About

Hi and welcome to our about page where I’ll take you on the journey of when Cotton Mouth Studios was conceived back in 1988 through to when it actually became a reality in 2009.

The bases of the studio was all was going to be based around an analogue recording studio and specifically a Trident 80b, an Otari MTR 90 MKII and a pair of Quested 3208’s as the main room speaker and Yamaha NS 10’s as near field monitors.

The journey really started with my enthusiasm for music when I was a boy. I always loved to play piano/keyboards, with my earliest memories playing the latest keyboards in Woolworths as we couldn’t really afford one, then being bought a Bontempi accordion keyboard, when I was about 9. I was hooked and music became part of my life – much like yours.

Fast forward to when I was 18. Not knowing what to do with my life but knowing I wasn’t going to be a musician I decided to go to SAE in Holloway Road, a recording studio sound engineering course. With a diploma under my belt I had nothing but knowledge and no studios to go and work in. This is when I conceived the name and idea that one day I would own my own recording studio. My life took a massive distraction and I ended up working in live sound for 8 years.

My live sound journey involved working as a stage hand for a few years before I decided to go back to college to do a City and Guilds course in sound reinforcement. This led to me doing an apprenticeship with a large PA company called Britannia Row Productions. Sending desks, processing, amp racks and speakers to tour with some of the biggest names of the day from Pink Floyd to Oasis and heaps more in between.

My time at Britannia Row Productions came to end when an opportunity to go on tour with Iron Maiden came up. I grasped it with both hands, this was it I was going to be a roadie; what I had been working towards for 8 years.

Coming away from that tour round Europe living on a bus for 3 months made me realise that actually this wasn’t the life for me – I did not want to be a roadie in later years. So I changed course and got into doing audio visual installations and have done so ever since 1996.

Doing audio visual installations is what has actually paid for the cost of building the studio. My live experience and time at Britannia Row Productions meant I learnt a lot about studio equipment as touring engineers generally wanted to use the same equipment and mics that had been used in the studio – things were very different back then.

I did a bit of sporadic touring with The Earlies; I love those guys, and a few other people, but touring has all but stopped. I’m not ruling it out – never say never.

Finally my conceived idea from ’88 started to become a reality when I bought my house with an out building in late 2002. For the next 7 years I built Cotton Mouth Studios at weekends and days off – that was a labour of love. I really cant believe even today that I conceived and achieved such a hair brain idea 😉

I’m glad I did though. Because I put so much of myself into it I love to see the studio being used and achieving great quality productions is the Cherry on top.

I certainly look forward to welcoming you to Cotton Mouth Studios.