Headroom Studios began in a small warehouse space in the fall of 2008 by two friends, Joe Reinhart, and Kyle Pulley. In 2014, they moved into a larger studio and invested in a well-curated collection of musical instruments and digital/analog equipment. Their vision for the studio: a place to give artists’ and producers’ voice a medium to create evocative music with sonic and emotional clarity while maintaining the idea of a gritty, honest, and unassuming work of art.
Headroom has two different sized studios to fit the needs of artists, bands, freelance engineers and producers as well as a lounge with accommodations for out of town clients.
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Joe Reinhart Founder & Co-owner
Joe has been recording bands since he was 15, starting off with a Tascam Portastudio in his parents’ basement. Many bands and years later, in 2007, he recorded his band, Algernon Cadwallader’s debut LP, “Some Kind of Cadwallader” in a variety of locations, including his West Philly bedroom studio that he shared with his band members. It was around that time that he also met Kyle at Drexel, and a couple years after that, moved into a warehouse, that was dubbed “Big Mama’s” and put some gear in the extra rehearsal room that became The Headroom. It was here that Joe recorded a ton of projects like Hop Along’s “Get Disowned”, which he later joined as a lead guitarist in 2012. Since then he’s produced bands like Joyce Manor, Modern Baseball and so many others. When he’s not holed up in the studio or ripping it on stage, Joe is surfing.
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Kyle Pulley Founder & Co-owner
All through his early high school and college years, Kyle knew that he wanted to be involved in music, and after many false starts interning at venues and post production houses, he realized that no matter what he was involved with, he always found himself back in the university’s recording studio. It was around that time that he had a chance meeting with Joe at an Algernon Cadwallader show in West Philly and realized they were classmates. After graduating, Kyle assisted at American Diamond for Bill Moriarty, and was fortunate to work on Dr. Dog’s “Fate”, as an assistant, while recording bands on his own in various houses in West Philly. Soon after, he and Joe moved into Big Mama’s warehouse, where they started Headroom together. Kyle worked on lots of bands at this new space where he eventually met Chrissy Tashjian, with whom he later went on to form their current band, Thin Lips. Since then, Kyle has worked with bands such as Kississippi, Adult Mom, Diet Cig, Hop Along, Shamir, and Mo Lowda and the Humble. When Kyle isn’t in the studio or bass guitaring, he’s drinking CBD and tubing.
Staff Engineers
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Shane Woods
Starting with a drum kit at age 5, Shane has always been obsessed with music. It was while attending Temple for Recording that he started skipping class and hanging out at The Headroom as an intern in 2013. Since then he’s assisted and engineered many projects at the Headroom (Lithuania, Hop Along, Kississippi, Modern Baseball), and recently produced his own band, Mo Lowda and The Humble. When Shane is not on tour he is in the studio, and when he’s not in the studio, he’s shooting pool with a mustache.
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Mark Watter Studio Manager
Mark is a now-delinquent philosophy major turned touring musician, engineer, and studio manager. Whether he’s producing, engineering, mixing, touring, or making sure Headroom isn’t on fire, he brings emotion, atmosphere, and energy to any music passing through his hands. Distortion is his hobby and passion.
Most recently, Mark has worked with Alex G, Hop Along, and Thin Lips. When he’s not in studio you can find him touring with Lizdelise (bass) and Swim Camp (lead guitar), or building whatever kind of baritone guitar he’s dreaming up. He is a cat person with a gear obsession.
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Jackie Milestone
Jackie (they/them) is a queer sound artist/engineer with a penchant for punk and pop music. They started out making experimental sound art in Oberlin Conservatory’s TIMARA department, and then began recording any college band willing to trust them, before finally ending up in the professional studios of Philadelphia. Adjacent to their refusal of the binary gender scale, Jackie also refuses to abide by a binary concept of experimental and pop music. They are ever fascinated with the ways these worlds collide in the studio, & believe making a record should be a deeply fun sonic exploration/collaboration between artist and engineer.
Jackie has recently worked with Adult Mom, corey flood, and American Trappist. When they’re not in the studio, they are smashing gender- and accessibility-based barriers to entry in music/audio via their work with Girls Rock Philly and as a founding member of the Sound Museum Collective (@soundmuseumcollective). & when they’re not doing that they’re probably creating music for their band LUNCH or making some truly bizarre bedroom pop multimedia zine installation
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Johanna Baumann
Johanna has been dreaming of being a record producer since she was a child making experimental noise tracks on GarageBand. After studying sound engineering and media arts at the University of Michigan, Johanna moved to Philly and started working at Headroom Studios, assistant engineering for artists like Diet Cig and Adult Mom. In January 2021 she made her self-produced solo debut as janna. When she isn’t making records, she teaches music lessons and hangs out with her cat.