By recycling retired instruments, Second Beat Studios ensures there is not a day the music dies.
Ever wonder what happens to an instrument when its playing days are over? If husband-and-wife duo Julie and Shaun Lawrence of Second Beat Studios have anything to do with it, that retired instrument might reincarnate as a lamp, a clock, a table or even a guitar string bracelet.
The duo, who have a desire to help local music programs such as the one their daughter was involved in at Topsail High School, made a name for themselves by acquiring instruments that were cost-prohibitive to repair and granting them new lives through upcycling.
Keeping the good tunes going, and in an effort to pass it forward, the musically inclined makers set up the Lawrence Low Brass Scholarship with proceeds from the sales to support young and aspiring local musicians.
Now, even though their daughter, Mia, has hung up her Topsail High School Marching Pirate uniform, she continues her musical journey at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte while the Lawrences’ continue their work to give instruments new lives, feeling that work is a way to stay connected to her musical endeavors.
To boot, the couple donates lamps for the high school’s annual Pirate Classic, a competition that features around 20 high school marching bands each October.
Other than working with Topsail High School to rehome instruments and repurpose defunct ones, the couple stays tuned in with a repair technician who makes a bi-annual donation of instruments. Shaun points out that a recent gift, a banjo whose neck was broken in three pieces, has since been glued back together and reborn as a lamp.
“We also purchase items on Facebook Marketplace,” Shaun says. “But if we think they might be playable, I take them to the director of bands. If they’re worth repairing, we donate them to the band. If not, then we turn them into lamps. Our intent is not to take a playable instrument and turn it into a lamp.”
Second Beat Studios can be found around town setting up shop at local markets such as Ocean City Jazz Fest and other pop-ups and craft fairs.
While the one-of-a-kind instruments-turned-furniture are available to custom order, purchase online or pick up around town, the Lawrences envision a combination of a storefront-slash-makerspace in the future. “That would be ideal,” Shaun says. “[A place] where we could repurpose the items on-site and also have a storefront.”
Always challenged to compose creativity, the Lawrences lean into a mixture of inspiration and the resources they have on hand to complete their creations.
“The basis is to try to upcycle everything we get,” Julie says. “It’s looking around, checking the Internet and getting ideas when you go places of what you can do. We try to use as much as possible — the basis is complete upcycling and keeping as much out of the landfill as possible.”
Beyond their self-made sustainable enterprise, Julie is in the midst of getting yet another bespoke small business off the ground, and the couple enjoys exploring new restaurants and hitting the beach.
Don’t let the beats drop!
Second Beat Studios
@secondbeatstudios
Etsy.com/shop/secondbeatstudios
