EAST LANSING, Mich. — From a professional basketball player to a business owner, Josh Southern and his wife Alicia are embarking on their next adventure of helping creative minds have a space to go.
“I've always had music in the background, but I started taking it seriously, I would say, maybe four or five years ago now,” said Josh Southern.
Josh and Alicia decided to open a business in the heart of downtown East Lansing at 301 M.A.C. Avenue. The business combines their love for being creative with other people in Lansing.
“Everybody has some type of side hustle now or just creative things that they're into," said Alicia. "Even though they're college students who may be going off into the corporate world.”
Josh says music has played a big part in his life since middle school. He made a short album in high school with a couple of his teammates.
“I've always done music," Josh said. "I would say, probably from early high school days, but I've always had basketball, that was number one, football, and then grades, you know. You want to make sure that you're the best student athlete, ever.”
After an injury and retiring from the NBA, he took on more music and producing roles and started working out of his own home.
“It was in my basement, you know, so it was there, it started to grow," Josh said. "People started showing interest and wanted to collaborate on a lot of stuff.”
He decided to share his passion with others by opening Risky Studios.
“We have spaces for photographers, videographers, people who have podcasts, music producers, people who sing or do other type of local projects to actually come use, like the resources that we have, and be able to create,” Alicia said.
She says it's a space for people to grow their passion.
“We just want them to be able to, you know, produce whatever their passions are, like, whatever type of music projects or whatever they have going on, we want them to be able to come here and get it,” Alicia said.
The couple wants to be the incubator for new creatives.
“We want to make sure that you know, everybody is feeling inspired once they leave or while they're here, they're inspired to just start to create," Josh said. "I mean, we have a world where, you know, sometimes things are crazy and this is a place where you know, you can get away from that, you can get away from it all, you can just be yourself and you can create.”
Risky Studios is open for appointments that can be made on their website. The studios grand opening is February 26 at 2 p.m.
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