Today we’d like to introduce you to Tay Yung & Ty Gonzales LOT8 CEO’s.
Hi Tay Yung & Ty Gonzales, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
LOT8 Productions really grew out of our lives as creatives before it ever became a company. We’re Tay Yung and Ty Gonzalez, co-CEOs and co-founders of LOT8. We’ve been longtime creative collaborators Tay coming from the artist and music side, and Ty from photography and videography and over the years, we found ourselves constantly working together and chasing creative opportunities wherever they were.
At the time, being based in Bakersfield meant that a lot of the resources we needed weren’t right in our backyard. We were making regular trips down to Los Angeles, up to Fresno and the Bay Area, and traveling to other cities just to access the spaces, people, and production resources we needed to bring our ideas to life. Whether it was finding the right location for a video, a space to shoot photos for a campaign, or a quality recording studio to make music, we were constantly traveling to find what we considered the necessary pieces of a real production environment.
Those experiences exposed us to a lot of different creative communities and production environments. We got to see what worked, what was missing, and, more importantly, what we wished existed back home. Eventually, we realized that instead of continuing to leave our city to find those resources, we could take everything we had learned and build something of our own.
That’s where LOT8 started.
In 2022, we decided to break ground on what would eventually become a 4,000-square-foot custom production studio in Bakersfield, built specifically around the way artists and creators actually work. We developed a visual warehouse, a full-scale recording studio, and a podcast space under one roof—not just to support our own projects, but to create a place where other artists and creators could have access to the same types of resources, knowledge, and creative environment that we had spent years traveling to find.
A big part of LOT8 has always been **Artists for Artists. Creators for Creators.** We built this space from the perspective of people who are actually in the work. We understand what it feels like to have an idea but not have the space, equipment, connections, or resources to execute it. So we wanted to create a place where those barriers could be lowered where people could come in, create, learn, collaborate, and develop their ideas without feeling like they had to leave Bakersfield to make something at a professional level.
For the first few years, a lot of our energy went into building the physical foundation of LOT8 and figuring out how to make the space as dynamic and useful to artists and creators as possible. We were essentially building the environment that we wished we had when we were coming up.
Now, in 2026, we’ve started entering the next phase of that vision. We’re developing LOT8 beyond just being a physical production space and into a creator-first platform, using entertainment and YouTube programming to spotlight artists, creators, and the culture developing around us.
We see the studio as the foundation, but the bigger vision has always been about creating access and building community. We’re still adding those building blocks every day, but at its core, LOT8 is something we built because we are artists and creators ourselves. We wanted to create the kind of space, resources, and platform that we knew our community needed and now we’re focused on continuing to build it alongside them.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a smooth road, but I also don’t think smooth would really put us in the right category. We started with a much bigger vision and a lot more ideas than we initially realized we were actually trying to build.
One of our biggest challenges in the beginning was figuring out how to take the concept we had in our heads and turn it into something that was actually functional in reality. We had to learn what was truly necessary to build a space like LOT8, what would actually be useful to us as creatives, and what would genuinely serve the community we were building it for.
There was a lot of trial and error involved. We explored different partnerships and ideas that we originally thought would become part of LOT8, including things like print production, custom clothing, and other creative services. Some of those ideas made sense on paper, but as we started building, we realized we needed to get closer to the root of what we were actually trying to create.
That process taught us that growth sometimes means outgrowing your own ideas. We had to let go of certain things, reshape others, and plant new seeds based on what we were learning along the way.
In a lot of ways, that has become one of the most rewarding parts of the journey. We’re constantly learning, adjusting, and finding new ways to build on what we already have. What started as a vision for a physical space has continued to grow into something much bigger, and the challenges that come with that growth have become something we actually thrive on.
We’re still figuring things out every day, but we’ve learned to embrace that part of the process. For us, building LOT8 has never really been about having everything figured out. It’s been about continuing to build, continuing to learn, and continuing to create something that grows with the artists and creators we built it for.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our professional lives have always been connected to creating, but we come from two different sides of that process. Tay is an artist, songwriter, recording engineer, and creative who has spent years developing his own music while also working behind the scenes to help bring other artists’ ideas to life. Ty comes from the photography and videography side, with a strong focus on visual storytelling, capturing artists, brands, and moments in a way that feels authentic to the people behind them.
What connects us is that we’ve never really looked at creativity as something that fits into just one box. We’ve both spent years moving between different roles depending on what a project needed. Sometimes that meant being in front of the camera, sometimes behind it, sometimes producing, engineering, directing, or simply helping someone figure out how to turn an idea into something tangible.
A lot of our professional experience came from having to create our own opportunities. We traveled, collaborated, worked with different artists and creatives, built relationships, learned different sides of production, and experienced firsthand what it was like trying to create at a professional level without always having the resources readily available.
That experience is a big part of what we bring into LOT8. We’re not approaching this strictly from a business perspective. We’re still active creatives ourselves, so we understand the process from the inside. We know what it feels like to have an idea at midnight and have no idea how you’re going to execute it the next day. We know what it means to build something with limited resources, and we know how much of a difference it can make when you finally have access to the right space, equipment, people, and knowledge.
What we’re most proud of is probably the fact that we’ve been able to turn that experience into something bigger than our individual careers. We started as two creatives collaborating on our own projects, and over time that collaboration grew into a physical space that now gives other people an opportunity to create.
What sets us apart is that we’re still in it. We’re not building a space for a creative community from the outside looking in. We are the creative community. The same tools, resources, and opportunities we’re developing through LOT8 are things we continue to use ourselves.
For us, that’s really the foundation of Artists for Artists and Creators for Creators. We want LOT8 to reflect the same mentality that got us here in the first place: figure it out, create anyway, learn as you go, and bring other people with you.
What are your plans for the future?
Our biggest focus right now is really establishing the next chapter of LOT8. We want to continue defining our voice and identity around being a creator first platform and dig deeper into the lane we believe artists and creators like us deserve to have access to.
A major part of that is championing the underdog and the underserved creator. There are so many talented people who may not regularly have access to professional spaces, resources, connections, or meaningful exposure. We want LOT8 to become a platform where access and talent can meet, and where being discovered can be a natural extension of creating.
As we continue growing, we’re also looking forward to building stronger production relationships, developing larger partnerships and contracts, and creating more opportunities for LOT8 to serve as a bridge between local creators and larger creative industries.
Ultimately, we want to keep expanding the ecosystem around what we’ve already built. The studio is the foundation, but the long term vision is to create more access, more exposure, and more pathways for creators to actually move their careers forward.
We’re still building it piece by piece, but that’s what we’re most excited about. Taking everything we’ve learned so far and turning it into something that can reach far beyond the four walls of LOT8.
Pricing:
- Visual Studio Rental: $80/hour
- Recording Studio + Engineer: $60/hour
- Mixing & Mastering: Pricing varies based on the needs and scope of each project
- Photography / Videography / Commercial Production: Available based on project scope
- Podcast Studio: Available for creator and podcast productions, with pricing based on production needs
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Lot8productions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lot8productions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lot8productions
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lot8productions
Image Credits
LOT8 Productions
