Elijah “Lij” Shaw

Owner of the Toy box Studio studio.

Producer, engineer, musician.

I am a musician, record producer, recording engineer, and owner of The Toy Box Studio. I have been playing music on various instruments and song writing since childhood. In 1990 I completed my BA in Architecture at Washington University in St Louis, and spent the next year backpacking around the world only to end up playing in a blues band in Hong Kong for 6 months. Returning to home I realized that my true passion through college had been music and bands (not architecture). So in 1991 I moved from Boston MA to Nashville TN to study at Middle Tennessee State University where I received a BS in Recording Engineering. After graduating I interned at Woodland Studios in East Nashville and then spent many years producing and engineering at Alex The Great studio. I also continued to produce independently in many studios locally and internationally while pursuing my passion for field recording of music and poetry across the country.

• In 2005 I started The Hay Bale Studio backstage at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, TN. I have recorded hundreds of songs by many of the most notable artists in the industry today. Arists such as Aimee Mann, Andrew Bird, Blues Traveler, Grace Potter and The Nocturnal, Wilco, and Tori Amos, to name just a few have been broadcast nationally from The Toy Box Hay Studio backstage at Bonnaroo.
  

• In St Louis, MO with Chris King I co-created the non profit group, Poetry Scores, to bring music and poetry together on cd and film. Scoring music to poetry I worked with such literary greats as, Leo Connellan poet laureate of CT, and Les Murray poet laureate of Australia.
• I have produced and recorded many records awarded praise in Rolling Stone, and Spin Magazine for work with artists such as The Living Things, Jill Sobule, and Glenn Tilbrook, and Rosco Gordon.
• My musical production has been used in television and film soundtracks including the Cingular commercial for the 2005 Superbowl (The Living Things – Bom Bom Bom).
• In 2007 I designed and built The Toy Box Studio, a full production recording facility in East Nashville, TN. Where vintage meets modern The Toy Box Studio offers a marriage of analog and digital recording technologies in a welcoming creative environment. Artists such as The Silver Seas, Barry and The Remains, and Deer Tick have earned accolades from Rolling Stone after seeking me out and the Toy Box Studio to record.
• I have also provided portable recording services from The Toy Box Studio for live performances and location recording.
• In 2009 I began collaborating with the nonprofit group, Nashville Youth Speaks, to produce poetry recordings of middle school and high school students in the Nashville area. 
• In 2014 I created and co-hosted an international podcast, Bitcoins and Gravy, conducting 30 global interviews and reaching 150,000 downloads. Bitcoins and Gravy received press in The Tennessean and The Wall Street Journal.
• In 2014 I also started The Toy Box Studio Show, a podcast dedicated to educating studio owners. Through teaching, interviewing guests, and sharing knowledge I hope to empower audio recordists around the world to grow successful studios. 
• In 2010 I created Stereo Sessions, a live performance recording and video series based on the model of the Hay Bale Studio at Bonnaroo. I have recorded scores of artists on Stereo Sessions and been featured in The East Nashvillian and on Fox 17 News for both The Hay Bale Studio and Stereo Sessions.