A farm boy from rural Illinois, Mark “Mooka” Rennick started recording local bands on a cheap analog tape machine while still a student at Sonoma State University in the ’70s. After buying a mixing board used by the Beach Boys, he moved to an old chicken farm in Cotati, where he built Prairie Sun Recording, a residential recording studio for top-notch artists who flocked from around the world to live, eat and breathe music together.
As word spread, many of his musical heroes showed up at his door: Tom Waits, Gregg Allman, Nancy Wilson, Primus, Faith No More, Wu Tang Clan, Van Morrison, The Doobie Brothers, Mickey Hart and Iggy Pop.
Two years ago, that journey came to an end as rent increases forced him to close the studio’s doors. But at age 72, in addition to working at satellite studios here and in Portland, Rennick is finally returning to his original dream — to record his own music.
What’s in a name
There was a student newspaper at the University of Illinois called Prairie Sun. But, also, my good friend back home has a prairie restoration project that I’m still heavily involved in. I’ve been back to burn the prairie for the last five years in a row. Every spring, we go back. There are 10 acres under cultivation that we planted in 1972. It’s all about restorative agriculture and it all relates to the same world we have here in Sonoma County.
Musical memories
One of the great stories is Jack Kerouac, who was living at his mother’s house in Florida and sang one of his poems into his mom’s cassette recorder. Then Tom Waits came in and did a recording of that mix at Prairie Sun, and now it’s in the national archives.
Lessons learned
You learn humility and open-mindedness. We were 24/7, 365 days a year. Artists came from all over the world to live with us. You learn to give back, because you can get really insulated in your own little world. And these people became like family. We would have Thanksgiving with them and their children and their families. I’m still in touch with many of them.
New material
I finished an album called “Sons of Lincoln,” by this spoken-word collective I’m in called The Abolitionists. I still want to be a talent, and I’m working on finishing my own solo record, which I have over 225 tracks for. It’s not something I just started.
Over the years, as artists came through Prairie Sun — Dick Dale, Jack Antonoff, Prairie Prince — we recorded tracks together… Now, I finally have the freedom to work on my own record.