This evening Mercury Music Prize nominee Laura Marling kicks off her Canada/US tour at the Hillside Festival, Ontario - with our own Matt Ingram on drums. Over the next 4 weeks he'll be playing Calgary, San Francisco, LA, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Gothenburg and... The Brecon Beacons.
In other news we're in the process of making some significant improvements to the studio, so watch out for a special announcement on the subject coming soon.
One evening a couple of weeks ago Fyfe Dangerfield dropped by to lay down a quick demo he'd been working on.
This demo was a cover of Billy Joel's Always A Woman, which inexplicably went on to feature in a John Lewis advert.
On Sunday 9th May, the tune entered the UK top 40 singles chart at a highly respectable 14, landing Urchin Studios with its first top 20 hit. Fyfe, we owe you a beer.
Spring began with us recording 80’s pop legend Adam Ant. No really, we did. Complete with his punk driven new band, he laid down some new material in what will be one of our more memorable sessions. Excellent stuff.
For those who are not fully acquainted with the all girl pop choir sensation
Gaggle then please click
here. Deborah and her feisty team of 20 (yes 20!) girls came and
recorded I Like Cigarettes which is the b-side to recently
released Trangressive Records single I Hear Flies. Matt played
drums and in an Urchin first; Dan played trumpet. You just have to check
this out.
Also keep your ears peeled for Three Trapped Tigers EP3 and
the new Roses Kings Castles single One Born Every Minute
Oh, and we’ve just got a Juno 6. It sounds like Blade Runner.
2010 has started on an exciting note for us with the release of Fyfe Dangerfield’s debut solo LP Fly Yellow Moon which was recorded at Urchin Studios last year. Fyfe has described Urchin on more than one occasion as his favourite studio in London (along with AIR Studio 1). Produced by Adam Noble the album is out on Monday on Geffen Records and is quite brilliant. Read more about it here.
So another year and another busy January in Urchin. We’ve been recording Jim Kroft’s 2nd solo outing (you have to love this man; he starts recording his follow up before the release of his debut!) as well as mixing the third Three Trapped Tigers EP (trust us, it’s another face melter).
In between this, Matt’s been acquiring more vintage snare drums and Dan’s finding new corners of Altiverb which make him sweep his hair in disbelief.
Over the summer months we completed two projects for music industry revolutionaries 360 Degree Music. August saw us polish off the second album from Babyshambles drummer Adam Ficek (aka Roses Kings Casltes), and in September we put the finishing touches to Space-Folk pioneer Ben Sommers' LP Avocado Chip. Also in September we began mixing new tracks for Acres Acres.
We'd also like to give a special mention to Rockfeedback TV, who recently visited upon us the awesome alt-rock presence of Pulled Apart by Horses, and the 'deafeningly brilliant' No Age.
Urchin Studios has just upgraded its recording software to Pro Tools HD 8. Along with this upgrade comes a host of new plugins including the Abbey Road Bundle and the undeniably spectacular Altiverb 6XL.
After completing the Roses Kings Castles EP in April, Matt and Dan are currently recording and producing the follow up album of Babyshambles drummer Adam Ficek's solo project. The album is set for release later this year on 360 records. Urchin Studios has also recently completed mixing the latest 3 Trapped Tigers EP (we’ll keep you posted on release dates for that as it’s proper face melter!).
Both Dan and Matt are reeling from what has been a quite extraordinary few months here at the studio. Firstly we had Fyfe Dangerfield back last month making some wonderful noise together with recording engineer Adam Noble and Noisettes drummer Jamie Morrison.
On St Patrick's Day we had the very lovely Cerys Matthews in with her new band laying down some sweet Nashville-infused tracks. On that session, as well as learning about the different tonal qualities of American vs. English wattage on Fender Twins, we also discovered that Welsh people too celebrate the Irish patron saint.
Other highlights include finishing off the wonderful Jamie Page Croft's solo album as well as completing the debut White Collar Weapons EP.
So we've celebrated by buying ourselves a new Empirical Labs Distressor. We now have two. It's literally one louder.
