It has long been said that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
And that might be true. But one thing that appeals to me about the music business, especially when the emphasis is on the former rather than the latter, is that there are many deals where everybody wins.
I have one of those deals for you this week and, if you happen to be the member of a band looking to record I suggest you read on (and the rest of you too – I'll try and make it interesting…).
Following up from an email, I recently rang Stephen Dickinson. Stephen, who some might know from a year he spent working at the Tauranga Rockshop, is an award-winning MAINZ audio engineering graduate, who is now studying IT. Since graduating he's been saving the money to get a studio up and running. Now it's ready.
At MAINZ he worked with some of the country's best, including Peter Steekstra (Exponents, Hello Sailor) and Chris Knox's recording sidekick Roy Martin. Now Stephen is looking for bands to record, to try out the new studio which has been built in his garage, a separate 'room within a room” with purpose-built control room and isolation booth. He's got some pretty good gear in there and also has a selection of studio quality guitars (Martin, Gibson and Fender) and a high quality Pearl Masters drum kit.
Ultimately the plan is to build up his equipment over the next few years and eventually move to bigger premises with the potential for better sound, but, right now, Stephen wants to give the studio a workout and, in his words, is 'looking for a couple of good local bands who would like to have a couple of songs recorded”. For free.
Although Stephen started by creating bass and drum electronica on a home computer he has broad tastes. Bands in every style are welcome – he enjoys the technical challenge of recording heavy rock just as much as recording acoustic jazz.
That's the sort of deal I like. Bands get to record for free and Stephen gets to test out his new studio. Everybody wins. Bands wanting to get in touch can email Stephen on brownrecordsmt@gmail.cc.
Things are also busy at other studios in the Bay. Across town out Welcome Bay way is the newly-rebuilt studio The Colourfield. This is Tim Julian's baby, and the home studio once housed in his basement has now been reconstructed in a refurbished shed. Walk in the door and you could be forgiven for thinking you had wandered into some flash Auckland recording facility; it's very cool.
Currently Tim is in the middle of recording rhythm ‘n' blues kings Brilleaux's new album, their first studio outing since 8-Track Style (though they have released a live album in the meantime). Tim reports that most of the stuff is at preliminary mixing stage, with singer Graham Clark still waiting to sing a couple of the vocals. Graham also has yet to put down his harmonica tracks, after which the band will be adding little bits of colouring, like a choir and a horn section.

Brilleaux have been busy, not only recording but also playing recently at the Whangarei Jazz and Blues Festival. They're about to head up to a festival in Whangamata. Drummer Ian 'Beano” Gilpin, who also drums with Kokomo, has been particularly in demand. For the past year or so he's been playing with Kokomo bass man Nigel Masters as the rhythm section for iconic Kiwi singer Shona Laing. Nigel happens to be the owner/operator of the Boatshed Studio, out the other side of town in Whakamarama.
And the Boatshed is also busy because, as well as being about to finish John Michaelz' long-awaited gospel album and having just started artist Dave Roy's new album, Nigel and Beano have been out there with Shona putting down tracks for her new album. I heard a few songs when I popped in the other day and they are sounding sensational! For Shona it seems very much a continuation of last year's folk-inflected Pass The Whisper, though the songs this time are all new. Shona, Nigel and Beano have laid down rhythm tracks and Nigel is currently working on piano parts.