Cohort 1 · Pilot · Applications open
The Artist Retreat · The Pilot Series

Make music that means something, with an assortment of artists, producers and songwriters.

Four days on forty-four acres at Stone House Farms — connect, create and enjoy comfortable lodging with chef-cooked meals every day. Tap into something deep with intention and leave inspired to create in new, meaningful ways. We're running two pilot retreats this summer — Jun 25–28 and Jul 16–19. Apply for whichever fits, or tell us both work.

Two weekendsJun 25–28 · Jul 16–19
Up to 20Artists each
4 daysOn the property
44 acresSierra Foothills
All meals
Chef from the farm
Engineers
In support
Application-only
Hand-picked cohort
Sauna + cold plunge
Wood-fired
Glamping or house
Choose your bed
Pool + lake
Five-minute walk
The packages

Three tiers. Same four days.

All tiers include the cohort, all meals, full studio access, and the on-site team — engineers and producers in support. The difference is where you sleep and a few add-ons.

Per person · all-inclusive Thu–Sun Applying is free — no payment now. If you're accepted, a $500 deposit secures your seat; the balance is due 30 days before arrival, or split into three equal installments at no extra fee. Early-bird $200 off any tier for early applicants.
Tier 1 · Standard
Glamping
Pre-set tent with queen bed, shared bath.
$2,000per person
  • Pre-set tent with queen bed, shared bathrooms
  • All meals + full cohort programming
  • 24/7 Madrone Studios access
  • Couples option: $1,850 each
Apply at Standard →
Tier 3 · Master
Master Suite
One seat per cohort. First-applied given priority.
$3,000per person
  • Everything in Premium, plus:
  • Master bedroom in the main house
  • Private en-suite bath
  • Longest stay window
  • Priority on session scheduling
  • Couples option: $2,850 each
Apply at Master →
Early-bird $200 off any tier for early applicants. Auto-applies at acceptance.
Payment plan Split the balance into three equal installments at no extra fee. No interest, no surcharge.
What it is

Come back to yourself. Then make the art.

The Artist Retreat is for working artists with a project in motion. You arrive Thursday with material — tracks unfinished, songs in stages, ideas you can't stop circling — and leave Sunday with finished and near-finished work — and the momentum to keep going.

Jake and Jon curate and design the weekend. The cohort co-creates what fills it — a collaborative container, never a curriculum. Every cohort is hand-picked, one-of-one.

Madrone Studios runs on-site — Live Room, Vocal Booth, Control Room. Engineers and producers in support. The chef cooks from the regenerative farm three times a day. The Solarium gets the longest light. Vinyl spins in the Living Room at midnight.

The whole property is yours Forty-four acres in the Sierra Foothills — house, studio, glamping, garden, lake, sauna, pool. The cohort uses all of it.

What the Artist Retreat is, in full →

The property

Forty-four acres. Different rooms.

Stone House Farms isn't one space. It's a working farm-property with a studio, a main house, a glamping village, a garden, and forty-four acres of land around it. The cohort uses all of it.

Madrone Studios

The studio, open until 2am.

Live Room, Vocal Booth, Control Room. Engineers and producers in support. Twenty-four-hour access for the duration of the cohort.

The Living Room

Vinyl until midnight.

A real system, a shelf of records, two leather chairs. Where pairs form, where the unplanned hours land, where the last write of the night happens.

The Solarium

The longest light on the property.

Grand piano, upright bass, glass on three sides. Morning movement, breath, quiet sessions. The room that catches the first light and the last.

The Kitchen + Garden

Three meals from the farm.

The chef cooks from the regenerative garden three times a day. Long-table dinners on the patio. Saturday's the signature meal.

Glamping Village

Scattered through the trees.

Outdoor lounging and seating tucked into the redwoods. Where most of the cohort sleeps, gathers between sessions, and watches the light change.

The Land

Lake, sauna, and the long walk.

Five-minute walk through the meadow to the lake. Wood-fired sauna with a cold plunge. The high meadow loop is best at golden hour.

Want a fuller tour? See the property →

The pilot

The first of many cohorts.

Stone House Farms has hosted private gatherings, music sessions, and creative residencies for years. Cohort 1 is the first time we open the property to an application-based artist cohort — and the artists who walk in this summer set the precedent for every cohort after.

01

The whole property

Forty-four acres. House, studio, glamping, garden, sauna, pool, lake. Held for one cohort for four full days. The first time we've opened it like this.

