By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Imagine a band, orchestra, choir, mega-group of more than 500 musicians, stretching from the century-old brick building at the north end of Delridge onto the neighboring West Seattle Bridge, playing a song together. Maybe “Don’t Stop Believing.” Or “Let the Music Play.”

That would suit the determined mood of Erin Rubin, whose Mode Music Studios has that many students, something you might be surprised to hear, given how unassuming Mode’s building looks to passersby as they head to or from the bridge or the industrial zone below it.

Mode Music Studios (a WSB sponsor) is not the entirety of her tuneful 10-year-old enterprise, either. Erin also leads nonprofit Mode Music and Performing Arts – headquartered in the same building in the 3800 block of Delridge Way SW – which brings music and theater into schools, and into the lives of students whose families might not be able to afford it otherwise.

Not all small-business owners run nonprofits too. But most know the challenge of keeping a business not just surviving, but thriving. In the past four years or so, that’s been especially grueling. “When you’re trying to tread water, since the COVID shutdown and the bridge shutdown, it’s been one thing after another … you aren’t able to make the moves you want to, now it’s just kind of survival mode.”

“Moves” has a double meaning for Erin, Mode Music Studios, and Mode Music and Performing Arts. She is almost certainly going to have to move, with the likely location of Sound Transit‘s Delridge light-rail station spanning the location of her business and others, including music venue/restaurant/bar The Skylark next door, Ounces Taproom and Beer Garden just down the block, and other North Delridge businesses to their west, including Alki Beach Academy and others in the Frye Commerce Center.

Erin and her neighbors stress that they are not trying to stop the light-rail project. “I welcome public transportation but I’m concerned we’re gonna lose a lot of what we love.” Despite the near-certainty that her business will have to move, the building is not included in the recent “early acquisition” decision, meaning she’s in a unique kind of limbo. The circumstances are so difficult, Erin sent an open letter to the Mode community last week, as we noted here; we spoke with her the next day, just before Mode’s monthly all-ages open mic at The Skylark next door.

“We are in need of your support, now more than ever. After almost 10 years in our building on Delridge Way, the impermanence of our location is becoming a reality.” …

Erin told us she’s been thinking about the open letter since January – realizing “I have to write something, teachers and families are asking … … I don’t want to lean on the community but (people) have been asking how they can help.” While writing her letter, “I only started crying when I started talking about being a little kid, growing up (here).”

“January 1st, 1984, I was brought home from the hospital to a humble mother-in-law apartment on 54th and Genesee.”

Her West Seattle roots run deep. Her family moved out of WS for a while, but “we never lost connection with West Seattle … we’d come back to Alki Beach” and favorite businesses. Then she moved back as an adult, to raise her own family and to start her business: “My daughter came home to (a house at) 46th and Lander – I started my business in that house.” Her daughter is now almost 12. “She took her first steps in that house – she’s a ballerina now.”

The impending Mode move is a bit of déjà vu, as Erin had to move from that house on fairly short notice.

“10 years ago, I was given 90 days to leave my rental home in the North Admiral district that housed my family and the two teaching studios I created out of my basement.”

They found a home to live in in Westwood but she needed somewhere else for her studios. She found the Delridge spaces because of Skylark proprietor Matt Larson – with whom a close collaboration continues.

(Mode onstage at Skylark: Photo courtesy Erin Rubin)

“I couldn’t find any commercial space anywhere. I’ve done this (before). This space is a unicorn space.” Sound Transit policy, she says, is supposed to acknowledge that, with more consideration for those who face a lack of comparable space. “They were supposed to go back to the drawing board. … They should have evaluated our business (earlier in the process).” She finally got them to “come see what we built here,” to try to explain that the relocation package offered to businesses is insufficient. “My rent increase and buildout alone would be 10 times more than what they’re offering.”

“Our approximate cost for the Mode Music Studios build out in a new location is between $300k and $450k to replicate what we have on Delridge.”

That’s up to nearly 10 times the oft-quoted ST baseline. And money’s far from the only issue: Erin has 520 students and 50 teachers. “That’s a lot to relocate.” And the new space has to meet many specifications. “I have to build walls that are soundproof … we can’t have residential above us, rock bands make noise. … We have to find an older building or a warehouse, we’re going to have to build everything from scratch.” Mode Music Studios has nine spaces; Mode Music and Performing Arts has one teaching room, and while MMS could be flexible (maybe White Center, for example), MMPA has to stay inside Seattle city limits, because it receives city funding.

Many people are on the lookout, and she has “an incredible real-estate agent who’s been looking for me for a long time,” but if something turned up right now, “I don’t want to look at it because I can’t have it” – the official relocation assistance won’t be available until after the route is finalized, and with it, the list of properties ST will need. “We’re toast no matter what, even if the station moves a little bit …”

Mode offers both private lessons and student rock bands, teaching both kids and adults, as well as summer rock bands for ages 6-18. Erin founded the nonprofit, Mode Music and Performing Arts, six years ago, and have brought music and theater into 1,000 kids’ lives since then. “It felt so good because we were able to do so much more; it took us a while to establish, but we had stuff to show for it.” MMPA “makes MMS much more accessible,” for one, with scholarships for lessons. For two, it’s running 25 programs in schools right now. That includes lessons and free afterschool programs at local schools – Pathfinder K-8, Highland Park Elementary, and Roxhill Elementary among them. They’ve expanded into middle school and high school, too, with programs even including improv. “It’s really fun.” Mode offers “pay what you can” programs too, and works with organizations from PTSAs to Solid Ground (families in transitional housing, including a domestic-violence shelter). And programs aren’t only lessons – students get a chance to perform, too. The music teachers span many instruments and genres: “We have woodwind, brass, strings, some with classical backgrounds who found their way into rock … something for everybody; we’ve got a great crew.”

Those 50 instructors are all “teaching artists” whose income is supplemented by their work at Mode. She has teachers who are former students, even – one who was 6 years old when Erin taught her, and now she’s 21. Erin remembers what it was like to be a teaching artist – she was working at Easy Street Records/Café when she was encouraged to teach music.

Now, she’d like the Sound Transit decisionmakers to do some learning of their own. “What we’re in need of is a bigger relocation package, one that actually covers our expenses, calculates them. They’re supposed to vote (later this year) and they still don’t know how many employees I have …” Her lobbying has been like “beating your head against a wall.” (To intensify matters, West Seattle’s other major music school – the School of Rock – also has to find someplace new, because Jefferson Square is expected to come down for Junction station construction.)

With eight years passing since the ST3 vote, and another eight until the West Seattle light-rail extension is expected to open, Erin suspects “this is a surprise to people,” that businesses and homes will be demolished from North Delridge to The Junction as part of the project. “We’re not trying to shut it down – I’m happy to move my business,” but right now that requires community help, so the music doesn’t stop for those 520 students and 50 teachers. “We’re in full operation – we don’t want to lapse we would love to find that new location, get it all ready, and then when that [Sound Transit] note’s on the door – we move – it’s not gonna be easy moving a lot if equipment, a lot of teachers … we’re gonna do it, though!”

You can join Mode’s band (of supporters) by going here.