Bloomington is a musically blessed town, from the world-renowned Jacobs School to celebrations like the Lotus Festival. And as the local scene grows, one place is helping local artists produce their music, offering musicians a shot at making their work official; the place where it all begins – the recording studio.
Former IU student Mike Bridavsky recently quit his job as an audio engineer for the IU Jacobs School of Music to throw himself into his studio, Russian Recording.
“It was time to go all out,” he said. And go all out he did, uprooting his studio from Nashville, Ind., to Bloomington and reconstructing the interior of a building. Four months of design and many more of construction have left the studio owner exhausted and in debt, but his passion for music makes it worthwhile.
“I’ve wanted to start a recording studio since I was in high school,” he said. “Making music and helping other musicians, it creates a sense of community we need.”
Bridavsky, who hopes to be finished Sept. 1 with the building’s construction, doesn’t foresee his move impacting the community because most of his clients already came from Bloomington. But members of the local scene hope it will draw in more local bands to record.
Echo Park studio manager Kevin Loyal said Russian Recording’s move to Bloomington will help the local music scene by giving bands an accessible outlet to record their music.
“Access for bands to document their work can’t be anything but good,” Loyal said. “If you haven’t documented it, you simply have a good story. But if it exists in some fashion, if it’s a CD or out there in the wild on the Internet, something exists that hadn’t existed before and that is always a good thing.”
As for competition, Loyal said the community of recordists is so small that they know and support each other.
Cyrus Resur from Landlocked Music reinforces the sentiment that the move to Bloomington will be good for the community. Resur said Bridavsky already has a hold on the Bloomington recording market and believes his move will only improve the industry.
“Since Russian has been around, there are noticeably more local artists recording in studio,” he said. “His new facility is going to be bigger and better. Hopefully, it will attract even more local talent.”
To the surprise of many, Bridavsky chose the old Art Hospital building, located at 1021 S. Walnut Ave., as the new site for his studio. He admits the building used to sound like “a big echo chamber,” but he didn’t shy away from the project because it had sound problems. In fact, Bridavsky chose the old Art Hospital because he saw its potential to create optimal acoustics.
The building’s interior was a wide-open space, giving Bridavsky a blank palette to work with. He designed each room with exact specifications and shaped and sized them for the most technically proficient sounds.
The space is now being rebuilt into five rooms, each with a different purpose musically.
A live room with angled walls produces reverberating sound, for what Bridavsky calls “big Led Zeppelin” sounding instrumentals. An isolated live room also creates open sound with a natural ambiance and a dead room produces dry and focused sound. Bridavsky said having a selection of live rooms is vital during recording so musicians can create exactly the sounds and tones they want.
Bridavsky’s longtime friend Pete Schreiner, one of the first musicians to record at Russian Recording in 2003 when the studio started up, is in charge of construction for the new site. He said he appreciates the building’s history, noting it used to be the headquarters for Secretly Canadian Records before becoming the Art Hospital.
“The building has seen lot of art shows and musical performances,” he said. “There’s a cool vibe and history to it. We’re not building from the ground up, we’re specifically recreating the space. It will be a pleasant unique place to record music.”
Bridavsky, a musician himself, said a close-knit musical community is an integral feature of the Bloomington scene. He credits his success as a studio owner with his desire to help fellow musicians.
“I treat every band like they are the most important band and make it a personal experience for everyone,” Bridavsky said. “Maintaining good relationships with the band and making sure they’re happy makes people happy. If people are happy, they will tell their friends, they’ll come back. If you put everything into it, it will pay off.”
Guitarist Simon Moore from local band Kentucky Nightmare said his band intended to record only a few songs there, but they were so impressed with Bridavsky’s technical expertise and his friendly nature that they recorded their entire album at Russian Recording.
“He’s got great suggestions on how to make your songs better,” he adds. “And he’s got a foul sense of humor that I find really charming.”
