It is with a strange mixture of sadness, excitement and an eye to the future that I announce that at the end of this month I shall be closing the doors of Studio 203 for the last time. It has been an agonizing decision that I never wanted to make but always knew at some point I would have to. For 22 years (yup I’m that old…. I know most of you think I’m 27 ;)) I have been doing my dream job, a passion that is so etched into my soul that my love of creating music burns greater than ever and I feel blessed and privileged to have worked with and shared so many special moments with so many amazing musicians/songwriters/bands and ultimately people. As I write this it’s a beautiful sunny winters day in Auckland and I’ve spent the morning at the Zoo with my wife and 2 kids and I’m reminded despite my sadness that it’s the right decision. Making a living in music in NZ is damn hard. You don’t do it for the money and you have to make sacrifices to do what you love. As you get older life changes and my amazing wife has made great sacrifices herself to let me follow my passion. And I can never thank her enough for that. There are many reasons for my decision but ultimately the two people I can’t ask to make that sacrifice for me is my two young kids Jake and Olivia. Once I shut the doors I’m off for a holiday in the sun with my family. After that I don’t know what I will end up doing… I have plans/ideas…. some of which may keep me in the music industry in NZ…in the meantime I’m going to relax a bit (though probably not knowing me), hang out with my kids, go fishing, cook dinner for my wife for a change and give her some of the support she has given me….. and ultimately see where life takes me with an open mind. Change is good although it doesn’t always come naturally but every new beginning starts with the end of something. Till I decide on the future I’ll still be doing some limited freelance work at other studios and will have some form of temporary set up that will let me do a bit of mix/mastering, so I’m not completely hanging up my faders just yet. Making music feels so much a part of me I can never imagine not doing it in some form….music is my religion. I would like to thank everybody who has been associated with the studio, all the bands, flatties, people who’ve just hung out, people who fix all the stuff I’ve blown up, all the other engineer/producers who have advised and inspired me, and of course the 203 assistant engineers (thank you Ben Knapp, Tim Darbyshire and Nik Mokkapati for everything), all the people that work tirelessly helping NZ music that keep the industry going despite the odds and anyone else who has helped me in any way to live my dream for 13 years at Studio 203. It is sad and it will be sad to say goodbye, but life changes and I will always have the memories (and records!!) of sharing so many special moments of joy, frustration and triumph with so many people in a special place that I called my own. I’m lucky to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard. In the clearing stands the boxer, and a fighter by his trade.And he carries a reminder of every glove that laid him down...or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shameI am leaving! I am leaving but the fighter still remains. Paul Simon Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on. The Beatles
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 13:58:46 +0000
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