Photography by Lauren Allen.
Brand New Noise is tucked away in the Halcyon parking lot behind the Irish pub on Lower Greenville.
“Stop wondering, come in” is painted on the baby blue brick wall facing the incoming cars. The interior looks like a backyard shed on steroids, where three connecting wooden tables hold four disconnected types of gadgets.
Richard Upchurch is at the helm. He’s a Brooklyn transplant with a degree in audio technology from New York University, and he’s putting that degree to good use.
You couldn’t tell by the looks of it, but Upchurch’s workshop is a destination spot, recognized by many in two polar opposite demographics.
“My customers are rock stars and babies,” he says with a laugh.
Babies were the first priority. In 2010, Upchurch pieced together a small wooden box with an audio recorder and playback board inside. The user could flip a switch, then talk or sing into the box, then flip another switch to hear their voice back and experiment with the tone and speed of the recording. He made it as a gift for his 4-year-old nephew, inspired by his own experience as a child.
“When I was a kid, I distinctly remember playing over and over with an old school tape recorder,” he says.
The gift was a hit, and Upchurch began to refine the product. Today, it’s known as the Frankie.
Once one was made, the ideas kept spilling out. A miniature Rachmanioff piano. A tongue drum with a delay effect. A looping Kalimba. All of them are made with a built-in recording and playback device.
At the time, Upchurch was working in NYU offices and began to hire students to help him build and design the products. Word-of-mouth spread, and soon Upchurch was offered to feature the gadgets at the Museum of Modern Art gift shop in New York City.
“Now I’m gonna have to figure out how to make these things,” Upchurch says. “Etsy was really fun because you see where the orders come in. This one’s going to Wisconsin, this one’s going to Japan.”
Upchurch puts a handwritten note inside each box that goes out of Brand New Noise, and often keeps in touch with customers via email.
“You make a human connection with people,” Upchurch says. “These are handmade, there’s a lot of time and energy that goes into it. By the time I get to putting it in a box, I like to know where it’s going and how it’s going to be used.”
One of the first Etsy buyers was Mark Mothersbaugh of the band DEVO, who bought one of everything that the store offered. When Upchurch reached out to thank him, he learned that the “Phone-Home Xylophone” was used by Mothersbaugh in the soundtrack for The LEGO Movie.
The “Whip It” singer was the first of many prominent musicians to buy from Brand New Noise. Upchurch soon got the idea to capitalize on this trend, creating a “signature series” of the original Frankie model with rock-star autographs on the back. The limited edition runs included signatures from Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Pat Carney from The Black Keys and Mick Fleetwood.
2024 marks Upchurch’s fourteenth year in business and seventh year on Lower Greenville. When he started, every inch of every product was shaped, smoothed and selected by hand. He’s still hands-on, but with hundreds of orders coming in each year, he’s had to get more efficient. Now, he uses a custom CNC machine to automate the preliminary construction of each piece, leaving just the disassembled parts for him to put together.
Before it was his full-time job, Upchurch was able to pour as much time as he wanted into a single piece, the fulfillment he reaped was up to him. Now, it’s a business. Though he keeps a list of new product ideas, he doesn’t have much time to tinker with them. Upchurch learned to find gratification in his constant cycle.
“I have always believed there’s something really beautiful about just the process,” he says. “The discovery and making something, then changing the formula and either remaking it or trying it in a new way. There’s a real art to that.”
For each piece of wood he sands down to build into a product, he sands down the inhibitions of creativity too. His work isn’t complicated. It’s your voice, your sounds. Everything made from it is up to the user, whether a rock star or a baby.
“I don’t want these to end up in a landfill,” Upchurch says. “This is not another cheap plastic toy. This is something that should be passed down. It should remain as a piece of functional art.”
