Shred at the Shed

Photography By Alexia Abarca

The Shed is a Do-It-Yourself, all ages, anti-pay-to-play venue in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. Co-founder Bobby Littrell opens up to Reckless about how the venue came into existence, it’s rapid growth, and creating a safe space for musicians to play.

Los Angeles, USA

What is The Shed?

We are a diy, all ages, anti- pay to play venue in Porter Ranch CA in the San Fernando valley.

Our whole ethos with The Shed is creating a place for alternative/diy bands to develop their act without the fear of being hassled to bring a certain amount of people or worse have to “pay to play.”

How did it start?

It’s sort of a sad story. The Shed was my Dads woodshop. In 2019, he was diagnosed with MDS a pre leukemia condition similar to cancer. He passed in 2021 and during that time his woodshop became a hoarding situation. Just stacks and stacks of boxes of random stuff, trash, etc. It was sad to see the condition it became. I started clearing it out, then once it was empty I would use it as a jam sesh space for my friends and I. The sound that would bounce off the metal had this amazing reverb and I thought it would be great to have different acts come through and play. Britt and I threw a crappy PA system in there and started doing shows.

We just celebrated our one year anniversary in March 25th, 2023.

Some of our favorite bands that have played so far:

Honey Revenge

Glimmers

Cayley Spivey

Chase Petra

Brooklane

True North

Diva Bleach

How has The Shed grown since you first started ?

From sound to the lights it’s a completely different space and it’s all thanks to people who believe in what we are doing and what we’re building.

Something that was a big hurtle in the beginning was the fact that we were in the valley. When we started the only people that came out were the people the bands asked to come out which was great but all we heard was how far of a drive it was for people. Now we have a bunch of people that come from all over LA and the Inland Empire. We really appreciate everyone that comes out because the majority of the crowd isn’t from the valley.

Bobby Littrell and Britt Hughes run The Shed, with Shaye Wolf as the sound engineer. How did you all meet?

Britt and I met in 2011. We were both interning for this “artists management company” that we found on Craigslist. Basically, it was an unpaid a&r internship with what I can only describe as a fake artist management company. Luckily, at the same time she began interning at Hopeless Records and I started an internship at Epitaph Records which lead to us working at those labels so we were on this same path, going to the same shows and hangs.

A few years later she started Common Ground Collective and began throwing backyard shows at her place in Tujunga called The Vibe with small PA system that she bought off of me for like $100. Fast forward to 2022, when I cleared out the shed I hit her up to see if she still had the speakers and I bought them back from her. It’s sorta a full circle story but I’m so lucky that she still had them. When she came over to drop them off I told her what my idea was. She was into it. We came up with the name on the spot and our little motto “shred at the Shed” and the rest is history.

Shaye Wolf came into the picture after our third show. It was our first big show, Hoity Toity, Honey Revenge, In The Mourning, and Penny Bored. We were still working with these little speakers from The Vibe and a crappy amplifier that only had 6 inputs. It was a disaster sound wise. The bands had in-ears and backtracks, we had no idea how to work with any of that. The show went on and it was still a gnarly show. After the show, Shaye came up to us and said he could do sound for us. And with us being so new with no real budget and committed to paying the bands first we explained that we couldn’t pay him more then the bands and thankfully he was on board with that and he became a partner. He’s a genius. A sound wizard. He hadn’t really done sound for a show before he joined us so it was just perfect that we were all figuring out our roles together. Without Shaye, The Shed wouldn’t be what it is today. Period.

What are the highs and lows of running your own DIY venue?

There are definitely more highs than lows (thankfully). It’s hard work. Working out line ups/shows, details with syncing up everyone’s schedules. Setting up the stage, fine tuning the sound, making sure everything is going smoothly during the show. Lots to juggle but it’s so rewarding seeing everyone having fun. Some lows are definitely not being able to do more shows. There are a lot of bands we want to have but we are really limited to the amount of shows we can do. We have been so lucky having neighbors that don’t complain often so we do our best to keep them in mind when booking shows.

The biggest highlight as of late; I was working the front door and asked these people who they were here to see and they said they didn’t know any of the bands, they just came out to see a shed show. Like that’s so fucking rad.

What does the future look like for The Shed?

Our next goal is moving into a space where we can have more shows and support more artists. Ultimately we want The Shed to become a venue that people come to without necessarily knowing the bands but come out to show to discover bands they wouldn’t otherwise come across.