Mushroom Studios
Encyclopedia
Mushroom Studios was a music recording facility located in Vancouver
, British Columbia
, Canada
with a long history in Canadian music. It has now been relocated to Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
.
Notable as the location that many classic albums had been recorded, including those by: Heart
, Bachman–Turner Overdrive, Loverboy
, Queensrÿche
, Skinny Puppy
, 54-40
, Spirit of the West
, Jane Siberry and Sarah McLachlan
.
The "home" of Mushroom Studios was built in 1966 at 1234 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver. Built by Aragon from the ground up as a first class audio recording studio, it was an orchestral recording room for special sessions by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
. Dr. Howard Tremaine, who wrote the standard reference book of the audio industry, "The Audio Cyclopedia" consulted on the original acoustic design and equipment installation. One of the first clients was Diana Ross
and The Supremes
, and later Led Zeppelin
would also recorded there.
Within five years, Reusch (who apparently did not like the idea of recording post-Beatles rock and roll) would sell the facility to Jack Herschorn. Herschorn had previously co-founded Studio 12 on West 12th Avenue with Tom Northcott
. Herschorn appointed Mike Flicker
as Chief Engineer, Howard Leese
as program manager and Charlie Richmond as Head Technical Advisor.
Herschorn bought the Universal Audio
vacuum tube
mixing console
from United Western Recorders
in 1971. Custom built by Bill Putnam, it had been housed in United Studio A at 6050 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood since 1957, and recorded hundreds of hits by such artist
s as Bing Crosby
, Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra
and Ray Charles
. Jack had the console, along with other purchases, shipped to Vancouver and installed in Aragon.
In a sponsorship deal, the studios were named "Can-Base Studios" and later renamed to the current "Mushroom Studios" name. The studio gained prominence when Heart's hit debut album Dreamboat Annie
was recorded at the studio.
The studio was updated in the 1980s to accommodate over 50 musicians in semi-isolated concert format to do film scoring
for dozens of feature films and movies of the week from Chuck Norris
to a redo of The Dirty Dozen
. The studio was recognized for the film score album of Top Gun
.
In 2006, Rob Darch, owner of Hipposonic Studios
, bought the building from John Wozniak
of Marcy Playground
fame who owned and operated the studio for seven years (1999–2006). However the gear was not part of the purchase and only remained at Hippowest for use by clients.
At the end of 2010, the console, famous for its unique sound qualities and range of variation, and all electronic gear, were moved cross country to a new location on Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario, and custom installed. The warm sounds produced by this console have endeared Mushroom Studios to many artists and producers over the years and it is once again, fully operational and dedicated to recording music and is currently operated by a team at Mushroom/Swingset under the guidance of John Wozniak.
Archived with photos
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with a long history in Canadian music. It has now been relocated to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Notable as the location that many classic albums had been recorded, including those by: Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
, Bachman–Turner Overdrive, Loverboy
Loverboy
Loverboy is a Canadian rock group formed in 1980 in Calgary, Alberta. Throughout the 1980s, the band accumulated numerous hit songs in Canada and the United States, earning four multi-platinum albums and selling millions of records...
, Queensrÿche
Queensrÿche
thumb|250px|right|Queensrÿche's classic line-up performing at the [[Sauna Open Air Metal Festival]] 2011 in [[Tampere]], [[Finland]]. Left to right: bass Eddie Jackson, lead vocals Geoff Tate, drums Scott Rockenfield and guitars Michael Wilton....
, Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial musical group, formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1982. The group is widely considered to be the founders of the electro-industrial genre....
, 54-40
54-40
54•40 is a Canadian alternative rock group from Tsawwassen, British Columbia.The band takes their name from the slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!", coined to express the expansionist agenda of James K...
, Spirit of the West
Spirit of the West
Spirit of the West are a Canadian folk rock band, who were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.-Early years:The band began...
, Jane Siberry and Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...
.
History
In 1946, one of Canada's first studios named Aragon Recording Studios was opened in Vancouver, aided by Al Reusch. Reusch was a musician, big band leader, and one of Vancouver's first DJs. By 1954, Reusch acquired sole ownership of Aragon Studios which would lead to the construction of Mushroom Studios.The "home" of Mushroom Studios was built in 1966 at 1234 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver. Built by Aragon from the ground up as a first class audio recording studio, it was an orchestral recording room for special sessions by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
. Dr. Howard Tremaine, who wrote the standard reference book of the audio industry, "The Audio Cyclopedia" consulted on the original acoustic design and equipment installation. One of the first clients was Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
and The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
, and later Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
would also recorded there.
