A Mill of Dreams

Old mill buildings are not uncommon in Delaware County, and the one located at the intersection of Mount Road & Red Hill Road in Aston is no different.  When it was built in the mid-19th century, it was one of many timber and textile mills integral to the area’s economic development.  But as technology advanced, this mill and its counterparts quickly became empty, weathered remnants of the region’s industrial past.  In recent years, many of these old mills have enjoyed new lives. The one at 3100 Mount Road in Aston is now known as “Aston Mills Arts” and houses a small portfolio of businesses that “make sense” for a converted mill: an art studio, an auto body repair shop, and a gym.  When musician and Delco native Jared Loss moved his music school, Rockdale Music & Studios, to Aston Mills Arts in 2021, he decided to give the old mill something a little different–a healthy injection of rock and roll.

Loss always dreamed of pursuing a career as a musician, but like many millennials, this dream faced some parental pushback. To appease his parents, who were concerned about him having a “backup” career in case music didn’t work out, Loss enrolled at Temple University to study Tourism & Hospitality Management. One semester, he enrolled in an Entrepreneurship class that required students to create a business plan for their dream entrepreneurial venture.  The assignment seemed like the perfect canvas to sketch out a business idea that had been floating around in Loss’s head–opening a music venue of his own.  At the time, Loss was working part-time at World Cafe Live, a job that provided him with a front row seat to the ins and outs of managing an independent music venue. He used his knowledge for this hypothetical endeavor–a two-story structure, with a restaurant on one level and a performance space on the other.  Called “The Barrel House,” Loss named it for one of the earliest styles of the Blues, Barrelhouse Blues. “I was really into the Blues at the time,” he tells me.  

The idea, which he would talk about long after turning in that assignment, also piqued the interest of his close friend Mike Gaydos, whose literal lifelong friendship with Loss began “when [Loss] was eight days old" (the two are only eight days apart in age). Both Loss and Gaydos began playing music from a young age, later performing in various bands in the Philadelphia area separately, before starting the “bluesy, soul-funk” band The Real Feel together in 2009. Gaydos's “day job” in marketing became an established career, one that ultimately led to a move to New York City and a hiatus from The Real Feel.  Before leaving for New York, Gaydos assured Loss that if he ever decided to go ahead with opening his “Barrel House,” he should give him a call.  

Loss spent a short time in California before returning home to Philadelphia, where he began substitute teaching at the local music school, Rockdale Music. Not long after he came on board, the original owner, Kim Fink, decided the school was no longer financially viable for her and announced its imminent closure.  Loss, who believed wholeheartedly in the school’s mission, took the following weekend to use the skills he honed in that Entrepreneurship class at Temple by drafting a business plan, proposing that he take over the school instead of Fink closing the doors.  It worked: Fink agreed to transfer ownership of the business, and Loss began to grow Rockdale Music into Rockdale Music & Studios, teaching musicians of all ages to master their instruments.

Up in New York, Gaydos was feeling increasingly disconnected from the music world.  He watched in amazement as his friend continued to elevate his school, hoping that one day the stars would align and he would have the opportunity to work with Loss once again. “I was always an admirer of what Jared did with the school, because he’s built this unbelievable community,” he says.  “I told him, ‘This is amazing, what you’ve done.  I don’t know how we can work together, but if we can, I’d love to.’”

The “how” and “when” came in 2021.  By that point, Gaydos had moved back to Philly, and Loss was actively seeking to relocate Rockdale Music & Studios to a location that would allow for eventual incremental expansion.  Loss decided on the Aston Mills Arts building; although the available studio space was smaller than what the school currently had, there was room to grow. Plus, the building had an adjacent warehouse-like space that could be earmarked for something else. It dawned on him that this could be the place to bring the longstanding dream he first fleshed out while studying at Temple to fruition.  Loss gave Gaydos a call.

“I said to Mike, ‘You know, there’s a big space right next door to the studio.  We’re going to need more room for the studio, but it’s way too much room for what we need,” Loss recalls.

Gaydos instantly knew what his friend was getting at.  “I said, ‘Sure, let’s do it,” he remembers. “It just made sense for where I was.”  Not only would he finally be working with whom he refers to as his “oldest, dearest friend,” but it would reconnect him with music.

