Wednesdays in Red Hook: Eric Sanderson

Welcome to ‘Wednesdays in Red Hook’, a close-up look into the day-to-day life of people in our community, including the hard work, unexpected encounters, and delightfully mundane moments that make up an average Wednesday in Red Hook.

Today we’re following Eric Sanderson, a producer, mixer, engineer, and session musician who owns Harbor Studios, a recording studio at the very end of Van Brunt Street. Before he started Harbor Studios, Eric toured around England and Germany for 8 years with his band, Augustines.Today he wears many hats at Harbor Studios. Let’s jump into a recent Wednesday.

8:30 a.m. After a rough night of sleep, Eric finally gets out of bed a little later than he would have liked. Eric and his eight-year-old son read on the couch for a while. He is reading about the art of perfectly cooking bacon in the cookbook Obsessed with the Best, a gift from his wife. His son is reading The Nocturnals, a book series about three animals who “solve mysteries with friendship, teamwork, and humor.”

9:30 a.m. It’s time for breakfast, but first Eric digs through his record collection. Eric selects John Coltrane’s album Impressions to accompany him while he makes french toast out of some slightly stale bread. 

11:00 a.m. Eric’s family joins him on the walk to Harbor Studio, where they hang out for a bit before Eric jumps into the day’s work. 

Jade, who works out of the space, is at her piano, like she often is in the mornings. Olav, the studio manager and mastering engineer, and Peter, Eric’s assistant and session engineer, are there, too. 

“The past week had been so packed with sessions that even though we’d all been back from a stretch apart, we hadn’t actually had a minute to sit and talk. So that’s how the morning started: just gathered in the control room, catching each other up—a little bit of reflection before the workday really kicked in,” Eric explains. 

12:00 p.m. Eric begins by working on a few songs for musician Kyp Malone, who recorded at the studio for a week in August. Eric exports the stems from the August session to send to Kyp so he can keep working on the material before they regroup.

1:00 p.m. It’s lunch time and, as usual, Eric walks to Food Bazaar to grab a tuna sandwich. He returns to the studio to eat and sort through some emails. 

2:00 p.m. Eric sits down with Olav and Peter to discuss Harbor Studio’s artist residency. Their seasonal program selects one band or artist to spend a complimentary week recording at their studio. They’re preparing for their second artist residency with the recently selected band, Baby’s First Kemical. The band will record at Harbor Studios in October. 

“Right now we run it independently … but we spent the afternoon putting together a proposal to the city to expand that to a full month, which would mean securing funding,” Eric explains. “We’re hoping to tap into the grants that Mayor Mamdani recently announced for arts and cultural organizations.”

5:00 p.m. Eric wraps up his workday by preparing for musician Dennis King’s recording session tomorrow. The artist had already tracked a batch of songs at the studio the week before, so Eric spent some time on the administrative side of mixing, as well as getting the session organized and ready. 

“When I actually sit down to mix it’s a very meditative process for me. It’s crucial for me that everything technical is squared away in advance so I can just open the session and paint,” explains Eric. “That’s honestly the thing I love most about this job—no two days look alike … Producing, mixing, engineering, running a business or being a musician, I get to wear a lot of hats, and that’s what keeps it exciting.”

7:30 p.m. Eric heads home and preps the grill before his wife and son arrive with groceries for tonight’s dinner of grilled chicken thighs, Greek salad, pita, and a few tomatoes from the family garden.

9:00 p.m. Once dinner is cleaned up, Eric spends a little more time reviewing the artist residency grant proposal. Eventually it’s time to decompress for the evening, as he watches several episodes of HBO’s Shrinking with his wife.

12:00 a.m. “Tomorrow it starts again,” Eric thinks as he turns out the lights. “This time with Dennis King back in the studio to record a new song.”