The last time I dropped by was about ten years ago. The studio must have gotten busy after that.
Yeah, we got really busy. I'd probably had the studio for about three years when we first met, and I was still trying to get my bearings. It's a weird thing to open a studio in L.A., plus it's even weirder to open a studio in L.A. that used to be a former studio, and then additionally I was a guy that nobody knew here. I had to see where I'd fit in. We had the big studios, like Capitol [Tape Op #114], EastWest, Conway Recording, Sunset Sound, and United Recording (unfortunately not there anymore). We found a niche that worked for us, and in 2015 we got rid of our Trident 80B console. That was such a great board, but we got a 40-input API from the '70s, and that changed everything for me.
Sonically?
Yeah, and I dug myself deeper into this well, financially. But it was such a sonic imprint and I had always wanted that.
Was the API console helping bring clients in, or was it more what you felt you needed?
Both, I think. Maybe some of the bigger engineers would be more excited to go into a room with an API. It turned into a more serious room with a more serious console, and people loved the way it sounded. It had been sent back to API in 1993 by the owner that I bought it from, and Paul Wolff [ex-API, Fix Audio Designs] completely recapped, re-switched, repotted, and re-did the faceplates. It was in great shape. I still have pieces of it; I got as much as I could out of the board after the fire. I got at least enough 2520 op amps and transformers to make 22 channels of preamps. Jeff Steiger, from CAPI (Classic Audio Products Inc.), took my faceplate that I had, made me a new faceplate with his printing machine with my logo on it, and hooked it up. I bought all the kits from him; he's the best guy ever.
What kind of work were you getting before the fire?
All sorts of local things, which were great. I was finding bands that I was producing and engineering, while trying to keep my mix career afloat. We would get a lot of label projects. The one thing that pops up that was the beacon for us was the War On Drugs album, A Deeper Understanding, which won the Grammy for Best Rock Album [2017].
They make cool, sonically-interesting music.
Absolutely. Adam Granduciel [Tape Op #102] is a friend. He worked on the last one here and he's going to probably work on the next one here as well. It was a combination of a lot of different people on that album engineering, and different drummers too. I like the way he makes records. St. Vincent [Annie Clark, #134] was here working on the Sleater-Kinney album [The Center Won't Hold].
That's a cool record.
We jumped into the genre of music that I love, and that I listen to, for the most part. I did a couple records with Mike Viola, including Watkins Family Hour, and I worked on a duo record with Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird. Mike started it at his house, and then we did half of it here. Andrew Bird did a couple of other things here, plus Madison Cunningham, who we love, has been in a couple times.
She's really good.
We're talking about a world before the studio fire and before Covid that was awesome. That's just a sampling of what was happening.
I hate to ask, but what caused the studio fire?
An unnamed security system company. A lot of that is stuff is wireless now, but this one had a lithium ion battery that exploded.
It was located in the front room?
In the lounge. It happened on a Sunday night. We only had fire alarms that are like the ones you have in your house.
They just beep in the room?
Yeah, and no sprinkler system. You might not see that in too many studios; it just depends on the studio. They think the fire started in the early evening and then it built slowly. Once it busted through the roof, that's when the LAFD [Los Angeles Fire Department] got called. The lounge was completely toast. The fire came into the control room through the door. It wasn't the fire that wrecked the control room. It was the heat and the soot that was baked into everything. The whole console would have had to have been rewired, which was not something I was dying to do. We saved lot of the outboard gear. But if I sold some of this, I would have to tell them it was in a fire because it would be obvious. You can see the warped Chandler knobs down there. I've got some replacements coming. I could never sell the gear that was in the fire without taking a hit on it. My insurance ended up covering most of what we needed except for the rebuilding part; that's something I committed to. I decided, "This is going to be a great studio again."
You'd already rebuilt this studio when you first moved in.
Yeah, it was the second time! We had to redo the electrical wiring, and parts of the rooms. But luckily there was no session in, so the mics were put away. If we'd had mics out, I probably wouldn't have been able to pull this off. With the smoke damage, they were saying, "You're not going to be able to get the smell out. You'll be chasing this for years if you try to piecemeal it."
Was there water damage?
Yeah. God bless the LAFD; they threw a huge tarp over the console. When they came in, they said, "Oh, that looks important." It didn't quite save it, but it probably saved it from a lot of damage that could have been. The Studer A800 tape machine looked okay, but I was standing in the other room and I heard somebody say, "There's an ember on that machine," and they sprayed the tape machine. I was in such shock that I didn't say anything. The nice thing was our insurance company basically gave me a complete loss on my policy. They said, "We don't know what to do with this. It's going to cost us more money to try to resell this gear or to even get it out of here."
Yeah, this is such a specific business.
I never, ever had to make a claim before; I just paid that premium every year. It took a while to get this escalated. I had the insurance to cover everything, but my insurance wouldn't touch it because they said, "In your lease, it says that your landlord will take care of this." The landlord refused to hold up their end of the deal. I decided to call an attorney. Luckily, we didn't have to go to court, and it all worked out.
I just renewed my policy for Jackpot! I always hope it's covered enough.
I spent $2,000 on DIs and mic stands, and that's not something that I put on my policy. I never added up cabling, patch cables, tables, chairs, thermostats, light switches, dimmers, and decorations. Put it all on there, because it all adds up. It's so important if you have a studio, or even just a small room. I don't care if you just have a laptop and an interface; insure it.