The two got to work planning what would eventually become The Mill at Rockdale, drafting out a rough floor plan on a sheet of paper.  “It’s pretty close to the original sketch,” Loss says.  At the time the space was acquired, the COVID-19 pandemic was still creating significant uncertainty around live events, so Loss and Gaydos leased the space to a local woodworker in the meantime. The delay gave the duo plenty of time to brainstorm and develop a flexible space that could cater to a concert one night and a different type of event the next. You name it, The Mill at Rockdale can accommodate it.  “If you wanted a funky, alternative wedding for somewhere below 100 people, [we’d] be a great place to do that,” Gaydos explains (since conducting this interview in January, The Mill at Rockdale is officially listed on The Knot).  

When construction finally began in November 2024, Loss and Gaydos immediately realized they had their work cut out for them.  “This place was a mess,” Gaydos remembers. “Part of it goes back to 1840 or 1850…yeah, it was old and messed up.”  Demolition exposed construction issues that weren’t budgeted for and had to be addressed immediately. Just when they thought they’d gotten in over their heads, that “unbelievable community” Gaydos watched Loss build over the years started to come through. 

When the ceiling space had to be re-insulated and painted, a neighbor who works as a professional house painter volunteered his time to help.  Much of the venue’s sound equipment was purchased from the father of a mutual friend of Loss and Gaydos, “[He] had a wedding band in Philly for like, 20 years.  He retired, and he was like, ‘I’ll sell you the whole thing! What do you want?” Gaydos tells me.  “We had to get lectured on how to use it, but we set it up, and it sounds great.” 

A testament to Loss's strength as an educator, Rockdale alumni also volunteered to help.  The venue’s light plot was installed by a former student. “He was working all over the country,” Loss says, “and he came back to set up our lighting… just in a day.”  Current and former Rockdale Music students also comprise much of the venue’s current staff–running sound, programming lights, and working the box office.  “They’re killing it here,” Loss says about his alumni.  “We have fun.”  

After a year of waiting for permits and navigating unexpected construction bottlenecks, The Mill at Rockdale’s projected opening date was approaching, and everything was on-schedule. A soft launch event on November 8, 2025, ran into a plumbing snafu, but a November 29 concert featuring Cosmic Guilt (Loss is a band member) went smoothly.  Finally, on December 6, 2025, the dream came true–The Mill at Rockdale held their grand opening ceremony with a show headlined, appropriately, by The Real Feel.  The space, transformed from a gutted old mill into a warm and inviting event space in a little over a year, was filled with friends and family.  The lights went down, the band took the stage, and it was official.  A little more than 20 years after Loss wrote that business plan in college, he and Gaydos were performing on stage together at their own music venue.  

When I ask Loss how that felt, he says the evening brought mixed feelings.  “Being that our first two shows were bands that I played in, it kind of… wasn’t that smart,” he laughs. “I had to do everything. I didn’t really get to enjoy it.”

“We had a small holiday gathering with some crafters a couple of days before Christmas, and that felt like the time we kicked back,” Gaydos adds.  “We had a movie on the big screen, and it was just like, ‘Okay, now we can chill.”

They didn’t chill for long, however.  Loss and Gaydos acquired another venture last year–Mill Works Creator Space.  Housed in a 175-year-old church, the two are once again working to give people something else to do with their hands that isn’t incessant doomscrolling.  Mill Works has everything from a metal shop and a painting space to a woodshop and a darkroom (which yours truly plans to visit this year). “You wake up and look at your 6.5” screen before moving over to your 11” one, and then you relax by watching your 50” screen,” Loss says. “It’s all the more reason why we need spaces.”

“You know, Netflix will be waiting for us, right?” Gaydos adds with a laugh.

Visit The Mill at Rockdale's website for their event calendar, and be sure to check out Mill Works Creator Space here.

Philly musicians–The Mill at Rockdale is actively booking for 2026. The venue presents an opportunity to connect with music fans who don't always want to venture into the city, and it gives you respite from the hassle of loading in and out under the ever-watchful eye of PPA. Tell 'em Music Jawn sent you, and invite us to the show!