Check Out Peter Bishop’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Bishop.  

Hi Peter, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I wanted to be a rock/commercial musician as teen in the ‘80s. I lived in a time where it was difficult to get good information and teaching around how to do this, at the same time I had a few key people in my life who helped me. 

When I was sixteen, my mom was working with bands, and she sent me on the road to tour with one. I ended up joining that band, touring through high school and after. I went on to play professionally through my twenties, including becoming an owner at a local recording studio. Through that studio, I was able to work with and produce hundreds of records for bands. 

I left that studio in 1998 at the age of 31 to go to work as a production director for a local church. 

When leaving the commercial studio business, my wife and I had a conversation around the idea of helping younger artists the way others had helped me, and we decided we would open our home and my home recording studio above our garage to help “the next artist that walked in the door.” Above Pete’s Garage was born. 

Within in a week people started showing up looking for help with songwriting and making records. 

We began taking students through local school districts and anyone else that needed help, all for free. 

This continued on for over a decade. In 2014 a local group of businessmen approached us about enlarging what we do, and we were gifted a rather large space in a local commercial building. 

We moved into that space and things really got interesting. 

In 2015 we became a formalized 501(c)3. 

Since then, APG has mentored over 15 school districts in daily/weekly yearlong programs. Multiple school districts in STEM and STEAM programs. APG has served 10+ Juvenile Detention Centers with songwriting/audio production classes combined with positive youth development programs. We have participated in assemblies all over the country, touting the benefits of songwriting, audio/ video creation and production, and living a positive artistic life. 

Since 2017, through classes, recording sessions, assemblies, summer camps, yearlong programs, and after-school programs, APG has mentored/served over 50,000 individual students. In 2022 we served 768 artists on-site in our mentoring studios and worked with over 19,000 students through school assemblies, summer camps, and after-school programs. 

We exist to help artists reach their full potential in life through music and video. We want artists to reach their full potential as creators, but more importantly as humans. We create space and opportunity for artistic mentorship, expression, growth, and life change. We use an apprenticing model where an individual is hands-on doing the things they love to do. There is guidance from someone who’s been where they are and is where they want to be. We are culturally responsive, meaning teaching music where kids are and with what interests them. It means teaching kids to create and express themselves through video and by writing songs and their own music. Teaching them to film and produce visual arts and to play instruments such as synthesizer, electric guitar, or drum kit, not just a violin or recorder. 

We’ve had artists go on to appear on such shows as The Voice, been billboard charted, touring major label artists and award-winning short film directors and production specialists with Pixar and Samsung. Multi-disciplined in audio, video, graphical, team building, and live event production. We’ve had artists go on to mentor others, create families, businesses and most importantly become positive people who influence their communities for the better. 

We have never charged an artist or student any fee. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been an adventure 🙂 

We have always adopted the idea that we “go until we get a no.” And we will do whatever we have to help whoever is put in front of this. 

We’ve had all the typical “problems” non-profits have. Zero monies, no budget, not enough time, proper equipment, etc. 

But in all of that, we have found if you just show up and do what you can with what you have, it will work out. And it has. 

Some fun stories. Once we showed up a prison to do a songwriting class. This was our first prison class. None of had ever been in or near a prison system. We had portable recording rigs, microphones, computers, guitars, all my class notes. They confiscated all the gear from us and would not let us take anything in. They even took my class notes. 5 minutes later we were walking into a prison gym with 50 inmates coming in the doors opposite us with no idea what we were going to do. 

It ended up being the most powerful class we ever had. 

Another time we were asked to do a “songwriting” class for 350 high school boys at one time, and they wanted to know if we could make it last for 3 hours. That was quite a day. 

We have had so many life-changing stories, students who were going to commit suicide and didn’t, students who had no one to go to, food issues, abuse issues. Artists who went on to work in the industry or get into the college they wanted to with our help. 

I can honestly say we have never felt like we were “struggling.” We just knew we need to help the next person who showed up. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think the thing we do better than anyone is create a safe, real-world space that others can learn and grow in, and that is what we are known for. 

I have an amazing team of mentors who serve, volunteer, and contract at APG to help students. I can provide bios if needed. 

This is not a one-man show, a lot of people pour their hearts into making what we do happen. 

I am most proud of the fact that we put our feet where our mouths are. We get up daily and help artists. 

My personal bio is this: 

I am an artist with industry experience spanning more than 30 years in record production, touring, songwriting, music, film, video, graphic and motion animation, artist representation, live production, and event production. I have been mentoring artists for 25 years. Artists I’ve mentored have gone on to be award-winning songwriters, independent filmmakers, and touring musicians. I’ve played on, written on, or produced well over 500 albums. In 1995 I won independent songwriter of the year. Outside of APG, I have built and owned three commercial recording studios. 

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
My view is that everything is a risk. You have zero idea what any day will bring; most things we think are “safe” are only that because we know them. 

So, you might as well enjoy your life, do what you love to do, and go for it. 

I will also say there is a large gap between foolishness and being wise. You should always be wise and not take “bad” risks. There is difference between a good risk and a bad one. 

Most of the time I have made large strides in life are because I was willing to risk and jump all in. Becoming a professional musician, selling my most productive business at its height of success to take a job in an industry that I had never worked in. Recently I left that job after 23 years to pour everything I have into running APG and taking it to the next level. 

We are in the process of another risk undertaking. A new group of businessmen have seen what we are doing and want to gift us a 3-floor, 50,000 plus square foot building to build a commercial music school in. It’s going to be a multi-million-dollar project that could either fail miserably or change a lot of lives…. but we are going for it. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://abovepetesgarage.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abovepetesgarage/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abovepetesgarage
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1gUusolfxUQBOgfoV2BPQ

Image Credits
Peter Bishop
Jeff Jamison
Logan Witte
Brennan Griffith