Architekt Keeps the Music Flowing in Butler

Rock and roll dreams come alive at Butler's Architekt. The hyphenate entertainment emporium runs the gamut: It's a musical performance venue, recording studio, rehearsal space and music school.

The place has to be seen to be believed. It boasts a sleek decor and state of the art acoustics and equipment. Among the top-notch items used in the recording studio is a Solid State Logic 9080J console.

"This console, not like another version of it, this console was used by Paul McCartney, Alicia Keyes, Foo Fighters and Tupac," said co-owner George Roskos, who founded Archtekt in 2010 with fellow Seton Hall University alum Kurt Wubbenhorst. 

Rokos acknowledged that he and his parnter were greenhorns, but they had brains, an unusually good business plan and a lot of good luck.

"The 100 percent truth is we formulated a business, knew what we wanted to do, we were confident about it, put together the business plan, approached two banks and were financed by two private banks," co-ewner George Roskos told Patch in 2010.

Three years later, the business is thriving. We spoke with Roskos, co-owner of Architekt, who was happy to sit in the Tri-Boro Spotlight.

1. How did Architekt get its start? And by all means, explain the spelling.

Architekt was founded by Kurt Wubbenhorst and I after we found that we shared mutual interests in music/bands/business, etc. while attending Seton Hall from '05-'09. We worked at the student-run radio station WSOU-FM and eventually became student managers there. We worked well together, played in a few bands for a few years and led to the idea that we wanted to do what we loved (he in music education and me in music business) for our livings. Thus, we formed Architekt...and hired a bunch of our really talented friends to help us!

The name came from two things: first, we needed a name ASAP and we were running late on coming up with one. I was watching The Matrix movies and found the character of "the architect" was a brilliant way to tie all the story lines together in the movie. Also, Kurt and I (and a lot of our staff) wear black watches - it just works for the music industry...and Kurt had on his black fossil watch and found the back of it contained the word "arkitekt". So we combined the two, by stroke of accident, and decided to call the business "Architekt" which is the german spelling of the word. Also, with a last name like "Wubbenhorst", you can see where the German came from.

2. You guys are a sort of one-stop shop for musicians. How can you handle so many facets of the performance business, from serving as recording studio, live music venue and public relations specialists?

We're lucky to work with great people. It's really that simple! Kurt handles Education; he's an education major. Matt Simon [of Parsippany], a friend from Seton Hall, manages the venue bookings and the facility. Kate Hensler, another friend from Seton Hall, runs our public relations arm. I manage and book our studio which is primarily operated by our chief engineer Mike Ferretti. We're certainly not a one or two-man show. We have a lot of different people who work with their specific talents. It's really a blessing.

3. How has the economic downturn treated Architekt? How do you remain thriving during a tough fiscal time?

Like the two crazy 23-year-olds we were at the time, we formed the business in the "worst" of it - early/mid 2010. We've been very fortunate to provide services that our community adores and we have great people on staff with us. At the end of the day it always comes down to the people for us. I mean, we're prone to weather, economy, etc. like any other business, but we don't let that get us down. We like to be the bright spot in someone's day!

4. Describe the scene of a performance night at the venue? Fun fun fun? Cool crowds?

Our venue nights are a BLAST! They're really the "coming together" of all areas of Architekt. Some venue nights feature studio clients, others feature national recording artists and there are frequent performances from our students! The student nights are the best nights of all - there's nothing like watching a student knock the socks off of the audience! It's incredible to be a part of that! Also, we're an all-ages venue (no alcohol, funny business, etc.) so it makes for a great night for any type of music lover!


5. Why the Tri-Boro?

Kurt is from Kinnelon and we were searching for an area in North Jersey to set up shop. The 1 Boonton Ave location in Butler fell into our laps when a family friend of Kurt's recommended that we build a "speakeasy type of joint". As Kurt always tells folks - we didn't quite build a speakeasy but we did build a place we're proud to walk into everyday!