Kristina Stykos

My workspace is Pepperbox Studio: a solar & wind powered recording room at the end of a dirt road in the hills of Vermont. I'm a music producer, recording and mix engineer, podcaster, musician, songwriter and performer. I came to this remote, abandoned house in the year 2000 with three children in tow and started my business from the ground up.

Along with audio engineering, I run a small indie label called Thunder Ridge Records & support the local "creative economy" by empowering musicians to get to the stark essence of their sound and their message. I've seen that everyone is artistic but the studio is a place of honesty & hard work that only attracts a certain kind of passionate individual. The collaborative recordings we create at Pepperbox Studio are undiluted musical snap shots taken in real time, with our humanity front and center.

As a solo artist, I work with a small group of friends and associates in my area and beyond. My most recent solo album "Horse Thief" (2015) was largely overlooked by the US Americana market, but Europe is taking notice & I'm seeing widespread airplay there. In 2013 I was awarded "Best Songwriter of the Year" by a Vermont news daily, for my album Wyoming Territory, a project that was supported in its development by the Ucross Foundation & Brush Creek Ranch artist residencies of Wyoming.

Right now I'm working on an recording project with the talented Ariel Zevon which should be done by the end of the year. It will be her first album as a songwriter in her own right. Other recent albums include collaborative projects, Beautiful Blood (2013) with singer-songwriter Steve Mayone of Boston, and Raven (2011) co-produced with Grammy-nominated pianist Philip Aaberg of Montana.

In addition to my recording projects, I produce a weekly podcast called 11th Hour Radio, with my co-host Emily Howe, based on a radio show we do on Fridays on WFVR-FM in South Royalton, VT.