I hope it’s kind of like a symbol to the world and artists, producers, labels and everybody for when I’m pitching Belcourt to use as a studio. You don’t have to be in Los Angeles, you don’t have to be in New York City, you don’t have to be in Nashville, which are the three places that I think are stereotypically labeled as the places where you want to make a big record. This is a symbol of going to anyplace that you feel inspired by and really putting music together with the power of the internet and the community.

That’s kind of what it represents and I’m just excited about the timing of it as Belcourt is becoming a thing that’ll be ready to go next year. “Hot Honey” can be used as something that we’ve done in Rhode Island and in my mind, it’s a real win for the state and the greater music and creative community that I want to build upon. I just want to jump into it, build it up more and hopefully make Rhode Island part of that larger L.A., New York and Nashville conversation.

RD: When it comes to remote recordings, do you lean more towards that as a producer these days or does it all depend on the artist and what they want when they work with you? I know some artists prefer to have people in the same room with them when they’re creating a track while others can go either way.

NS: Especially for the genesis of a song and creating it from the start, I absolutely prefer in-person. It’s not that it can’t be done remotely from the very start, I just think that the human connection and the going back and forth feels much more natural in person. Then once you make the song and you make the idea, even if it only takes one day, it’s a lot easier after that first six hour in-person session to kind of walk away and understand the direction it’s being taken. I can build the track out more and then I can send it back and forth while getting notes from the artist to fix their vocals, getting back together to re-record a part or do something different with the production and that’s definitely the idea of Belcourt. I think the most magical part of making music is the original
sessions when you’re in person together.

Even though “Hot Honey” was remotely made on my part in Rhode Island, I think creating Belcourt is me wanting to create the space and the ability to go 100% start to finish in person and bring people to Rhode Island. I want these artists to plan a week, two weeks or a month around spending time in Newport and really coming to stay in the city and make their music physically here with their favorite producers and songwriters. They can come to work and also play and have fun in the state by going to the beach, going to all the restaurants, going to the bars and all that stuff. Belcourt represents what I feel is the magical piece of making music in person, so I totally want all of it to be in person.

RD: Moving forward into 2025, you already mentioned that you want Rhode Island to be part of the major music hub concept that goes on in other cities, so when it comes to that goal and the vision that you have for the recording studio at Belcourt, what are your closing thoughts?

NS: I’m close to already having a built out schedule of artists who are going to come to Belcourt. They’ll reserve their time and have their time booked there, but I want to start reaching out to the greater community here to really involve all of the amazing musicians, producers and engineers in Rhode Island and around New England. Berklee is only an hour away and there’s so many incredibly creative people in the area. Certain artists already have their core people with the producer they want to work with and the songwriter they want to work with, but I really want to bring engineers who are already in the state or are from Rhode Island or are from New England into Belcourt and be the recording engineers there. When the studio is up and running, in addition to me doing all of my personal projects and my professional work with the artists that I’m working with, I think I also have an opportunity to really tap into the talent in the community and get them involved.

That’s a big part of doing this here in Rhode Island. For me, it’s getting fully involved in the community and having the community flourish with this level of work, writing and recording. I don’t want it to be this isolated bubble at all, I’d actually say that I want the total opposite. I really want to build the community up here as much as I can.