It’s a new year here at Urchin Studios and what better way to celebrate than great reviews of recordings we’ve been involved with. Produced by Gordon Raphael and mixed by Urchin's own Matt Ingram and Dan Cox, the debut EP by Three Trapped Tigers has won them a place in Time Out’s and Drowned In Sound's Hottest Acts for 2009 as well as great reviews in the NME, Clash Magazine and Norman Records. Check it out!
Also we had the lovely Fyfe Dangerfield in for a week just before Christmas who described his experience with us as the best he’s ever spent in a studio. We love him.
Welcome to the new season and our new look site! Thanks again to Richard for the photos and to the No Picasso boys for their modelling skills.
So the final rays of Summer sun are ebbing away as we pick the final crusts of cow dung from under our finger nails after an extremely ill advised trip to Bestival (DO NOT ignore extreme weather warnings before attending festivals). We here at Urchin are getting our breath back from what has been a truly extraordinary Summer of recording.
In August we were privileged enough to have a visit from the legendary Mayo Thompson who has recorded the latest Red Krayola record with us, in what will go down as one of the most interesting and absorbing recording sessions Urchin Studios has had the pleasure to house. The album is currently being mixed by Jim O'Rourke in Japan - we can't wait!
Other recording highlights also came courtesy of the wonderfully melodic White Collar Weapons, the future-punk styling of No Picasso and the high-octane ska-punk of the aptly titled Krakatoa.
Finally it's only right to give a special shout out to Joe's Asian Fetish who came, recorded and literally got hard in their gym shorts. Good work boys.
Spring has sprung, and we here at Urchin Studios are admiring the daffodils
and looking fondly over a musically rich winter season. Highlights of
which include mixing the quite extraordinary Three
Trapped Tigers, recording the rather lovely electro-fused mayhem
of Akira
and getting our best ever yet Hammond organ sound (it’s all about the
distressor man) with the wonderful songwriting talents of Mr
John
Stanley.
Werewolves
also found time to drop by and shake our very foundations to the core
with guitar riffs that were almost alarming in size. Thanks lads.
The arrival of 2008 brings an end to what has been a wonderful year for us at Urchin Studios. Check out the featured article about the studio in December's edition of Play Music magazine. It has been a great pleasure to watch the studio blossom so magnificently in what has been the year of it's conception.
Here's to more great music making in the year ahead.
Urchin Studios London is now the proud owner of an upright piano (and just when you thought we couldn't squeeze any more quality instruments into our studio). So come one come all and have a tinkle at Urchin Studios - and you might just end up adding that special something to your recording...
Again, all has been full steam ahead upon the good ship Urchin, most notably with the construction of a brand new acoustically treated floating floor, which was lovingly installed by the studios own Matt Ingram and Dan Cox. After an intense 5 days of hard labour and fried breakfasts by the duo, the studio is now looking and sounding better than ever! Check out the gallery for updated live room pictures.
And to music: The Urchin team have been recording a vast array of wonderful sounds, from cinematic Lou Reed inspired Rock n' Roll to some positively filthy Grime remixes, the crew has been hard at work (and has even found time to begin Matt Ingram's solo Prog project, working title: I'm not Short, You're Just Standing Far Away).
So autumn greets us with a two-week visit from Gordon Raphael and a brand new XL signing, as well as a belated, yet very welcome visit from the lovely boys at Transgressive Records. It's all go.
There has not been time for much news of late, as all of us Urchins have been busy hitting drums, twiddling knobs and generally aiding others in the creation of good sounds.
We’ve just finished recording and producing the lovely Tallulah Rendall’s debut offering, which is now in the capable mixing hands of Marius De Vries. Other artists of note have been Jeremy Warmsley, Emmy the Great, Leon Jean Marie, and Skin (who is currently being guided effortlessly through the musical universe by the power of Gordon Raphael’s sonic mothership).
Our myspace
page has a few titbits of some of the stuff we’ve been
up to. Enjoy!
Last night Urchin Studios London opened in a very modest, cheap-cava induced blaze of glory.
Thanks to everyone who came down and supported and extra special thanks to Jeremy Warmsley for performing so wonderfully!