Percussion professor records album, starts business over quarantine

Stacey Jones-Garrison called her quarantine this summer an “extended sabbatical.” Considering the fact that she used it to start her own jewelry company and record an album, the term seems fitting.

“It’s a producer’s dream,” said Jones-Garrison, college artist and music teacher. “ ‘You have to stay inside.’ Well OK!”

After coronavirus shutdowns sent Hillsdale College students and professors online for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester, Jones faced an anticlimactic end to her plans for percussion that semester. 

“What am I supposed to be doing right now? I’m sure everybody asked themselves that question when they were stuck at home,” Jones-Garrison said. “I just felt like I needed to keep creating.”

The creativity started with her musical background. 

Jones played many instruments before leaning into percussion. She said she has been interested in music since high school in the late ’80s, when she often composed electronic music on a keyboard. She also had a rock cover band with her church colleague Kelly Heath in the ‘90s. After percussion, electronic music seemed like history—until last summer, when she went to Electric Forest, an electronic music festival in Rothbury, MI. 

“That’s where I rekindled my interest in it,” Jones-Garrison said. “I started gathering this music software, and I actually dedicated my percussion ensemble last year to electronic music as inspiration.”

Though Jones-Garrison’s ensemble didn’t get a chance to perform because of the pandemic, Jones got another opportunity to play electronic music for her church in Jackson, West Winds Community Church.  They asked her to be part of a group of church musicians and create music for their quarantined members. Eleven weeks later, they had created more than 80 songs—and five albums. 

“They really wanted to give the community daily support, so we started doing daily services where we were trying to generate, through all the musicians at the church, original music to present as part of it,” Jones-Garrison said. “It seemed like a calling. It seemed like, ‘this is what I’m supposed to be doing right now.’”

Heath said the musicians would meet together for daily services, which they called “The Breviary,” and would record and arrange up to 10 songs a week. Heath said Jones-Garrison was brilliant with her arrangements.

“She put in so much work,” Heath said. “She was amazing, and with the music production side, she just took right to it.”

Heath said even though Jones-Garrison is a drummer at the church, she is “really great with melody,” and her songs can easily be picked out as her own from the rest of the musicians.

“She has her own style,” Heath said. “She’s already kind of got her voice. It’s modern music, but the way that she thinks through the layers, it’s very orchestral, so you get the fact that she’s classically trained.”

All of Jones-Garrison’s sound was produced by her computer. She also began writing lyrics for the first time to add to the sound. As the quarantine continued, Jones found her creative groove and kept exploring. 

By the end of the church’s project, Jones-Garrison had five original songs, four arranged hymns, and an entire album that she called “The Source.” “It’s her first originally produced album, with  Heath and her daughter contributing to the vocals.

The Source is scheduled to be released to SoundCloud and Spotify on Oct. 4. Jones-Garrison said the purpose of the project was to give daily hope, and the name of her album reflects this message. The beginning lyrics sing, “You are the source of strength beyond my own/You are the force under my feet that brings me home/You are the fire that kindles hope inside cold bones.”

“A lot of my songs ended up dealing with that subject matter, which was hope during darkest times,” she said. “He is the source of strength. It was trying to acknowledge that people were struggling, acknowledge that people were in the dark, feeling hopeless, and then offer hope.”

As the quarantine continued, Jones-Garrison found her creative groove and kept exploring. Music was just the first stop. 

“I’ve always wanted extra time to try things I’ve always wanted to try or do because I’m a person of multiple interests,” she said.

 Another project Jones-Garrison has been working on is ZenBuoy Arts, an outlet for her handcrafted jewelry. She knew as soon as she ran into her old friend Steve Schuster that she needed to do something with the stones he creates for his lapidary business, Pine Ridge Rocks.

“I’m such a nature lover. I’m one of those kinds of people that wanders up to creeks and just looks down to find the cool stones,” Jones-Garrison said. “And he’s exactly like that. We’re like a class of our own.”

Jones-Garrison’s jewelry features Schuster’s rocks wrapped with pure, oxidized copper wire and a vegan suede strap at the ends. She said she wanted to show off Schuster’s stones, so she learned wire wrapping techniques on YouTube and began experimenting. 

“It’s always rewarding when I get pictures back from them, when they’re on display,” Schuster said. “I appreciate what Stacey does with the stones once I’ve finished them. Several of my coworkers have purchased necklaces from Stacey, and when I go to work and I see them wearing something that I’ve created, there’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction and pride that comes along with that.”

Her Facebook page ZenBuoy Arts displays the necklaces to potential customers. Though she does not know how far she wants to take the business, she knows she wants to continue.

“I was finding it to be very soothing, very satisfying to be finishing projects because music sometimes is very difficult to know when something is finished,” she said. “It kind of feels endless. With this, it felt like, ‘Oh look what I made!’ And it’s done.”

According to Jones-Garrison, her jewelry business is complementary to her creative musical outlets.

“My interest is only growing in both areas,” Jones said of her music and her jewelry. “For now, there is a lot of creative energy flowing with these two things, so it would be heartbreaking to not have enough time to do it. Luckily both hobbies can be done at midnight.”