Where will the music go? Innerspace closes at Underground Atlanta

Since September of 2021, artist Carl Janes has been a regular face at Underground Atlanta.

He opened his studio there, intending to use the space to create his own visual artwork. It didn’t take long for his deep love of the DIY music scene to seep in, and so he created the Innerspace, a sort of open secret music performance venue walled off within his larger art studio.

Now, just a few short years later, the space sits empty and all the artistic expression that happened there is merely a memory.

“Right at the beginning I was already meeting musicians,” explained Janes. He recalled participating in a solo show featuring all resident artists at Underground Atlanta when the artist spaces were first leased which brought fellow creatives to his studio there. “The first art show that I had, I met a musician and put her with a couple of other musicians that I knew. We booked a show immediately.”

A few months later, in February of 2022, Janes officially hosted the first performance. Creating a music venue out of an empty shell is not an easy or cheap task, and he built a stage using scavenged pallets from the loading dock and drove around the state to find PA equipment.

While the construction of the Innerspace was cobbled together using makeshift materials, a love for music has always been a constant for Janes, who is also a musician and headlines a synth-heavy act called Invaders On Mars.

Long before he came to Underground Atlanta, Janes founded and operated The Secret Spot. His creative vision turned an abandoned building adjacent to the Midway Pub in East Atlanta Village into an innovative art studio with a performance space on the roof.

Like so many art spaces in Atlanta, that building and the once-vacant lot it used to occupy is now long gone, replaced by the sprawling Ironside East Atlanta Village townhouse complex. His successes at The Secret Spot helped carry Janes to a new home at Underground Atlanta, and his ingenious approach to building community around art helped him find success there.

“I think that it kind of ties to the nature of being an artist; an artist creating a space that is supportive of other artists,” Janes said. “My basic underlying message in my art is to be free, and to express yourself freely. So that has permeated through everything that I do. It turns into a kind of a vibe that people really respond to and other artists love to be a part of it.”

While he continued creating his artwork in the studio during the day, he was often busy on nights and weekends overseeing music performances. During the 2.5 years that Janes operated Innerspace at Underground Atlanta, he hosted at least three shows and sometimes up to six shows every week. For each show, typically 3-4 artists or groups would perform.

Janes preferred to keep costs low for musicians, and would make sure that the door fees went to the performers. He told me that live music, especially the DIY and eclectic music scene that Innerspace fostered so organically, has a sort of multigenerational appeal. While many of the musicians who performed there were on the younger side and many emerging artists were able to have their first shows in the space, the desire to witness live music is something that many people from disparate walks of life could relate to.

“I think it kind of rekindles some of that youthful spirit as well,” said Janes. He saw a huge resurgence in desire to see music performances live following the restrictions of the early days of the pandemic.

“Over the last few years, I haven’t been able to get out much because I have been so cloistered in Innerspace,” he continued. “These types of spaces that are essentially incubators to projects and experimentation are critical to the whole ecosystem.”

Janes pointed out that many venues similar in nature and scope to Innerspace can struggle to become established and profitable due to factors such as a musical act’s ability to bring in a substantive crowd for a performance. These hurdles can make it difficult for newer bands and musicians to get their start in traditional venues.

Janes admits that his approach to Innerspace was more community-based rather than business-based. He kind of started with the art and the people and then worked his way back to a structure that would support their artistic pursuits.

Over the past couple of years, many parents approached Janes to thank him for providing the resources of Innerspace. They shared that the venue and its community had figuratively saved the lives of their children who needed help to find a sense of direction. “They were completely lost before finding the community we had at Innerspace,” he told me. “How valuable is that?”

Given the successes and good vibes that seemed so plentiful at Innerspace, it was a surprise to many to hear the news that Janes would not renew his lease at the end of 2024. Janes explained that the struggles to keep costs low coupled with changes to the lease requirements set forth by Underground Atlanta set the stage for the venue’s closure.

“It was very bittersweet,” said Janes of the closure. “It’s a tragic thing to lose, and to have to share with our community that we were losing our space. But immediately after coming to the realization that it was time to go I felt a huge sense of relief,” he admitted.

All along, Janes had felt that his time at Underground Atlanta was only temporary, and it was difficult to reckon with the instability of his tenure there while simultaneously building such a robust community of artists.

Now that he has moved out officially, I asked Janes how he’s feeling about the future and what he thinks he would need to bring the DIY music scene from Innerspace into a new location somewhere in the city. Janes shared that alongside the sorrow of the loss of Innerspace he has felt a huge outpouring of support and love. This is clearly evident when looking at pictures from the last shows in the space.

A fond farewell

During musical performances, Janes is often in the background checking on the PA system, lights, and generally overseeing the event.

On the last night of performances at Innerspace, however, Janes found himself smack dab in the middle of the crowd. At the insistence of some of the musicians he was seated on a chair and then hoisted above their heads. In one shot from the event, Janes is pictured with a beaming smile amidst a sea of grateful friends in the audience.

“Everything is feeling really good,” said Janes, who admits that some of his upbeat approach is likely due to the fact that he has been through this before. Creating and curating a space, pouring his whole heart into it, making it his whole world, and then having to say goodbye to it is nothing new for Janes. It’s a sentiment that many artists can relate to, both here in Atlanta and beyond.

As creatives, artists are natural problem-solvers. Willing to think outside of the box and make the most of the situations they are faced with, they can often adjust their expectations to suit their circumstances. Whether that means transforming a shed into an art gallery, or inviting musicians to play music on the roof of a tiny shack, they are often more willing than most to make do.

And, as is often the case, the creativity and love that they pour into their work adds beauty and culture to the surrounding community, which in turn makes the property they inhabit more enticing for developers who swoop in and nonchalantly bid adieu to the artists.

While that is not how things went in the last days for Innerspace, it is true that artists like Carl Janes are often asked to be flexible and gracious in ways that traditional businesses are not. Janes told me that he knows that every loss has led to something better, so he feels hopeful for the future despite his sadness in the moment.

I asked Janes if he had any advice for young artists who are just getting started and may feel more hopeless when learning of the loss of places like Innerspace.

“Young people need to know that they are the most important strata of society,” said Janes with conviction. “Young people are the catalyst of change; they are just coming into consciousness, they are experimenting with everything they have learned, and they are constructing themselves. Each self that is constructed, in that strata… you’re building the first brick of the foundation of society.”

Janes insisted that young and emerging artists must not let themselves get so beat down by the pressures of the world that they give up on their art. “Just keep doing it. Keep persevering. Follow your instincts and be confident. Know you are vital; you are the catalyst of change.”

While Janes is almost certainly still in mourning for the loss of Innerspace, he is also digging into his well of experience and knowledge to fall back on hope and confidence. He told me that while he’s taking the first half of 2025 to focus on networking and supporting his community as they play other venues, he’s also in the market for a new home for his music performance concept.

And so, dear reader, if you happen to know of a space anywhere in the city measuring around 1,500 to 2,000-square-feet with available parking and proximity to public transportation, consider reaching out to Carl Janes and let him know. At this point, if there’s one thing that’s certain it’s that where Janes goes, music follows.