On a Thursday morning in May, I press the buzzer for Grey Studios in the industrial expanse of Long Island City. Ariel and Yael meet me at the top of the stairs. Ariel, a producer and the studio’s founder, and Yael, a musician and its manager, built the venue through pure DIY effort and a shared instinct for simply making things work.
Inside, the space is a collection of working fragments. To the right, an intimate recording studio is densely lined with guitars, draped cables, and carefully saved audio gear. Straight ahead opens a sprawling main room. A tall stage anchors the back, crowded with instruments and a massive television that stands as a monument to an adventure that was beautifully absurd. They usually host concerts, musical jams, and workshops here, but this morning the space is quiet.
Ariel is wearing our upcycled box buttondown; Yael is in the tie tank. We pull three black folding chairs into the center of the empty floor and sit down.
Tell me a bit about how you two met, and how the space grew out of that relationship.
Ariel: I’m Ariel, the founder of Grey Studios. Before we opened this place, I was working as an audio engineer for Sofar Sounds.
Yael: And I’m Yael. I guess my official title is the manager. I was actually performing as an artist at Sofar when we met.
Ariel: Yeah, back then I just had this tiny studio space in Sunnyside. Yael wanted to record something, and I told her, "Well, I also produce, I don't just engineer." So we ended up writing and making some songs together. We built a really great friendship from there, and eventually, it just expanded into being partners in every way.
You're creative and romantic partners. That’s a beautiful overlap to have.
Ariel: Oh, for sure.
Yael: Yeah. Ari still gets to work with other people because he produces here, but basically in every other aspect, we work and live together. We’re actually starting a band now, too. It's just going to be another really cool thing we get to do together.
Is there an object in the studio that holds a distinct memory or story for you?
Ariel: The giant TV in the back of the stage. That was supposed to be a surprise for Yael. I went to get it, thinking, "Oh, that’s fine, I can take it on my own." I just didn’t realize how heavy it was, and the case was way bigger than the TV itself. Imagine rolling this massive thing up the steps. Yael had to spot me.
Yael: That’s the second time he’s surprised me with a TV! I was in shock that I needed to carry it. We had to rent a van with this guy we didn't know—it felt like a heist movie, sitting in the back holding this massive TV. It was an adventure together.
Ariel: Now it’s here, and it’s a beautiful memory of us making it work. It’s very symbolic of how hard we try. We figure it out as we go.
Yael: Every person that comes to do an event uses it to put up their logo or graphics. It's not really a TV for entertainment; it's a symbol of how we grew as an event space.
Is there an object you’ve moved with from every place you’ve lived?
Ariel: I’ve saved things since I was twelve. I’ve always known I wanted to be a producer. When I buy gear, I think about it deeply: Is this going to last me a long time? The oldest thing I have is this very small audio interface. It was my first one. I remember thinking, "Oh my God, that's it, I'm an audio engineer." It’s not the highest quality thing you can get now, but it still works. I use every single thing I’ve kept. Outside of music gear, I barely own anything. My closet is so small it could probably fit in a book bag.
Yael: I'm doing all the sentimental stuff haha. I have this necklace that was my grandmother’s, and then my mom’s. She gave it to me about ten years ago when I started my twenties. I moved a lot, lived in a lot of apartments. Coming to New York was just a bag, two suitcases, and a guitar. I was never attached to furniture or physical things. But this necklace is simple and dainty. It’s a way to have that family memory with me everywhere I go.
I also have the electric guitar over there. My uncle actually carried it on a flight to deliver it to me here. There aren’t a lot of people in their 50s walking around airports with electric guitars, so people kept coming up to him thinking he was a famous musician. I used it with my previous band, I play my own music with it, and now Ari plays with me. All the songs and memories are in it. It’s been through a lot of different versions of me.
Do you have any neighborhood rituals?
Ariel: Long Island City is a good mixture. It’s getting the hipsters from Brooklyn, the chillness that Queens brings, and the fast pace of Manhattan. When we want to decompress, we go to Gantry Park. It has a beautiful view of Manhattan and is very calm. Also, on Taco Tuesdays, we go to Tacombi. They know us there at this point. If we miss a Tuesday, they ask what happened. It’s cool to have that hominess here, a neighborhood where people know us.
Yael: Walking to Gantry is really fun. The view of the water there… I'm kind of gatekeeping that park haha It's really nice because there are obviously fewer tourists.
