While studios are closing elsewhere, Red Bull Studios are springing up all around the globe.
Deep in south-east London, an unusual creative haven is blossoming. Red Bull Studio is a well-equipped recording space at a time when such recording spaces are falling prey to music industry budget-tightening.
The studio has already been taken over by ex-Red Bull Music Academy alumnus Mr Hudson, Mark Ronson has become a regular, using the space to broadcast his show for New York’s East Village Radio, and, last month, Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard locked himself away there with Raf Rundell to work on side project 2 Bears. (See the video here.)
“I was impressed by the big desk and the live room… there’s loads of space,” says Goddard, who would have liked more time with the studio’s vintage compressors. “So many studios are shutting down at the moment, and I like the fact this one is opening up.”
Like most digital-age musicians, Goddard spends a lot of production time on his laptop. “Technology can do a lot,” he says. “But there are things it can’t do. I don’t have the space to work collaboratively in my bedroom. It’s difficult to get people together to play, or groups of singers.”
New talent is also being nurtured. Metal band Blitz Kids, who come from Crewe, in the north-west of England, are planning to record an entire album from scratch in two days, in homage to the eponymous album by their idols, Black Sabbath, while other fledgling and unsigned acts will learn studio skills from in-house engineer-to-the-stars Brendon Harding.
The results are going global, with studio footage, interviews and unique tracks from London joining output from Red Bull Studios in South Africa, New Zealand, the USA and the soon-to-launch Jamaica venture on a dedicated website.
Hear this at www.redbullstudio.co.uk.
This article features in the latest issue of The Red Bulletin. For more great music and culture stories, why not download the August issue right now?
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