Number of rooms expected to be completed by late spring
Lowe, Pendulum and Chase & Status. Five, under construction at the time of PSNEurope’s visit, will be a ground floor studio for Mark Ronson, based around an MCI console. “That’s a big old school-style control room and live room, he’s bringing in a load of vintage gear,” explains Keynes. Phases Six and Seven are yet another two floors of creative spaces, including rooms for artist Tinchy Stryder and Spice Girls writer producer Biff Stannard. The forthcoming short-term lease rooms will take it up to Phase Eight. “I want to go to 10!” jokes Keynes. One further possibility might be the building of an orchestral recording space onsite. “That’s driven by the number of composers we have here. If they wanted to record 30 players, it would be great to do that here.” The design and layout of the majority of the studio rooms was based on a ‘standard template’, in terms of basic construction and acoustic performance, reveals Walls. Certain tenants made requests for tweaks or niche additions, depending on their working methods. For instance: Dru Masters, who composes for TV’s The Apprentice, really pushed the boundaries in the conceptualisation and realisation of his ‘truly stunning’ space, for instance. “Rather than rooms for hire,
they are rooms for the client,” says Keynes, emphasising how Tileyard has tried to create comfortable surroundings for its composers and musicians, in the hope they will plan to stay for the longer term. Chris Walls, in turn, has managed the project on behalf of Munro Acoustics, working closely with the builder, as well as with bespoke joinery maker Form & Function (a long- time Munro ally). Along the way Walls and Keynes have found ways of “streamlining the process, improving acoustic quality, or reducing costs without compromising”. “The biggest challenge about
the build was giving every single tenant what they wanted, as quickly as possible,” says Walls. And the only limitations into what has been possible – within reason – has been the physical size of the office buildings. “We’ve been pretty creative within those constraints,” he adds. A small number of key equipment suppliers/installers have been heavily involved in the Tileyard project. Barnet-based KMR Audio has supplied a wide range of high-end audio products; for instance, most of Dru Masters’ equipment and Christian Henson’s Pro Tools HDX rig. KMR also supplied the first pair of Focus SM9 monitors to film composer Samuel Sim. Paul Brewer of Genius Move Audio also made a
studioreport
KMR Audio supplied the Pro Tools HDX rig for
Christian Henson’s room: Note rare Crumar Stratus synth, bottom right
The vinyl lathe in Gearbox Records’ room
significant supply and installation contribution too: “Most of my previous projects had been individual studios with 1-4 rooms. Tileyard was – and continues to be – something else!” he says. “For some clients, like Basement Jaxx, I supplied gear including an SSL AWS console and a complete patchbay, while other studios had a few microphone and headphone lines.
“Being able to install and supply equipment and interconnections can make life simpler for everyone,” he says, singling out Dug Guthrie of cable manufacturer VDC for his “great assistance” across the whole project. (VDC, conveniently, has its HQ in the next street.) Back to Keynes. “There’s a
room upstairs belonging to Tom Fuller, a young engineer,” he begins. “His room is 12sqm,
with access to a small live room. He’s just been mixing down at Real World (in Bath) and he says he prefers mixing in his own room here. Not because it’s a better mix space, more that it’s his space. “Tileyard is becoming an important incubator for talent,” says Keynes. “The labels and publishers are becoming increasingly aware of what’s happening here, so they are coming to us too. It’s exciting that they’re taking such an interest in what we’re doing here!’ “This café is very important,
there’s nowhere like it within walking distance, this place gets very buzzy. And that’s what’s exciting about it. There are young producers, artists, and writers here – it’s fresh and happening organically from within.”n www.tileyardstudios.co.uk