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A home for music: Mebane’s Jerry Kee records musicians in his house

Mebane producer Jerry Kee stands in front of the equipment in his living room.
Mebane producer Jerry Kee stands in front of the equipment in his living room.

It’s easy to miss. Just a dingy old drumhead staked into the ground on the side of a curvy road in rural Mebane.

But the small house that resides at 3907 Mebane Oaks Road is home to one of the Triangle’s longest-standing and most respected producers.

Jerry Kee, who operates his self-proclaimed eighth Duck Kee Studio on the site, has been recording bands in the area for more than 20 years.

“I named the last one seven since that’s a good number, prime number,” Kee jokes of his last studio in Raleigh. “That just kind of dawned on me one time, that that was the seventh place I’d been recording. But that includes, like, the bedroom of my parents’ house.”

Having begun recording in his youth out of a hunger for composing and producing music, Kee moved from his West Virginia home to Raleigh in the mid ’80s. It was about 1988 when he turned his home at the time into a locale that still lives in the annals of local music history.

It was there that the name Jerry Kee was tied to records by Superchunk and Polvo, two bands that put indie rock and Chapel Hill on the map in the ’90s. After about eight years in Raleigh, Kee moved to his second live-in studio, transforming the living room area of his Mebane house into a professional recording studio.

“It’s what everything centers around,” Kee says of the choice to cram his house with tape machines, booths and computer equipment. “I don’t really think twice about it. This place needs to be bigger as far as that goes. I think about taking the screened-in porch and finishing it up or something like that.”

It certainly results in an interesting environment. Part cluttered homestead, part indie rock nostalgia, Kee’s setup is charmingly rustic, his three cats — Sammy, Molly and Zucchini — coexisting with whatever troubadour is recording there at the time. It’s an atmosphere that clients speak of fondly.

“Jerry’s studio is like this cluttered place that you can barely move around in,” said John Booker, of Chapel Hill’s I Was Totally Destroying It, who has recorded at Duck Kee with four previous projects. “It’s got cat hair all over everything. But, I mean, it’s got that vibe to it. It’s got that really homey feel to it. I mean, Jerry lives in the studio.”

From this comfortable environment Kee produces records with a warm, lived-in feel. Recording to two-inch tape as opposed to the digital methods becoming more prevalent today, he gives his products a roughly hewn but still professional sound.

“I try to let them do what they want to do,” Kee said of his studio technique. “I try to help them do what they’ve been trying to do. I’m not really hands-on unless they’re really inexperienced and are aiming for something higher than what they’re going to get.”

Many of the artists who come through Duck Kee appreciate this approach.

“He knows how to point you in the right direction, but he doesn’t bring his ego into the recording process,” said Reid Johnson of Chapel Hill’s Schooner, whose new Duck Kee Sessions EP was recorded by Kee. “He kind of will let you do your own thing. He will give you a kinda weird look if you suggest something that’s probably not going to work, but he doesn’t try to make you something out of his mold.”

With this approach of guiding rather than directing and rates that are affordable for those not working on a record label budget, Kee often becomes a solid first option for up-and-coming talent.

“The people I always work with usually are paying for it themselves, as opposed to a record company paying for it,” he said. “They’re enthusiastic about it. It’s just great people to work with because they’re at that stage where they’re really excited about it. They’re working hard.”

Booker, who had his first recording experience at Duck Kee with the band Strunken White, said Kee was a great first producer.

“We were still so young and figuring everything out,” he said. “Jerry’s kind of the guy to walk you through that. He’s just been doing it for so long for so many local bands.”

Eager to dole out his wisdom and open up his doors for whatever band chooses to reach out, Kee provides a service that many in this area’s music scene are eager to keep around.

“You’re getting really high-quality records for a reasonable amount of money,” said Paul Finn, head of Chapel Hill’s Odessa Records, speaking to how Kee sells used tape or rents tape to bands who are strapped for cash. “You’d be hard-pressed to be able to afford analog tape without Jerry.

“You’d just be getting records that weren’t as good sounding. We’re really lucky to have him.”

And if Kee has his way, it’s an opportunity that bands from the Triangle and elsewhere will be able to utilize far into the future.

“I just turned 50 last year, so zowy! That sounds old,” he said. “I’m wondering whether I should try something different before I’m too old to change over. My conclusion was, ‘No, I’ll just stick to doing this.’ I probably won’t have much money to retire on, but I have a brother, a little brother in West Virginia who has a farm. Always a place to stay.”



Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu

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