Come Knock On Their Door

Taking a cue from legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, Chicago’s Handwritten Recording allows artists to come in for as little as 30 minutes to lay down tracks. Open since April, the Belmont storefront studio caters to musicians who find the “normal” studio setting intimidating.

In a crowded market filled with big names such as Steve Albini and Brian Deck, entering the studio entails commitments, first financially and, especially, of time. For some, the endeavor can be daunting.

It’s a feeling owners and brothers Ryan Jordan and Rick and J.P. Riggs identify with. “Being musicians ourselves, we always talked about recording, but there was never any place that seemed accessible. Every-where is book by the day and pay for an engineer. It’s a big process. You have to get geared up to go to the studio and spend a lot of money and have a big project in front of you to do that,” Jordan explains.

Instead, the brothers decided to fill the void and open a place with walk-in hours that charged only for using the space and equipment, ranging from $35 to $95 per hour. Mixing and engineering duties, courtesy of Jordan, Rick, and J.P. are thrown in. Anyone can utilize the studio, from a band looking to record a full-length to a singer-songwriter hoping to put professional-quality material on MySpace.

“You can come in here if you have one song that you feel like you’ve got start to finish and maybe build some tracks around it; you can leave and everyone can hear it in a matter of five minutes or a matter of an upload,” Rick says. “It feels like music is becoming so much more accessible, so we wanted to take the studio in the same direction.”

Lacking formal training, the brothers honed their recording chops at home in a basement studio recording friends and local bands. Rick admits bathrooms subbing as vocal booths and heating vents and even the ol’ washer and dryer interfering with recording became irksome.

“Eventually you grow out of the basement,” Rick says. “You realize that you work with sonic limitations in a basement. We just decided that we wanted to do it right. When you work in your basement, to an extent, you’re just documenting, but not in control.

“We look at the studio as a chance to be perfect. It is your chance to be a perfectionist when it comes to your music,” he continues. “We just get excited about the chance to, if there’s a wrong note, do it over. You don’t need to make concessions in the studio.”

Depleted savings and headaches over transforming a former women’s clothing boutique into a functioning recording studio (the vocal booth used to be a dressing room, Jordan exclaims) aside, the brothers seem content with their creation. “We’re in it for fun, the experience, and our passion. We’re not in it to get rich. I don’t think that’s possible in 980 square feet,” Jordan says with a chuckle.

From the vibrant wall colors to the personal mementos scattered throughout (original Riggs artwork, a hand-written note from Sufjan Stevens offering his congratulations) Handwritten exudes a pleasant vibe, ripe with a creativity boosting ethos.

“Our main goal was to create the most creative and comfortable environment as possible,” J.P. explains. “We wanted people to feel just as comfortable as if they were in their living room. It’s a great thing to see somebody feel extremely comfortable in a space you put so much into. Seeing people just let loose and hearing a great recording, there’s nothing better for us.”

After obsessing about a sonically pristine tracking room cluttered (but in a good way) with guitars (Fender Strat-ocaster, Telecaster, Jazzmaster, Gibson SG) tacked to the wall, a maroon six-piece Gretsch drum kit, and their grandmother’s lime green upright piano, in addition to a control room housing a Mackie 32-track console (everything is recorded digitally to keep the rates reasonable), the brothers turned their sights to the sitting room up front.

The magic may take place in the tracking room, but the sitting room catches the eye of passersby.

Local singer-songwriter Mike Miller caught a glimpse of the white mod couches and paper Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling through the front window and felt compelled to enter.

“I was just actually walking down the street and I really enjoyed the window dressing that they had. It just looked like a comfortable place to go in,” Miller says.

Miller spent four hours recording and admits he spent another hour or two hanging out just talking music with the brothers, something he couldn’t imagine doing at another studio.

“It’s a cozy atmosphere. It’s not intimidating at all, like I’ve experienced with some other studios. They made me feel very comfortable there. I didn’t feel like I was there to impress anybody. I was just there for myself, which I think is a rarity in the recording industry today. Everybody wants to find the next big thing, so they don’t want to pay any attention at all to the person who’s there doing it for their own personal enjoyment, rather than to make money off of it,” Miller says.

Sitting on the other side in the control room, Rick says one needs to leave their ego at the door to record someone else’s material. “I want to help you record your music your way and we work for you when you’re here,” he says. The ability to do that comes from hashing out what the artist wants to accomplish before pressing the record button and starting the clock.

Still, ego-free doesn’t equal opinion-free. Citing the “two heads are better than one” theory, J.P. says that’s reason enough to set foot into a studio, rather than recording at home alone, no matter how much romanticism is attached to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska experience.

“If you have the same program at home, why do you want to come in here?” J.P. asks hypothetically. “Ears. It’s about having a different set of ears and I hate to pat ourselves on the back, but good ears essentially.”

Handwritten Recording is located at 1346 W. Belmont in Chicago. For more information call (773) 472-7132 or visit www.handwrittenrecording.com.

The Moist Guitars recorded their second CD, Optical Poptitude, with Larry Schara at at ARS STUDIOS in Alsip. Schara will also handle mixing and mastering on the project. Expected release date is mid-July.

Shades Of Fiction self-produced and recorded a new EP at UPTOWN RECORDING in Chicago with engineer/ new SOF bassist Rob Ruccia.

Chicago ska stalwarts Skapone recorded at STEVE YATES RECORDING in Morton Grove. Their third full-length release should hit in late 2007.

At UP ON THE ROOF RECORDING in Lombard, owner/engineer Mark Blas engineered sessions for blues rock group Mitch & The Polecats and pop-rocker MER. Both full lengths are due out this summer.

Americana rocker Ted Wulfers and his band recorded new tunes for an upcoming CD at CHICAGO RECORDING COMPANY in Chicago. Chris Shepard, assisted by Dave Rieley, engineered.

Hey Studiophiler: To get your studio or band listed in “Studiophile,” just e-mail info on whom you’re recording or who’s recording you to ieeditors@aol.com, subject Studiophile, or fax (312) 930-9341. We reserve the right to edit or omit submissions for space. Deadline for the July issue is June 15th.

– Janine Schaults

Category: Columns, Monthly, Studiophile