From baby raves to Meow Wolf collaborations, Reed Fox and Moon Magnet turned a DIY collective into a thriving Denver music business.
Denver can be a weird place. From the conspiratorial mysteries of Denver International Airport and its giant blue horse statue to the cult-like dedication to the pink-walled Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita, the Mile High City has its quirks. And while a Mexican restaurant, an airport, and a statue of a horse are not particularly interesting finds in Colorado in themselves, it is the people who elevate the mundane to the phenomenal.
And Denver is full of these types of people. The ones who can take a simple idea and, with the help of some like-minded friends, push it to the extreme.
Reed Fox and Moon Magnet
One such person is Reed Fox, founder and CEO of Moon Magnet, the award winning, multi-pronged music school and production company based in Denver. A pillar of the DIY community, Reed has championed the local arts scene since graduating in 2013 from CU Denver with degrees in Recording Arts and Music Business. Through Moon Magnet, Fox, along with many friends and collaborators, has been the force behind countless underground events and projects. From throwing shows to building art installations and selling moon water at Meow Wolf, Moon Magnet has been integral in shaping Colorado’s music and art scene.
And what started as a group of musicians coming together to support each other is now an expansive music business that offers recording assistance, employs four DJs for events, and has hired dozens of teachers who provide music lessons to over 100 students. They have won several awards over the years, including Best of Westword 2026 for Best Mobile Music Recording as well as Best of Zola two years running for DJ Productions. Fox himself was awarded CU Denver’s Outstanding Alumni Award.
“Our goal is to help people with songwriting, creativity, and imagination,” Fox said. “It’s about getting their music recorded and released. We have a program called ‘Finish Your Music in 90 Days’ to help with that.”
Humble Beginnings
Fox co-founded Moon Magnet alongside Derrick Bozich, Anna Smith, and Neil Lyons in 2013 as a musical collective geared towards promoting and recording bands in Denver. “I wrote a business plan my senior year of college and I basically just followed that plan,” recalls Fox. “We went through so many zig zags of things we did to get to this point.”
Fueled by a love of the local scene and playing music, Fox and crew turned Moon Magnet into a resource for artists in the community and got involved in every creative project they could. They built a recording studio in their house and started doing art installations at festivals. With their music project déCollage (along with numerous other projects), they took on a monthly musical residency that would bounce around Denver for almost a decade.
Spreading Their Wings
Moon Magnet began making a name around Denver for leaning into the psychedelic and the unique. Slowly, Fox and Moon Magnet collected wins, and the three aspects of the business took shape. To pay the bills Fox would DJ corporate events and weddings as well as teach music while pursuing his love for recording local musicians. Then in 2020, right before the Covid pandemic, he got his biggest idea yet: an in-home music school.
It proved to be a game changer. He had a massive network and a roster of musicians ready to work, and then the whole world shut down. Suddenly, there was a big demand for in-home music lessons, and Moon Magnet was positioned to fill that void. “That’s when I started scaling and hiring teachers and Moon Magnet was establishing itself as the three businesses. So it really solidified in 2021,” says Fox.
The Baby Rave
Once businesses opened up post-Covid, things took off for Fox and Moon Magnet. The music school was growing, demand for DJs surged as weddings and conferences returned, and then came the idea for a baby rave. “I kind of found myself in this niche of kids parties and baby raves,” muses Fox.
What started as a fun concept is now a monthly event held the first Saturday of every month at the Mercury Cafe in Denver. It grew popular enough to help earn Moon Magnet the DJ Productions award in Best in Zola two years in a row.
“We have about four DJs at Moon Magnet. They’re all great and all have different strengths. They’re killing it at DJing kids parties too,” laughs Fox.
Meow Wolf and Moon Water
Looking back, there are plenty of moments Fox is proud of, but none more than his partnership with the immersive art company Meow Wolf during the build-out of their Denver location, which opened in 2021. “I went to every community meeting they had over a few years. I was so persistent,” Fox said. The Moon Magnet crew contributed an installation in the form of a ten minute song that synced with the key and tempo of music playing in each room. Fox also pitched Meow Wolf on another big idea: Moon Water. After getting the green light, they sourced a bottling facility and had their own water packaged and labeled. Moon Water is still sold at Omega Mart, the Meow Wolf grocery store in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Hustle Evolves
With Moon Magnet now a well-defined business, the nature of the hustle has changed for Fox. Where there was once a young artist chasing the best party, there now stands a self-made business mogul who manages a staff and speaks at seminars, all without ever taking a conventional salaried job. “I was really poor for a long time,” says Fox. “That’s how this worked.”
Check out the brand new song from Reed Fox’s project Moon Hammer, “Snakey” premiering exclusively with BandWagon Magazine!
