During the Fall and Winter of 2006, while I was building my Personal Home Studio, I've also been busy with renovations and upgrades in a small commercial project studio. The studio belongs to engineer/musician/producer/TLS'er Brian McKenzie [SF member "b!], and since I've moved back to SC I've partnered in the studio.

I'm sure Brian will pop by here. I wanted to use this space to post updates on upgrades and ongoing renovations that have been happening, and are still ongoing.

A little history on this joint. For years it was called "The Lazy I". A Google search will show results for many indy bands that made their way through the Lazy doors. Originally it was a punk club playing mostly all-age shows. Bands signed to Indy labels would often stop here to play when in the coastal SC area. There was also a record store in front. About five years ago Brian added a recording studio in the middle of the space.

Over the years hundreds of bands played in the club and recorded in the studio.

Currently the name of the studio is Brian McKenzie's Music Factory. Here's the MySpace page.

Here's some shots I took and for an old website I'd put up a few years ago.

After I moved back to SC last year, Brian and I started talking about what we could do together. We also continue talking about a larger space, but the fact is at this point this is a cool space. Everything's paid for, we have lots of great toys, and we don't have to worry about much. And it's a great place for us and everyone else to be creative. I also like the idea of a smaller manageable space at this point. And frankly, I've been doing so much moving and building over the last year, that the thought of working on a totally new space from scratch makes my head spin. We'll probably move on to bigger spaces at some point, but for now we're diggin' this space. It's got a cool vibe. And so we've started working to make it into something a little more comfy.

So, here's a shot of the studio around last summer. Note the concrete floor.

Here's a shot in January after the hardwood floors were expertly installed by Josh Grant of Sideways Derby. Brian and I have been busy since last sumer working with Josh on his upcoming CD.

This is at a TLS workshop. Drummer Russ Whitman is giving an in-depth drum clinic.

In February, Brian took off for LA for a week. The studio's usually booked pretty solid, so a whole week was my chance. I used that opportunity to tear into the place, and give the main room a new paint job. As if I wasn't already busy enough....

But here goes.

Some shots of the room after I'd applied the first coat of industrial strength white primer. Getting all the graffiti - much of it in spray paint - covered over took a few coats. We'd talked about the graffiti, and of course had some attachment to it. But in the end, it was time to move on to another chapter in this studio.

A shot of the ceiling. This is how the room came when it was rented. And the saving grace of the insulation on the ceiling was that it made the room sound better. We've got some black acoustic fabric we'll be putting up as a cover over the ceiling soon.

Another shot facing towards the control room.

Lots of extra wood for another room. The first coat of colored paint starts to go on the opposite wall. I'd busted my ass with so many coats of white primer that I was getting itchy just to open the first can of colored paint and splash a little on the walls.

With the paint the idea was to go for a technique that would give the effect of Venetian plaster in a warm peachy tone similar to this pic [not my wall]. I'd done a few of these kinds of paint jobs when I lived in Copenhagen, and they came out really beautiful. The only difference was I'd taken a long time to do those, and I had only a few days to knock this job out.

The idea was to give a warm, rich, distressed atmosphere that would move and change with various lighting.

So, the first thing that happens is I put a base coat of a pumpkin color on all the walls. I'd already been at this for three days and it was nice to finally see some color!

A shot out the back door.

Next, the "artsy" part of the job gets started. After this, the rest of the paint job is done by hand. I applied streaks of white and yellowish paint to the base coat. The trick is to rub in circles so that the paint blends together. If it's done right, there should be no indication that anyone's had their hands or any other tools on the wall.

This isn't the best shot, and the color's not right, but I wanted to try and show a close-up example after the paints had been hand-rubbed together.

Here's a shot of the room after I'd worked enough on the paint to put the gear back in place. The paint job is actually still ongoing. And I can quickly adjust the color of any of the walls or the whole room by rubbing over with a towel soaked in a watery solution of whatever paint I want to use to modify the color.

The side walls look pretty good. The back wall's a bit too pink and orange. But I can tweak that. And we're putting a thick, black theater curtain over the entire length of the back wall.

Anyway, work's still ongoing at the studio. There was even an art gallery show by The Anti Condo Art Regime in the studio a couple of weeks ago. All the paintings looked pretty nice against my little work-of-art paint job. We want to turn the studio into an active art gallery.

We've got a few nice Persian rugs on the floor now. And the fabric's going up on the ceiling. We're looking into curtain solutions for the back wall.

Haven't even gotten into the gear yet. And there's work to be done in the control room. New racks, desk, and lots of rewiring.

Will report back at the next progression.