Carlee WrightThe color is close, which is the problem.
Jason Carter holds two CD packages side by side. The hues match on the front, but the new print is more saturated on the back. Most people would call it blue and move on. Jason is not most people.
Through his company Atomic Disc, Jason has spent more than three decades turning music into something people can hold—printing, coating, cutting, and assembling CDs and their packaging for musicians worldwide. The archive contains samples from roughly 74,000 orders, each kept so the team can match the original if an artist returns for more.
Inside Atomic Disc, graphic designers prepare artwork while nearby machines print, duplicate, and apply a glossy, water-resistant coating to the discs. Jason stops beside an old Heidelberg die-cutting press he considers his favorite machine in the building. “It’s like a watch when it runs,” he said.
The press cuts CD jackets. Other machines fold and glue them. Atomic Disc moved away from traditional plastic jewel cases years ago, developing paper packages and using flexible trays made from recycled water bottles for customers who still want that format. A small, dedicated team of workers pulls all the pieces together to complete the orders.
A few steps away, manufacturing meets music studio, Jason’s other job.
Wavelength Studio began in Jason’s house and eventually expanded into the same building as Atomic Disc. Every room is wired for recording. One unassuming stretch has its own particular talent. “This hallway sounds great for guitar,” Jason said.
Jason knows recording from both sides of the glass. A drummer, producer, and engineer, he toured with Frank Black, also known as Black Francis of the Pixies, and worked with him on several recording projects.
When a project needs more musicians, Jason has a trusted group he can call. He usually handles the drums. His wife, Silver, is his first choice for bass on rock projects. An organ player 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle can join remotely from Norway. His network also runs deep through Salem, where many of the players have spent years making music together in different combinations.
That mix of equipment, experience, and relationships gives Wavelength a reach well beyond the city. When Frank produced British indie rock band Art Brut, he brought them to Salem to record.
“They could have recorded anywhere in the world,” Jason said. “They had a big budget. Granted, there was the Frank Black connection too, but he could have taken them anywhere. And they just loved it here.”
Salem has quietly built a pretty complete music ecosystem. Musicians can rehearse at Metrognome, record and master at Wavelength, work with Atomic Disc on design and CD manufacturing, then have vinyl pressed literally down the street at Object Permanence. That ecosystem can bring artists to Salem, create local work, and connect the city to a much larger music industry.
Salem is a music hub; its reach runs from stages and rehearsal rooms to recording studios and manufacturing floors. It is powered by people willing to listen closely and, when necessary, spend an hour getting one shade of blue exactly right.
Atomic Disc
Wavelength Studio
This story originally ran in Press Play Salem issue 29 (Fall 2026)
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Author: Carlee Wright
Carlee Wright is a community instigator with a grand love for Salem and notably fashionable shoes (Hello, John Fluevog!) who turns waste into wearable art in her "spare" time.
The Instigator
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