Vig: There’s going to be less when Trump’s in office. Arts funding will be cut from government budgets. Everything will need to be even more DIY. Garbage have been all over the world for the last 20 years and we meet young, aspiring artists. Their stories are similar to how Steve and I felt when we started. They're looking for creative outlets. Now technology’s made it easier for musicians to get music out via the internet. Communality, however, is still something artists search for. Collaborating, feeling a sense of community is nurturing. Young artists need feedback and a local scene. I’m sure you’re as saddened as I am by the Oakland fire. That was a counterculture that was necessary because those artists couldn’t find places to work. Scenes like that in funky warehouses exist all over the world. When you go into a club, it’s a thousand times more powerful than watching a band’s YouTube clip. You can send emails until you’re purple in the face, but you can’t replicate physically seeing art in a room. Humans need emotional attachment.

Schneider: Now young people may see Smart as a gateway to an era when people approached things with zero influence from digital culture. The purity that people connect with is powerful. It makes you want to start a studio or produce a body of work along those lines. ____And the studio still inspires people in Madison. Look at the economy that existed around Smart—the cab drivers, the thrift stores, the bars, the hotels, the pizza delivery guys. They were connected to the studio for 30 years. When it closed, some people thought it should be a museum. Smart has become a respected point of reference for how to approach making music. The studios in Madison now all use Smart and the sounds that came out of the space. It’s part of our identity. I think now more than ever, it’s an important time to find a space and an affinity group. Art will be just one reflection of the Trump presidency. It’ll get very honest in a way that it hasn’t been before.

Vig: If you’re doing something DIY, you have to be madly in love and totally obsessed. Art isn’t defined by monetary success but by the amount of time you put into your craft. You have to be naïve, almost stupid, and not think rationally, otherwise you’ll be daunted and you’ll realize it’s too hard to make a living so you’ll become an accountant instead. If you want to create art today, you have to dive in and not think about what payout you’ll receive long haul. It has to be something that makes you feel alive while you’re working on it. If we had hired someone who had business acumen, maybe the studio would still exist. But I don’t think that would have allowed us to have the creative space we wanted. At one point we brought in a manager—it didn’t work out. We wanted to record bands so we had to keep it loose. Steve and I didn’t make any money. After four years we paid ourselves a meager salary, but any money we made at the end of a year would pay for new gear, microphones, maintenance…

Looking at the current climate, I’d say you’re a bit crazy to open a facility. More bands want to record on their laptops at home for free. Whether indie or major label, the money has fallen through the floor for bands to go into other facilities. That being said, the technology has leveled the playing field so if you can find a dirt cheap place you can put some good gear in for not much money. The gear has got better and cheaper, and you can record unlimited tracks on your laptop for free. Keep your overheads low, look at what your bare minimum is per month to keep the doors open.