BY KIRSTEN
SORTEN, GRAHAM
HICK
Timothy Powell of Metro Mobile Recording has been a music and gear fanatic his whole life. Walking into his main recording truck, M-48, is proof enough of that. I was amazed not only at the collection of outboard compressors, EQs and pres, but was also struck by the feel of it. When the door is shut you'd swear you were in a control room in some studio somewhere. There's no kitchen, no pool table and no video game console, but there is a comfortable area for the engineer and a nice couch and chairs in the back for clients or other guests. There's acoustic treatment on the walls, and the aforementioned racks of gear, more than I've seen in some studios! Once the door opens and you're back outside, it's just a large, nondescript white truck parked under the street level, next to the river. Wherever they have a gig, the trucks just roll up next to the venue in the alley or a side street — or, in this case, on the service level of Dearborn Street — plug into the venue's power and FOH console and do their thing. Metro Mobile has two full-timers, including Tim, and a "posse" of freelancers who take care of the recordings. Tim was kind enough to speak with me just before Thanksgiving at the House of Blues in Chicago.
