Tell me a bit about the room across from what's now the master control room. Was this the beginnings of what ultimately became Eyeland Studio?
Ben Knox Miller: It's currently a "dry" room, as well as a drum school on Saturday mornings, run by Rachel Blumberg. But that was mission control when we first moved in here. It felt a bit like outer space, in the darkness, black curtains, with the gear lights illuminated. You feel like you're mixing in a vacuum. We moved in there for the control, at first, because we wanted to hear exactly what was in the speakers and not be fooling ourselves. We needed to know what the opera house actually sounded like on playback. But soon it got claustrophobic. You could mix a three-piece and be totally cool and comfortable, but any more than that and it was too crowded.
So when you first moved into that small room, you knew you'd be using the rest of the space, eventually?
BKM: We had no plan at all, other than to make our new record. We had 400 feet of snake, a few mics, and a bunch of songs. But the record outgrew that room and we began to see the long-term potential of the space, so we ripped out the kitchen sink, smashed out a window, and built QRD [Quadratic-Residue] diffusors. The kitchen was bigger.
How are you integrating the Columbus Theatre into the studio? It's an incredible space, with so many variations available.
BKM: We built a patchbay that makes it easy to record any sound in any of the acoustical settings in the theatre. The concrete dressing rooms under the mainstage and the large theatre lend themselves as unique natural echo chambers for the studio. Jeffrey Prystowsky: There's a silent movie organ, too. An original Wurlitzer from 1926. The mechanical instruments and pipes are high above the theatre seats, behind the mural.
How did The Low Anthem journey lead you to this place?
