Leaky Roof Studios: First Official Recordings (Jan 20, 2012)

January 20, 1982: Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a live bat in Des Moines, Iowa.

January 20, 2012: The first tracks are recorded at Leaky Roof Studios.

I mentioned this little coincidence while sharing my excitement on the phone with my mother as I drove from work to the studio to lay down the drums for the PackaBastards cover of “A Question of Lust.” She was happy to hear the news that we would be recording in the studio, and noted that I had worked very hard for a long time to get to this point, where I am a co-owner of a professional-grade recording studio.

It may have taken just over 40 years, but mom finally sounds convinced that this music stuff isn’t just some passing phase of which I’ll grow out.

Chester and a friend, planning the studio

Got to the studio around 5:30pm, with Chester ready to get this momentous occasion going. He started building This studio in 1991, when he was only 16 years old. For about 20 years, his structure (now the drum room and vocal booth) served as a rehearsal place for his bands. It was built on the side of a 2-car garage, which now serves as the control room.

We had spent hours over the past week or so setting up every microphone on the kit, checking levels, and mixing. Once that was done, we set the tempos for the songs we plan on recording and created ProTools files.

On the night of recording, the only thing we had to worry about was the drum parts. We had started to cover this song around the time that we lost our singer, which was around the time that construction began. We recorded those parts and reviewed them, making changes based on the sound that we have envisioned.

The session concluded around 10:00pm, and we picked up where we left off at 9:30am the next day. By 4:00pm, we had a completed drum track for the song. Now we can add other instruments, percussion, synth sounds, special effects, and anything else.

While we have intentions of recording other bands in the future, we have now found ourselves in a very unique position. We have our professional-grade studio, completely at our disposal. Of equal importance, we’ve found someone with talents comparable to ours who also happens to posses an incredible voice and strong pop/rock sensibilities in the realm of writing. With that, we’ve found ourselves not resting on our laurels, transferring the insane schedule and energy that once fed our construction activities into our music.

The future is very exciting.

LRS: The Old Days

Chester and a friend, planning the drum room and vocal booth for Leaky Roof Studios, circa 1991

Avoid Dotster for Web Hosting

Before I tell you the story, know that I’m going to take responsibility for this one. Fool me once, shame on you.

I got fooled twice by Dotster, the company that was hosting DrumWild.com and LeakyRoofStudios.com.

In mid-December of 2010, I set up my account with them and paid for one full year. I had gone through every setting I could find and turned off the “auto-renew” feature. I’m a grown adult, and I pay my bills on time. If I don’t, it’s on me. Again, I take responsibility for myself.

As December approached, I knew the bill was coming up. I was prepared to pay it in early December. But I didn’t get the chance, because Dotster hit me with an auto-renew ONE FULL MONTH before the account was due. They had hit me at a bad time; just 3 days before payday, so it had that special sting to it.

I called their customer service to get an explanation. I got one.

They said that they auto-renew domains early in case there is a billing issue. That way, it can be resolved before time runs out and the account gets blocked. When that happens, no website associated with my account will be visible or active.

Okay. Makes sense. I asked them how it can be turned off, and they said that it cannot. With that information, I had planned on moving my service elsewhere, but not doing so until around October. Why not? I had already paid for a full year early, against my will.

Mid-December, the due date passes, and I hear nothing. So far, things are going as expected.

Until today.

I’m at a lunch meeting, talking about the studio, services, etc., and I mention the website. But when we try to pull it up on my phone, Safari cannot find the server. Talk about embarrassing!

With egg on my face, I call Dotster and ask them if there is an outage (giving them the benefit of the doubt), or something. They inform me that, “Your account has been blocked due to non-payment.”

Really?

They look at my account and see that it was paid a month in advance. At this point, I decide to tell this representative of my recent adventures with Dotster, and highlight the irony of the situation. They tell me it can take up to FOUR hours to rectify the problem, which is clearly not good enough.

After that, I moved my domains and hosting to a different company. I’ll name them if they turn out to be good.

Yes, Dotster, you made me look bad. Really bad. But I take the blame. After all, I was the one who gave you the second chance to do me wrong.

This shall never, ever happen again.

Leaky Roof Studios: Preparing to Open

One of my most proud accomplishments was to assist in building Leaky Roof Studios. Guitarist and band founder Chester Arthur built the initial band room 20 years ago. Everyone involved with the band pitched in, but my investments in the studio (without going into great detail) have launched me into the realm of co-founder and partial owner.

It’s pay-off for hard work. Sometimes it happens.

The inside of the studio is just about completed. We still have to install sound diffusers, air conditioning, outside paneling and drainage. After that, the job will officially be completed.

So what next?

We will be recording ourselves, but will also record other bands, solo artists, live drum tracks, spoken word, and various audio tracks.

If you’re in the LA area and are interested in our services, please let us know and we’ll give you a tour of the facilities and a menu of services offered. Our goal is to be the most affordable recording studio in the LA area.

Personally, I’m looking forward to laying down some drum tracks.