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WHEELING -- A recording studio with a vibe that pairs Ikea-like simplicity with a touch of lava lamp is tucked inconspicuously into one end of Jamie Peck's rural Ohio County home. The polar opposite of a performance arena, it's a space so quiet that Marcus the studio cat is often the only audience.
Peck -- a performer, composer, sound engineer, producer and self-described introvert whose original score for WQED's "Pittsburgh From The Air" documentary won an Emmy in 2012 -- likes it that way.
"We kind of fly under the radar," he said, noting Jamie Peck Productions maintains everything needed to record entire albums.
It's true. One work space features a complex engineering board where he was weaving together a multi-layered dance track earlier the day of his interview. At the touch of a button, various instrumental parts turned visual, shimmying in colorful lines across a large computer screen.
In the "big room" -- one large enough to house an entire band when needed -- a vintage instrument that seems incongruous with the rest has pride of place. "That's the guy. Right here," Peck said, patting a 1957 Hammond organ salvaged from a Masonic temple in Ohio.
Paired with a battered but equally critical Leslie rotating speaker, it can produce the sound he said has been common to most rock albums for at least the last 50 years. Think pieces by Boston or The Green Onions.
A tiny "iso booth" can be sealed off to record vocals or acoustic guitar.
But, thanks to a remodel done during the early days of the pandemic, all three rooms are now wired in a way that can make the entire, high-ceilinged space a recording studio. Video capability for live YouTube releases is coming soon.
The space and Wheeling as a place work for him, he said of his remarkable, home-grown career.
"I've always been a self-employed musician," Peck said in a spirit of marvel at the unusual life he's been able to live. "It's the fabric of who I am. I write music. I feel music. I hear it in my mind. I do a lot of my writing at Walmart, walking around."
EARLY DAYS
Peck grew up in Weirton and New Cumberland in a family of musicians. His two older brothers, Skip Peck and the late John Peck began performing early and often dragged the much younger Peck along.
"He was already out playing Moose clubs," Peck said of Skip, who still performs in a jazz trio. "I was a little kid, playing tambourine in the back, falling asleep halfway through."
When his brothers enlisted his help for a gag trombone blast during a minstrel performance in Wheeling, something career-shaping sparked, however. Peck began playing jazz saxophone and was soon performing solos.
Fast forward: After a brief stint at Homer Laughlin China Co., Peck joined a country band with a jazz flavor in 1980. The group, the Other Brothers, wanted a keyboardist instead of a saxophonist. He switched primary instruments. Then, the Jamboree radio show hired the whole group -- which included Roger Hoard and Donnie Hoard -- as part of a staff band. Peck was in -- and suddenly rubbing shoulders with the luminaries of country music.
By 1989, with enough money and experience accumulated, the newlywed 27 year old opened the former Fat Cat Studio near Capitol Music Theatre. Brad Paisley was among those who showed up, recording his early demos there. "He basically lived in the studio back then," Peck recalled.
During the 1990s, two wonderful events combined to truly make Peck's career viable, he noted. First, he formed a long-term collaboration with the late performer B.E. Taylor, also of Wheeling. He co-produced five of Taylor's albums and played keyboard for many of Taylor's live productions, including one with Bruce Springsteen.
Also that decade, Wheeling native Chris Pappas enlisted his skills as a composer. The late Pappas was living in Los Angeles and working for ABC. He needed background or "source" music for various television serieses.
"He would say, 'I need 10 pieces of music in the criminal genre, like for (a show like) CSI," Peck said. He was also sub-contracting for Weirton-based musician Rick Witkowski to write source music for Nickelodeon.
"I did that for 20 years," Peck said of the combined source-music revenue stream. "That's what allowed me to build the house (and current studio)."
He credits Taylor, however, for encouraging him when disappointments came along -- such as the 2017 Disney purchase of ABC that brought Peck's work there to a sudden halt. "He would always say, 'Don't worry. Something's going to happen.' "
And, it did. Again and again.
Sometimes, that something was a check in the mail, Peck said. Other times, it was a new opportunity. In the early 2010s, for example, WQED enlisted him as composer for the "Pittsburgh From The Air" production. It was the first time Peck had produced an entire score.
"Entire" is the operative word. "I wrote and played everything (except for some guitar and cello tracks)," he noted. The 59-minute work -- which will soon be released sans video on Spotify -- was written scene by scene in less than a month.
"I approached it more like a movie score," Peck said of composing to match the sound, pace and feel of the footage.
But, when all that hard work was nominated for an Emmy in 2012, Peck was petrified. The last time he had competed for an award was as a middle school saxophonist, he said. Then, a classmate had leaned over and whispered, "You're a shoo-in," right before he lost. "It was painful."
During the Emmy ceremony, he said one of WQED's executive producers unwittingly offered the same words. Peck said he glanced at his wife, Monica Peck, in horror -- right before he won. His Emmy sits next to photos that show a stunned Peck accepting his award and a yellow note pad that is covered with his initial notes on the production.
The Peck-produced score of "Pittsburgh From The Air II" was also nominated for an Emmy.
FUTURE VISION
"It's been a ride," Peck said of his career, making rollercoaster motions with one hand. But, he's still got a couple loop-de-loops in mind.
He continues to listen to music with fresh ears. Sometimes, he plays entire albums by contemporary artists such as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish just to mentally pick apart the individual soundtracks. It's not just to maintain a fresh sound repertoire for his clients. It's research.
After decades of working behind the scenes with and for other artists, he said he's now ready to write, perform, engineer and produce an album of his own. Peck said the idea is partly to create a legacy work for his son, Liam Peck, a 20-year-old West Liberty University student who's bringing the live video side to Peck's recording sessions.
But, Peck also feels like it's finally time to step into the spotlight as a solo performer, something he knows would necessarily accompany such a work. "I'm getting more comfortable with it."
The album will be jazz, but will likely include sounds from other genres. There will definitely be acoustic elements as he said he prefers that organic sound.
He wouldn't mind doing a movie score one of these days, either. You just never know, he said. "Who says you have to do one thing?"