Archive Recordings was established in 2007 by Wes Johnson. Founded on a love for music, Archive immediately became a safe haven for expression for many underground artists. Believing strongly in DIY ethics of punk, Wes made his goal of helping bands and songwriters materialize their dreams a reality by recording Fox Van Cleef, Lionelle, and The Alliance at the first location of Archive in downtown
Salt Lake City. Wes started playing guitar when he was 8 years old. By the age of 13, he was already rocking out with The Crashers, playing DV8, Kilby Court, and venues all around Utah. His interest in recording music led him to Spyhop Digital Media Arts where he was an apprentice from 2003-2006. In 2006, he also started doing live recordings. By 2007 Archive Recordings had hit the ground running, and Wes continued to cultivate his skills. In 2008 he travelled to Wire World Studios in Nashville where he had the opportunity to learn from the great Michael Wagner during a recording workshop. Wagner has worked with Motley Crew, Poison, Metallica, Alice Cooper, Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne and so many more influential musicians. The following year Wes was featured in Slug Magazine back in Salt Lake. Archive Recordings moved the studio to South Salt Lake, and Wes headed out to Cotati, California where he interned at Prairie Sun Recording where he assisted Oz Fritz.(Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, The Ramones) He assisted, while Oz recorded Too Noisy Fish and Jack and the Bear. Upon returning to Salt Lake and Archive, Wes recorded metal band Cult Leader’s “Nothing for us Here”, which was released by Deathwish Records in 2014. New Noise featured Wes in an issue where he talked about the experience of recording with Cult Leader. He also recorded “I Was Just on my Way Out” by Sleeping Weather, an album released by Suburban Homes. Wes believes this is just the beginning of his life goal of helping bands capture their sound and ideas through amazing gear in a comfortable space with a great vibe.
