Blog 3: Finding a Recording Studio

Hi Guys,

My holiday has been and gone and although it was great to grab a bit of sunshine and real heat (and finally wear my summer clothes which tend to sit in my wardrobe accumulating dust in London!) I'm glad to be back at my base. I'm also looking forward to seeing Pearl Jam at the 02 tomorrow - I somehow managed to grab some great seats and am expecting an exciting concert! Here is part 3 of the journey of 'Just Me':

Blog 3: Finding a Recording Studio
While we were arranging the songs of the album, Marco and I started looking at recording studios. I find that's it's a bit like deciding which hotel to stay at. You know, you want the one that is on the beach, quiet when you want to sleep and happening when you want to party, with air conditioning, a spa, a gym, childcare if you have kids, near a cute town where you can escape in the evening, with tropical gardens but no insects, great food, etc. etc...and all of this has to be AFFORDABLE. Ooooppps.

Anyway, we made a shortlist based on technical criteria that Marco had (basically we wanted all the top stuff) then I mass emailed the 15 or so studios that would "fit the bill" (at least in terms of our needs, not necessarily our pockets!). Some of these were world reknown top studios but we were feeling brave. As expected, their 'published rates' were all way above my budget (yikes!) but I was hoping to convince them to give me their downtime for very cheap (like going to that great hotel described above in VERY low season and then changing rooms whenever a higher paying guest arrived and wanted yours :-))). Flexibility in exchange for rock bottom rates. After all, some money is better than none if your studio is empty no?

So Marco and I drove all around London for weeks looking at studios, talking to the owners negotiating rates like it's a souk. It's funny but after all of that we ended up choosing the studio (Britannia Row) I had picked from a website on pure gut feel! Aside from having everything we needed and agreeing to low prices it was a 15 minute walk from my place! The equipment it owned was top notch but a bit 'retro' (which suited us fine as it would work with the sound we were trying to achieve) . Marco was in awe as this was the studio previously owned by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and some of the instruments there were the ones that had been used to record "Dark Side of the Moon". I was worried he would spend the first couple days caressing and talking to the equipment. Fortunately my worries were unfounded (or maybe he just did that while I was not looking :-))). Arrangements done, drummer picked, recording studio booked. Next comes recording of the drums with a drummer god: Cristiano Micalizzi.


Love from me.

Odette xx