It was almost the year 2000, and I was sitting in my apartment when I got a call from a fellow named Gordon Raphael, asking if I needed to do any more recording at the studio he was involved with  – Chateau Relaxo, on Ludlow Street in the East Village of NYC.   I had been doing a few recordings there.  It was obvious that Gordon new something about recording, as the recordings done at his small, low ceiling studio, running something called ProTools (digital recording software), were coming out as well as the recordings I had been doing in a studio that was 4x more costly, using 2 inch tape – the now defunct, Sorcerer Sound, in Soho.

Gordon was calling because in one month his studio partner, who owned all the gear, was moving to London, and he was trying to finish up.  When he said, well I’d like to start a new studio, but I don’t have the means all by myself, I light went off in my head!  “Let’s start a studio together” I blurted out.  After all, after about 8 solid years of freelance gigging, I knew a lot of musicians, and this would definitely be a help to the studio, as Gordon was fairly new in town.  And as I was fortunate enough to own a apartment in the city, I could take a loan to finance more gear and other start up costs.  He could teach me how to record bands digitally and have it sound right.

So we decided to get together, see some places, with Ann Hadlock, who would also be involved in a lot of ways in this endeavor.  Besides being an artist, she is a great singer, and comes from a ‘studio family”, one that owns a great studio in Seattle called Bear Creek Studio.  Gordon worked there before, and Ann was his songwriting partner at that time.  She is someone I miss hanging with, a great creative mind.

We saw a number of places, but we just weren’t happy about any of them.  One thing we wanted was a large control room, as truthfully, that’s the place where people hang out in the studio mostly – like a kitchen in a house having a party.

Finally we settled upon a loft building on 2nd St and Avenue A, in the East Village of NYC, which was really the place to be for us in those years.  Rent was 1800/month, plus about 300 in utilities.  It was a lot, and many said we were overpaying.  I bet it is 3x that now.

The landlord of the building was never met.  Instead we dealt with “Tricky” (not real name), who lorded over 3 floors, including ours.  He was a jingle singer, and a promiser, (not really a deliverer though unfortunately).  The biggest deal for us, especially Gordon was whether or not we could make a lot of sound.  “if you can guarantee 24 hour access to rock” and “I have never been kicked out for failing to pay rent, only for being too loud”  was stated by Gordon.  Tricky said “of course, no problem here” “within reason”.  We ignored the within reason part and moved in.  It was ugly getting this place started.  More on that in the next post!