Alvaro Rodriguez wears a lot of hats. He’s everything from a label head to a studio owner, audio engineer, producer, and one-time aerospace engineer. In this season finale of The J-Card Podcast, we dive deep into what it takes to run an independent label (Geodesic Records) and a recording studio (Geodesic Sound) in Houston, Texas.

We talk about the realities of DIY music in 2025, the process of designing and wiring his 3,000-square-foot recording studio from the ground up, and of course, we go over his mixtape. Then we wrap things up with a space-themed Mt Rushmore game!

Charlie Eddy GoFundMe Site: https://gofund.me/3aab3b6a6

More on IG: @geodesicrecords https://www.instagram.com/geodesicrecords

The J-Card is presented by Rue Defense Tape Club, a quarterly, mail-order cassette compilation and DIY audio project. Hosted by Alexei Shishkin, each episode is part music discovery, part oral history, part hangout show. We ask artists, musicians, filmmakers, and other music-minded folks to build us their own personal mixtape and talk about the moments and memories that inspired it.

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⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 - Intro: Alvaro Rodriguez & Geodesic Records

01:22 - What Indie Labels Can Actually Offer Artists

08:06 - Why Geodesic Focuses on Local Artists in Houston

11:02 - Building A Recording Studio From Scratch

17:44 - Most Important Studio Tools/Techniques

21:25 - Producing vs Engineering

26:06 - Mixtape Introduction

27:27 - “Becker” by Autolux

30:16 - “Harper Lewis” by Russian Circles

32:18 - “Undercovers On” by Rival Schools

34:57 - “Asilos Magdalena” by The Mars Volta

42:13 - “Vulcan Dome” by Sunrise and Ammunition

45:31 - “Find a Heaven” by Raudiver

49:44 - “Dead Inside” by Mother Ghost

52:27 - Honorable Mentions

54:09 - Space Song Mt Rushmore

01:08:32 - Plugs + Outro

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