Built on DIY ethic.
We came up in music venues, tour vans, and recording studios — places where if something needs doing, you do it yourself, and you do it right, because your name’s on it. We never grew out of that. We just got better gear.
Who
is to
blame
for
all
this?
Chris Elkjar’s whole deal, since forever, has been music and the technology that makes it happen. Playing in bands somehow turned into architecting the digital control systems that allow international festival shows to run smoothly. The line between musician and engineer is constantly blurred.
That line keeps blurring further: he collaborates with The Armed, built his own software sequencer in newspeech, and designs audio-reactive visual engines for fun. He also builds the tools that power this agency, because email threads are where deliverables go to die.
SOUP is the result of him asking all of his friends to go down this “create art masquerading as marketing” rabbit hole with him.
PJ Solo is SOUP’s Director of Photography, which undersells it. His work runs from post production on HBO shows to tour production, playing drums, working front of house, the occasional Linux terminal task — he builds, performs, and manages all aspects of music and production.
He was one of the first people Chris asked down the rabbit hole. He didn’t need much convincing.
We own
the room.
STANDARD Audio Recorders is our full recording studio at elevation in Lake Arrowhead, CA. Not a rental. Not a “partner facility.” Ours.
That changes what full service means: there’s no round-trip between production and post. The session gets shot, tracked, mixed, and mastered under one roof, by the same people who filmed it. Nothing gets handed off. Nothing gets lost in translation.
And yes — you can make a record with us while you’re up here. Some clients come for the video and leave with an album. That’s kind of the point.
Visit the studio
