What does S.D.R.L. stand for?
It stands for Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories. It could also be San Diego Recording Laboratories. I did the studio at my house for a while, and the records I was doing there I just put S.D.R.L. or Stereo Disguise [on the credits]. Eventually I wanted to get out of my house because I couldn't be loud as often as I wanted. Zach Smith [Armistead Burwell Smith IV] from Three Mile Pilot and Pinback is really into recording, too. We're always swapping and sharing gear. He's always helped me, as well as Jason Soares, as far as computer software and things like that. We decided to build a place down at Zach's spot because he had a bigger room. His dad is an architect and owns the buildings. We built a smaller studio in there and it turned out great and it was a really good spot — for one person. We quickly realized that we both couldn't be doing work in there, and Pinback is busy all the time. I'm the one out of all of us that's really into recording other people's bands, obviously besides Rafter [Roberts, Singing Serpent]. I wanted to have a facility to make records for bands as well as my own.
Do you feel like this started as gear for you to use and then evolved into working with other bands?
It started off more for my own stuff — for Black Heart's Amore Del Tropico album. I had always done 4- tracking but I'd never really recorded a band until I got the Studer [A80 MKII]. I had the Studer and I was going to be doing the Black Heart record. I had a band called Teacher's Pet come in to test everything. I was like, "Let me try and record you guys." They came and I did a handful of songs for them. I got into gear. It's like an addiction. Once I had a few positive experiences of recording a band and seeing them happy, I really got into that. But gets really tough to have a business like this. I can't give too good of a deal because we have to pay our rent. Moving into this place, bands walk in and they realize it's a legitimate space. When it's in your house, you can kind of be like, "Oh, I don't have extra rent to cover." Here we have to pay rent every month. We have bills.
There's going to be a certain amount of overhead every month. How did you hook up with your partner Brad [Lee]?
Brad runs a small record label here in town called Loud and Clear Records. It's a very small record label with cool bands. He plays trumpet in this other project I do called Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects and was in a band called Manuok. I told him I was looking for a place and he knew I recorded. He said, "I don't know how to record bands but I really want to get into that. I would love to own a studio and be able to be a part of things and help out." We decided to go into it together. We had both been looking on Craigslist and searching all over around town. I had been looking for a place for four years. Then he came across this place that said "Recording Studio for Lease." I think there had been two previous owners in here before. It's been here for ten or fifteen years.
Had you heard of it at all?
No. I'd never been here. Next door they supply analog tape and they do CD duplication and I'd been over there. In the ad it said, "Check with Advance Recording Supplies." I was like, "I didn't know they had a studio over there." I walk in here and it was kind of dumped out a little. Brad and I came in here and I was like, "This is the place." We had checked out several buildings and had looked at building our own studio. This was already built and ready to go. We put new carpet in and painted the walls black. Everything was dead, so we cut the carpet out and painted the cement in the live room so we could have a live drum sound. We vacuumed, cleaned and fixed the place up as well as we could.
Are there any noise problems? Can you make as much noise as you want at any time of day?
We can make as much noise as we want anytime. Next door is a vending supply warehouse. Every now and then I'll hear some banging going. They were building a big shelf cabinet and they were hammering directly on our wall while we were doing drum takes and we actually used part of it once. For some reason he was throwing two by fours on the ground and it was almost like it was right in time. He must have been listening or something.
So you just jumped in and grabbed the lease?
We got a really good deal. He's been a pretty cool landlord, letting us fix it up however we want. In the first month it was tricky with Brad, because he really wanted to learn, but we also had to get moving and start. He's been really patient. He's been doing the scheduling and bookkeeping, but now he can actually run a session and he helps me.
Part of the thing about learning is just being immersed in it.
Now he knows the names of microphones. When we're having a session I can say, "Can you grab this?" He knows how to arm tracks. There's always more to learn. He's been really great and now I actually feel like I have an assistant engineer.
Maybe he can do some things that you can't fit into your schedule.
