Daryl Bolicek (Wild Horse Recording)

Daryl Bolicek is the owner of Wild Horse Recording, a recording studio in Stillwater that creates audiobooks and music albums. 

Born in Orange, California, Bolicek moved to the Twin Cities when he was two years old.

As a teenager, he attended Irondale High School, where like many entrepreneurs featured on this platform, he befriended almost everyone. 

“I was friends with both the dorks and the popular people,” says Bolicek, who was in the marching band.

Consequently, women were drawn to him.

Just kidding. 

“I was a band geek. There were other words that they called me, but for the sake of this article I want to stick with band geek,” he adds with a disarming chuckle. 

After high school, Bolicek enrolled at the most prestigious and revered college in Minnesota, St. Cloud State University, to study percussion theory. 

“But like many people that go to college at eighteen years old, I got involved with freedom,” he notes.

Bolicek’s exploits led to him dropping out of the orchestra and leaving SCSU, before later registering at St. Paul Technical College to learn about machine tool technology.  

“And that wasn’t the creative thing that I thought it was either,” says Bolicek, who wanted to use his hands more and computers less. 

“When I was going to St. Paul Tech, 9/11 happened. That day, the teacher said that our country was under attack and that we could leave early, so I left for the day but never came back,” he adds, comedy and a hearty laugh pervasive throughout our conversation at Bolicek’s impressive Stillwater studio. 

Two attempts at college leaving him degree-less, Bolicek went to music school to learn that business.

He did graduate from McNally-Smith, and from there he joined a band, operating the drums while the band steadily improved to the point where they went on a national tour. 

“We were doing okay,” Bolicek recalls.  

“At one point, we were opening for crowds of 5,000 people every night.”

Two years later, the band’s manager sat the group down and asked each member what they wanted out of life. 

While touring around the country had its perks, the sad truth was the band probably wasn’t ever going to become Motley Crue or the Backstreet Boys. 

In other words, they were going to have to one day get “real” jobs.  

“A few months after that conversation with our manager, the band disbanded,” Bolicek quips.

Suddenly rudderless, Bolicek set his sights on audio engineering, a skill he briefly tapped into when the band was mixing music. 

“Sometimes our band would be recording, and I would find myself behind our engineer thinking that he had no idea what the hell he was doing,” says Bolicek, who hired a mentor that taught him the nuances of audio engineering, cementing his love of the craft, which then later led to the inception of Wild Horse Recording.  

“Even today, mixing audio is not work to me,” Bolicek says. 

“I love it.”

In addition to offering music production for artists and audiobook creation for publishing houses, Bolicek and Wild Horse Recording also offer podcast production.

In terms of pricing for audiobooks, it all depends on word count.

Smaller and more condensed B2B books usually end up costing around $3,000.

A memoir runs clients closer to $5,000, and magnum opuses (massive books), can cost close to $10,000.   

Again, the final price all depends on word count because that number ties directly into the man-hours it will take Bolicek to produce a professional and marketable audiobook. 

Having hired Bolicek and Wild Horse Recording for my second book, The Long Road East, I can attest that the finished product is marvelous, but indeed expensive.  

“I really pride myself on working hard and giving clients an excellent final product,” the passionate Bolicek emphasizes. 

“With any project, my goal is ultimately to provide clients with exactly what they’re paying for.” 

When asked what the future holds for him and Wild Horse Recording, the Stillwater resident becomes reflective. 

“I’m excited to see how life transpires and what opportunities naturally arise,” he says. 

“I’ve always found that when I try to force things to happen, disappointment often ensues.”

Adds Bolicek: 

“I don’t want to be disappointed. I just want to stay the course and do the right thing because I have found that when you do that, the universe often will give you exactly what you’re looking for.”

We then look at each other and laugh, because as creators, sometimes our feelings take precedence over pragmatism. 

“I just realized I gave you a very philosophical answer,” Bolicek says after regaining his breath, entirely aware that in the coming years he can’t simply stare at a wall and manifest results. 

Knowing that, Bolicek will continue to network with publishing houses across the country, the aim being to offer those publishers a resource for all their audiobook needs. 

“Audiobooks are a big chunk of the market of books sold,” Bolicek points out. 

“If you’re a publishing company, you should be offering that service to your clients.”

For those publishers who are not already offering that service to their authors, Wild Horse Recording is a full-service audiobook producer, meaning publishers who work with Bolicek won’t have to outsource manuscripts to several different entities to get an amazing final product. 

“It’s as simple as a publishing house hiring me and then letting me run everything,” Bolicek says.  

“I’m happy to operate as a white-label too, meaning I won’t get any credit for the audiobook that is created. My goal is simply to be a valued resource for these companies who aren’t already offering what some of the bigger publishing houses are.” QS

**

As a family-owned business with 53 years of experience in the Twin Cities market, Grussing Roofing specializes in residential roofing, insurance restoration, siding, windows, and gutters.

For homeowners and commercial building owners who are looking to connect with a company that prides themselves on putting customers first, look no further than Eden Prairie-based Grussing Roofing.