Tell us a little about what makes your studio unique! What do you stand for and what is at the heart of why you are in the recording industry?
Dean St. was born in 2007 after myself and my Mum Suzanne had 15 very successful years running Wheeler End Studios in Buckinghamshire. I was managing the old Sarm East studio at the time, and we had rapidly outgrown the space coupled with sharing the space with a local music school, so we started looking around for a suitable London space to move the studio to.
We saw 59 Dean Street advertised in the classified section of Q Magazine and were immediately interested knowing it used to be Tony Visconti’s Good Earth Studio (1976 – 1989) and also Joe & Co (1989 – 2006). I was born and bred in studios, and as soon as I walked down into the basement in Soho, I could feel the magic in the walls and knew we had to revive it as a studio.
It all starts with a vibe and that’s what I look for in a studio as everyone has to feel the same thing when they walk into a premises where they need to create and craft their tracks. You can have a room full of the best equipment in the world, but if the vibe isn’t right, you’ll struggle to get the best out of Artists, Producers and Engineers.
The history of Soho has always appealed to creativity and the weird and wonderful. Our studios fit perfectly to suit such a wide variety of projects. It’s great when new clients discover us saying “wow, I had no idea there were 5 studios underground opposite the French House!” Or when well established people in the industry remember coming down when Tony Visconti or Joe & Co owned it.
At the heart of it, Dean St. Studios is a creative cocoon under the vibrant streets of Soho, and there’s really not many of us left in Central London.
Are there any previous recording, mixing or mastering projects that your studio has been a part of that you are particularly proud of?
There are so many to be proud of! We have a very eclectic mix of clients ranging from mainstream Artists to Theatreland and Live Sessions to PR and product launches, but we are proud of each and every file that leaves the building. We had the privilege to be part of Florence & The Machine and Wolfe Alice’s early recording careers, and obviously we are super proud to have been part of Adele’s 25 record and James Arthur’s Back From The Edge album. We have worked on some amazing film soundtracks too which is wonderful as our room is pretty small compared to those usually used for film recording, but more recently we had Hans Zimmer in to record some strings and we did a lot of the music for Better Man Movie, and nights are kept busy with some amazing clients from the UK Rap scene.
What does an average day at your studio look like?
An average day for us is usually a busy one! Because of our varied rooms and sessions, we will likely have a writing or mixing session going on in studio 5, an Atmos session happening in studio 4, a vocal or musical session in studio 2 and back to back day and night sessions in studio 1. A particular highlight for us is when Artists or Producers meet each other at Dean St working on different sessions and come back another time to collaborate. We love the community that seems to naturally form down at Dean St.
Tell us about your studio staff. How do they contribute to your studio’s ethos and reputation?
We run a very small but excellent team of full time staff down at Dean St. Studios consisting of our Chief Engineer Jonny Solway, and 2 brilliant young Assistant Engineers Tom Quigley and Jude Lawson Mudge. We pride ourselves on outstanding service and a relaxed atmosphere alongside excellent sounding rooms and great equipment.
We invest everything into our assistants as they are the future of our recording industry and I’m a firm believer in nurturing talented individuals so they can go forward into an excellent career.
Jonny is an amazing engineer and has been with Dean St. for just over 12 years now, working his way up the ranks from starting as an intern and is now also an excellent mentor to the assistants. He takes the time to teach them how to create our professional yet warm and welcoming environment, and how to master studio etiquette. All staff are client facing and this is a top priority for us. We regularly get emails from clients after sessions saying how amazing the staff were on session which is all I could wish for.
Tom and Jude have both joined us more recently, Tom started in late 2022, and Jude in mid 2023. Both of them came highly recommended to us from industry professionals and they have certainly lived up to expectations. Nothing is too much bother and they go about their day with a smile on their face, acting with utmost courtesy and professionalism.
Coming back to the main purpose of this feature. Is there a highlight from the previous working month (or recently) at your studio that you would like to share?
We have had many highlights recently, sadly nothing we can talk about yet, but of course a big highlight for us was attending the MPG Awards at the end of April, meeting some wonderful new people and chatting studios!
Is there anything else you would like to say about your studio and share with the Guild?
I think everything’s been covered, but we would like to say a big thank you to The MPG for working so tirelessly with all of us studios this last year to help us through what has become a very difficult time for the recording industry since Covid!
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