02

A founders' rate

The tiers above are the founders' rate — locked through the first three cohorts (Vol. 3). After that they rise as the format matures.

03

Music-first

The pilot is themed around music — writers, producers, performers, engineers — but deliberately multi-disciplinary at the edges. Songs make the spine; the rest of what comes in widens the work.

Who applies

The cohort is hand-picked.

Career stage isn't the filter. Body of work is. We curate each cohort for craft, chemistry, and the kind of person you'd want to make with for four days straight.

  • Signed and unsigned artists working on their own material
  • Indie artists with real audiences and a clear creative direction
  • Producers, engineers, and writers in the Madrone orbit
  • Mid-tier indie acts breaking new projects
  • Established artists looking for slowed time and a curated cohort
  • Anyone who applies and earns the seat
The room

Curated, not headlined.

We don't build the weekend around one famous name. We curate the whole room — artists, producers, songwriters, and the Madrone engineers in support — so the four days are about the people you're actually in it with. When a guest collaborator is the right fit, they join; we'll never sell you a headliner that isn't real.

Curated by Madrone Studios

The cohort is the headliner.

Every seat is hand-picked for craft and chemistry. Madrone producers and engineers are in the room the whole time — tracking, mixing, and making with you, not lecturing at you. When we bring in a guest collaborator from the Madrone orbit, it's because the fit is right, never to put a name on a flyer.

Stone House Farms and Madrone Studios have hosted working artists, producers, and writers for years. The room is curated in that register.
A typical day

Two output blocks. One garden meal.

The schedule is a suggestion, not a curriculum. Hikes before sessions. Slow meals. Real sleep in real dark.

7:00–9:00
Movement Yoga, lake swim, hike, or stay in bed. Rolling breakfast on the patio.
9:30
Day kickoff Pairs forming, spaces assigned, engineers introduced.
10:00–12:30
Session block 1 Studio, Solarium, Living Room, A-frame — wherever the work wants to happen.
12:30
Lunch On the patio. The chef's harvest from this morning.
1:30–2:30
Open hour Naps, walks, one-on-ones. The body needs this part.
2:30–6:00
Session block 2 The most productive block. Protected.
6:00–7:00
Golden hour Pool, garden, decompression.
7:00–9:00
Dinner Long table. Family-style. Saturday's the signature meal.
9:00–late
Studio Night Engineers staffed until midnight. After-hours self-serve.
Around the work

What else fills the four days.

The session blocks are the spine. These are the things the body remembers afterward. Nothing is required.

Body

Movement in the Solarium

Yoga, breath, or quiet stretching at sunrise. A named guide for two of the four mornings.

Body

Sauna and cold plunge

Wood-fired sauna on the property. Cold tub steps away. The reset between blocks.

Land

Lake swim at dawn

The lake is a five-minute walk through the meadow. Cold water, your morning.

Land

Garden harvest with the chef

Twenty minutes in the rows. Pick what's in season for the day's lunch.

Together

Sound bath once per cohort

A named practitioner brings the cohort down on Friday evening. Deepest sleep most people have had in months.

Together

Fire pit listen sessions

After dinner, by the fire. Whoever wants to play a rough out loud. No pressure.

What you leave with

Concrete. And quieter.

01

Stone House Sessions

Opt-in to the limited Madrone-pressed vinyl EP and Spotify playlist. You retain all rights.

02

New collaborators

The cohort is the long-tail. Co-writers, producers, engineers you'd otherwise never have met.

03

Quieter shoulders

By morning two, your nervous system is different. You'll notice it before anyone says it.

Tell us what you're carrying.

The application is about seven minutes. We respond within 7 days, every time. Apply early to lock the tier you want and qualify for the founders' rate.

The Pilot Series · Retreat 1: Jun 25–28 · Retreat 2: Jul 16–19, 2026

Want to facilitate or partner instead? →

The other formats

Three programs. One property.

The Writing Camp · Aug 6–9

For working songwriters and producers.

Up to twenty writers. Three co-writes a day. Daily listens. Self-curated for Vol. 1; publisher-curated camps coming later in the season.

Learn more →
The Producer Intensive · Aug 20–23

For producers and a mentor.

Twelve to sixteen producers and one named guest mentor. Teaching, hands-on, desk-reviews. Mentor announced 60 days before.

Learn more →
Apply for the pilot →