Within five years, Reusch (who apparently did not like the idea of recording post-Beatles rock and roll) would sell the facility to Jack Herschorn. Herschorn had previously co-founded Studio 12 on West 12th Avenue with Tom Northcott
Tom Northcott
Tom Northcott is a Canadian folk-rock singer with hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was nominated as best male vocalist for a Juno Award in 1971. Later he co-founded Mushroom Studios in Vancouver and produced records...
. Herschorn appointed Mike Flicker
Mike Flicker
Mike Flicker is an American producer in Los Angeles who has numerous credits on music and film projects. He is critically acclaimed for his work with Heart.- Early career :...
as Chief Engineer, Howard Leese
Howard Leese
Howard M. Leese is an American guitarist, record producer and musical director who played with Heart for 22 years...
as program manager and Charlie Richmond as Head Technical Advisor.
Herschorn bought the Universal Audio
Universal Audio
Universal Audio is the fifth and final studio album by Scottish indie rock band The Delgados, released September 20, 2004. The album is considered to showcase a more 'stripped down' sound than its predecessor Hate, featuring less orchestral themes....
vacuum tube
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
mixing console
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
from United Western Recorders
United Western Recorders
United Western Recorders, often abbreviated to UWR, was a renowned recording studio complex in Hollywood, California, which became one of the most successful independent recording studios in the world in the late 1950s and 1960s....
in 1971. Custom built by Bill Putnam, it had been housed in United Studio A at 6050 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood since 1957, and recorded hundreds of hits by such artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s as Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
. Jack had the console, along with other purchases, shipped to Vancouver and installed in Aragon.
In a sponsorship deal, the studios were named "Can-Base Studios" and later renamed to the current "Mushroom Studios" name. The studio gained prominence when Heart's hit debut album Dreamboat Annie
Dreamboat Annie
Dreamboat Annie is the debut album by American rock band Heart. It was released in the United States on February 14, 1976 through Mushroom Records. It contained three hit singles which became staples on FM radio...
was recorded at the studio.
The studio was updated in the 1980s to accommodate over 50 musicians in semi-isolated concert format to do film scoring
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
for dozens of feature films and movies of the week from Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
to a redo of The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich and released by MGM. It was filmed in England and features an ensemble cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Robert Webber. The film is based on E. M...
. The studio was recognized for the film score album of Top Gun
Top Gun (soundtrack)
Top Gun is the soundtrack from the film of the same name, released in 1986 by Columbia Records. In 1999, it was reissued in a Special Expanded Edition with additional songs. In 2006, it was reissued again in a Deluxe Edition with more additional songs...
.
In 2006, Rob Darch, owner of Hipposonic Studios
Hipposonic Studios
Hipposonic Studios is a music recording studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally founded in 1994 by Robert Darch, the studio moved its location in January 2004 from their Kitsilano neighbourhood to 16 East 3rd Ave, Vancouver and the new location was built by the staff under the...
, bought the building from John Wozniak
John Wozniak
John Keith Wozniak is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band Marcy Playground. He is the son of a developmental psychologist dad and a free spirited Bohemian mother....
of Marcy Playground
Marcy Playground
Marcy Playground is an American alternative rock band consisting of three members: John Wozniak , Dylan Keefe , and Shlomi Lavie . The band is best known for their 1997 hit "Sex and Candy".-Early years:...
fame who owned and operated the studio for seven years (1999–2006). However the gear was not part of the purchase and only remained at Hippowest for use by clients.
At the end of 2010, the console, famous for its unique sound qualities and range of variation, and all electronic gear, were moved cross country to a new location on Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario, and custom installed. The warm sounds produced by this console have endeared Mushroom Studios to many artists and producers over the years and it is once again, fully operational and dedicated to recording music and is currently operated by a team at Mushroom/Swingset under the guidance of John Wozniak.
External links
Current- http://www.mushroom-studios.com
Archived with photos
- http://www.recordproduction.com/mushroom_studios.htm