It would take a lifetime to listen to all 10,000 vinyl albums available at Santa Monica’s Endless Noise but fortunately for audiophiles, the production studio also houses a hidden coffee shop to keep the mind spinning as fast as the records.
For almost 30 years, Endless Noise studios has worked with varying artists, composers, companies, films, and more. Their work is wide-reaching and nuanced, while maintaining a very personal, community feel.
During those decades, owner Jeff Elmassian amassed his massive record collection and always imagined a time where he would turn his hobby into a business but it wasn’t until he opened the collection to the clients of the production company and paired the experience with a strong Turkish coffee that co-Creative Director Dave Chapman said the time was right to expand Endless Noise into a fully functional vinyl record store and coffee shop. The combination recording studio/record store/cafe now provides an auditory oasis on the city’s southeast edge.
The creation of a retail business accelerated with the Covid-era lockdowns that ended in-person recording and the lull provided an opportunity to completely remodel the front reception area into a quaint and colorful record store hidden inside a collection of low-rise office buildings on the city’s eastern edge. The retail store shares an entrance with the production business and has grown into a thriving business of its own.
While the shop was originally intended to be a hub for local artists, something unexpected happened, not only did the clients love the experience, but so did the local high school students, families who attend the Little Dolphins preschool right across the street and just about everyone who stumbled upon it.
Seeing a bigger opportunity to get the local community involved with their work, the pair decided to evolve again, adding a welcoming barista and expanding the menu with some less intimidating offerings. Endless Noise reopened officially in January of this year but the business retains its musical roots.
"... when you come into the coffee and vinyl shop and someone starts asking questions about vinyl. (Barista) Aidan comes out and gets me and I go out and talk to people about it. And that’s the vibe, I think that we want that super personalized sort of touch is, is important to every aspect of what we do," said Elmassian.
The shop would have never come to be without Elmassian’s award winning production company, Endless Noise.
The studio has moved around the city over the years from the Promenade, to Pico to its current location on Stanford.
Dave Chapman, who joined the company three years ago, has taken Elmassian’s vision to heart.
"We don’t try to operate as a big business. We try to operate as a very personal, very hands on company. If a film maker comes to us with a project, we’re not kind of sending them off to a different producer or somebody that’s not as familiar with our music product or original music. You’re getting the partners of the business working with you through the entire process," said Chapman.
The store may have grown out of the music business, but it had a surprising way of growing the studio side of the operation.
"I think it’s given us a different opportunity to meet more people that we would work with," said Chapman. "Like, we’ve definitely had a fair number of people come in here just because they have a shared love of music, shared love of vinyl, and coffee. And then, they happen to be working at a video game company or ad agency. And it’s been a really cool way to meet new people that we can then kind of collaborate with and work with in the back studio. That’s been like a super great thing."
Chapman and Elmassian, didn’t want to make a vinyl store like any other. There are no labeled sections, as they are not organized by genre or artist. The goal is for the record to pick you out first.
"See a record, play a record," is Elmassian’s vision and his curation takes the mundane activities of our day such as waiting for coffee, and makes it a creative journey.
"What would people not normally stumble onto on Spotify or Apple Music? What would their algorithm that’s choosing for them, what would be something that’s sort of like outside of that? So the vibe when you come into the store is, and I’ve always said this, I want it to feel like your really cool aunt or uncle’s living room where they’ve got this, they make this really cool coffee for you," said Elmassian. He adds that "it’s not overwhelming when you walk into the store. It kind of invites you in."
While the majority of the records are vintage, Elmassian organizes a special shelf in the store solely for local artists. Incorporating the local artists and music he prioritizes in his company into the front store was essential for Elmassian.
"We like to support [the artists] not only through the sales of records, but also, if they do records, we do record releases here. For them we are kind of a perfect place for that, because we aren’t just the shop, we’re also an actual functioning studio with a bunch of musicians and composers and artists here," said Elmassian.
With over 2,000 records covering the walls of the store, the pair also want customers to appreciate the artistry of vinyl. "45% of the people who bought records don’t own a record player… They’re just buying the records for the artwork, it looks cool," said Elmassian.
They can, of course, play their beloved art inside the store while enjoying the uncommon offering of Turkish coffee.
The drinks are just as personal to Elmassian as the tunes. The Turkish coffee is the same recipe his grandmother made for him, and the same recipe Elmassian has welcomed his clients with over the last 30 years.
While the pair have expanded their business into retail, they’ve also been working on new musical endeavors through sync licensing. Sync licensing, which grants permission for sound to be applied to a visual, is a newer model of the music industry that has boomed with the rising popularity of social media. Their multi-thousand hour music catalog has taken some time to process but now their music is accessible to not only clients, but any music lovers at Endlessnoise.com.
"I love that juxtaposition of where music sort of came from, recorded music came from, and where it is right now and what it’s going to be in the future," said Elmassian of the current ventures.
The coffee and vinyl shop is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. at 1825 Stanford St.
Antoinette Damico, SMDP intern
