Close to 100 projects have been mixed, engineered, produced and recorded out of Cody Leavitt’s labor of love studio, Asteroid M Records. Out of that number, countless local bands— from Desert Island Boys and Anti-Vision to Francia and Rose Levee — have been given a chance to create whole bodies of work. In some cases, several.

But if that was all it was about, Leavitt likely would have jumped into manning his own label and studio years ago. Instead, he’s devoted precious time to forging lasting relationships with the Las Vegas music scene and its characters, using film to document their biggest moments, becoming a sort of punk rock archivist and investing in the up-and-comers who need a guiding force.

“I love being able to have good, qualitative captures of the local culture. It’s my religion, it’s my life,” says Leavitt, a Henderson native who doubles as the bassist and vocalist of local punk outfits Not for Sale and New Cold War. “I come from the same very similar story of broken kid backgrounds that a lot of the kids come from. [Music’s] like a life raft for a lot of kids who could have gone down to gangs, drugs. It becomes this really positive thing that teaches you self-reliance, trust with others, being able to build relationships, business sense. It’s so positive when kids get into this music thing.”

Immersed in the Vegas underground punk scene since the early 2000s, Leavitt previously performed with the cowpunk band The People’s Whiskey. He worked with the celebrated and now defunct indie punk label SquidHat Records, as well as Camel Hump Studios, where he and co-owner John Brown developed the Desert Rats with Baseball Bats compilation, a series that showcased many of the rising acts shaping the punk community of the moment.

Leavitt found his niche in the studio, finding that the engineering circles he ran in were starting to pay off in experience. “I was just obsessed with always making music,” he says.

By the time of the pandemic, he was fully running Asteroid M Records out of his home, inviting bands like the Dollheads, Pure Sport and Twist Off (formerly known as White Noise) to film and record live sessions and throwing heavily attended shows, some of which have been sponsored by the City of Las Vegas and drawn fans from as far away as St. George, Utah.

Kaesen Samson, lead vocalist and guitarist of Twist Off, met Leavitt at Punk Rock Bowling last year. They immediately solidified plans to record a live session at his studio.

“The session we did with him came out amazing. The audio was immaculate. I think what he’s doing for the punk scene in Vegas, as well as the other smaller groups, is putting bands into light for other locals to see the raw talent our city holds,” Samson says. “I’ve found some great bands through his channel. I find it similar to what the YouTube channel hate5six is doing, recording live sessions of all the hardcore bands. And it branches off to finding more and more bands. It’s a fantastic rabbit hole to go down.”

As for the mentoring of some of these bands? That comes naturally, too. It’s easy when you know how to spot a cry for help.

“I was a huge f*ckup,” Leavitt laughs. “If anyone is so bold, they can look up my arrest records. As a kid, I was really unhappy inside. I had low self-esteem, so that manifested in me being a sh*tty kid with all the basic sh*tty stuff you would associate with a kid who goes through these sorts of things. Because of that, I’ve done everything wrong. I know exactly what not to do.”

Having been in the game this long, Leavitt has had the privilege of watching Las Vegas music redefine itself many times over. He applauds other homegrown studios like 10khz, Good Girlfriend Records and American’t for continuing to put out quality, while genre-bending bands continue to keep us guessing.

“Nowadays ... music’s a supermarket,” he says. “You can do an ’80s vibe on Monday and on Thursday you want to listen to death metal. Kids f*ck with that.”

Moving forward, it’s Leavitt’s mission to keep hitting record, documenting how the scene evolves so we have something worthwhile to look back on.

“This ability to do what I do is a very small fraction of where I think humans want to be, which is just loving each other, having fun, enjoying whatever art form makes you relate to people around you,” he says.

Cody's 2024 Bands to Watch

Mercy Music “Brendan and Jarred have been busting their ass for decades and are finally getting their justified international recognition as some of the best songwriters out there.”

Desert Island Boys “The boys are putting out their long-awaited, heavily anticipated sophomore follow-up album to their eponymous 2018 debut.”

Wyatt and the Ashes “WATA recently assembled an A-list roster of players to back up frontman AJ Fucillo’s extremely talented A-list writing on their Asteroid M debut.”

Pure Sport “Everyone’s favorite up-and-coming corporate rockers keep getting better and better. I wouldn’t be surprised to see even bigger things from them this year.”

The Dollheads “They’re super talented, have great synergy together and craft super memorable pop-punk.”

Life’s Torment “Larry Brough … has been perfecting his brand of punch-you-in-the-face hardcore out here for years! LT is starting to get a real buzz in the West Coast hardcore scene.”

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