Kevin Basko’s prolific production is propelling Philly acts to stardom

Star Moles this week got a shout-out from John Mayer. Sam and Louise Sullivan—our October Artist to Watch—are growing bigger daily, as well.

As their stars rise, one has to look behind the curtain a bit to see their mutual friend and frequent collaborator Kevin Basko pulling the strings. Rather, working the board.

Basko is the founder of Historic New Jersey Recordings. Located in the basement of his South Philly home—which he shares with Emily Moales of Star Moles—the studio is integral in the success of these two Philly artists. He’s also worked with The Lemon Twigs, John Andrews, Thank You Thank You, and more.

 ”I certainly just help make the notes happen in whatever way I can,” Basko said.

Awfully humble words from the man who is defining a new sound and identity in Philly’s bustling music scene. His friends, bandmates, and frequent collaborators have more to say, though.

“Kevin is a fantastic producer because he’s a songwriter first, and he understands songs better than anyone,” Moales said. “His writing is infuriatingly good, and his ability to hear a complete song in his head based on a melody alone is crazy and inspiring.”

If you’re unaware, Basko has released 85 records under his solo project Rubber Band Gun. The New Jersey native has definitely surpassed the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell posits are required for achieving expertise in a field.

Eighty-five? But why?

“It comes from covering up things that I made when I was in my teenage years that I feel, looking back on, I found to be a little saccharine,” Basko said. “I think I’m trying to compensate maybe in a sense, or I’m trying to prove what I feel like I am to myself. But also it keeps me present, to just stay. In those moments, it’s kind of like you’re flying or something. I think a lot of artists who really live that life know that it’s a pretty weightless feeling when that red light is on and when you’re really tapped into it.”

And that feeling is palpable in his studio.

“Kevin is really the only person we’ve worked with in a serious way,” Sam Sullivan said. “Whenever I get glimpses of how other people record, I get terrified. I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else.”

He went on to say they’ve even spent hours working together on a song and barely communicate verbally.

“It’s so fun. We do all the playing together. I never demo our songs, so I really just bring songs to Kevin, and we flesh them out together.”

“Kevin is someone who can really get to the heart of a song,” Louise Sullivan said. “He’s the best to make music with because he takes it seriously, but that’s what makes it incredibly fun.”

Basko’s interest in music was fully supported by his family, who don’t identify as “capital M” musicians themselves, but have some knowledge in the world: his mother sings in a choir and his dad played organ in a wedding band in high school.

They fostered his passion by finding the right educators to shore up his physical and theoretical skills.

 ”I took lessons on a bunch of different instruments,” he said. “Saxophone for different stuff, and a lot of jazz guitar.”

The latter landed him at Berklee College of Music.

 ”I really beat to death theory at college through the requirements that I had to do,” he said. “Shortly after college, I kind of had to unlearn quite a bit of that and just keep my ear as the primary thing.”

But while many of his peers were learning how to record, Basko was  ”more interested in looking at the back of like Sly and the Family Stone records and seeing how mics were set up, or the back of Stax Records or Muscle Shoals” albums.

“ Never in school did I touch a single knob, at least educationally,” he said.

His first recordings were done with cassette Portastudios, then in about 2018 he got a 16-track reel-to-reel machine, right around when he met Moales after hearing her music online. The connection between the two was immediate, he says.

 ”We made her first record, called Camelot, in my hometown at one of my friend’s houses in one week,” he said. “We actually mixed it on the final day.” All on tape, by the way, and mixed live on the console.

That’s when Basko really became a producer, saying he’d previously been a writer.

“In terms of making music, he’s the best,” drummer Jem Seidel, who plays with both Star Moales and Sam and Louise Sullivan, said of Basko. “He’s very good at knowing exactly what a song needs… or doesn’t need. Everything he makes sounds good, which is pretty crazy considering the size of his catalog. He’s really inspired me over the years. Because the only thing he cares about is making the dopest shit ever.”

“A songwriter who understands song construction down to a molecular level, an engineer with the technical knowledge to capture timeless-sounding recordings, and a producer with the taste and vision to combine all of those previous skills to make instant-classic records,” Eric Hartman, bassist for Star Moles and Sam and Louise Sullivan, said of Basko.

In 2022, Basko saw a video of the Sullivan siblings playing in their backyard and got connected with them.

“I think there’s been like genuinely four or five people in my career that I’ve actually kind of gone out of my way to say, ‘Hey, I love what I’m hearing. I would love to record you,'” Basko said.

“He found us when nobody knew or cared,” Sam Sullivan said. When Basko heard the Sullivans’ songs, he knew there was a goldmine to tap into.

Now, the records he’s produced for them are getting heaps of praise, including from Wilco’s own Jeff Tweedy. Some people would get a bit of imposter syndrome if they received such praise from one of indie music’s living legends.

Not the case with Basko.

 ”I don’t want to take this from a place of, like, ego, but I’m kind of like, ‘Okay, you’ve arrived. You have seen the light of these people that I’ve been understanding,'” he said. “To me, it’s just reaffirming what I’ve been believing for so long.”

And he’s been believing in the musicianship of Moales and the Sullivans.

The proliferation of Basko’s production isn’t slowing down either: he said new albums from both Star Moles and Sam and Louise Sullivan are more than halfway complete.

“They’re very in the works, and they’re really incredible.”

Basko will be taking on lead guitar duties with Star Moles on three dates in Europe this November. He will assume the role again with both Star Moles and Sam and Louise Sullivan during their co-headlining run in January 2027, which includes Jan. 26, 2027, at Johnny Brenda’s.

---

Main photo by Betsey Carroll, courtesy of Kevin Basko