One of the unexpected things about building a home studio is that eventually it stops being about the room itself and starts becoming part of an ongoing creative process. After weeks of rearranging gear, testing setups, recording demos, changing layouts, fixing cables, and slowly turning the space into something functional, the room started to generate a steady stream of actual output. This is “Your Ugly Mug” — written by Tom Smith, and recorded as part of the ongoing collaboration between Baulk at the Möön and The Songs of Tom Smith. https://open.spotify.com/track/3cJ3ym6XEY1pSz67NqwskF?si=c392d02c17734b3b One thing I’ve realised through this process is that creativity rarely arrives under perfect conditions. Most songs happen somewhere between chaos, experimentation, self-doubt, technical problems, unfinished ideas, and the strange decision to keep going anyway. That’s probably what Room to Record is really about. Not perfection. Not expensive gear. Not waiting until everything is “ready”. Just building enough space — mentally and physically — for the work to keep happening. @roomtorecord #HomeStudio #Songwriting #RecordingStudio @baulkatthemoon @songs_of_tom_smith #MusicProduction

After spending weeks building, adjusting, reorganising, painting, tweaking, and slowly turning this space into something usable… eventually you have to stop working on the room and actually use it. That’s the part people don’t talk about enough. A home studio can quietly become a permanent setup project. There’s always another thing to improve. Another cable to fix. Another plugin to buy. Another video to watch. At some point though, the room has to justify its existence. So here is the first recording that came from the room finally becoming a place for actual output instead of endless preparation. “Dealing Drugs” was written by Tom Smith and recorded in the new home studio to meet an external deadline. It was later mixed and mastered at Hillside Studios by Matt Hills, before being released in January 2026 on The Glorious Rebirth… by Baulk at the Möön (more on that in a future post). https://open.spotify.com/track/33bw4zPtGm4KeMmwkbIczF?si=40edcd543fb14bf9 Tom’s original demo was a raw acoustic guitar-and-vocal recording captured on a mobile phone. It's also part of his forthcoming concept album about crime and justice. I approached the arrangement as a strange fusion of 90s grunge and hip-hop, which was completely new territory for me, and asked my friend Adam Szkolka to record the main vocals.