It has been a busy period for Metropolis Studios…
For this year’s 2021 Record Store Day Announcement, we hosted and sculpted an ambitious live to vinyl live broadcast to Steve Lamacq’s 6 Music show with Warp Records act Squid. The band masterfully scored and presented new versions of their tracks ‘2010’ and ‘DFM’ both featuring string and horn sections. The two tracks were cut to lacquer by Stuart Hawkes for a subsequent 12” vinyl release available exclusively from independent record stores on Saturday 17th July. See the full list of release drops here!
One of the best projects we have ever worked on was our collaboration a few weeks back with Alfa Mist set up with his manager Ian Merchant from Black Acre and Alfa’s excellent record label Anti/Epitaph. To mark the release of his new album ‘Bring Backs’, we live-streamed a performance the evening before with his incredible 12-piece band and guest vocalist Lex Amor. Featuring all-new material, this was the first public road-test of his new music and the first time he had performed in well over a year. Both Metropolis crew and fans alike were completely blown away by the deep, intense show which you can still see at the link below. Big up to Metropolis Recording/Mix Engineer Alex Robinson, Assistant Engineer Maher Woo-Sheer and the brilliant film production crew at Anattic Matt Page, James Copson, James Stier and Jake McAllister.
Late last year, Fred Perry launched a new Music Grant programme in collaboration with designer Nicholas Daley and Metropolis Studios. A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of spending a weekend working with campaign winner and artist Eden who earned herself a two-day recording and mixing session with Alex Robinson followed by an enviable Mastering masterclass with Stuart Hawkes. Eden will be releasing her tracks in due course but we are delighted to be working with such a classic brand like Fred Perry who as Eden eloquently puts it “play a critical role in empowering and protecting musicians who otherwise might have no other means of support”. More from Eden and about the Fred Perry project here.
Last week we announced the next in our series of Live to Vinyl experiences in partnership with Mastercard / Priceless Cities featuring the band Amber Run. Ticket holders get an intimate look behind the scenes at Metropolis and get to see bands cut two tracks direct to lacquer which are in turn pressed on a limited edition run of 10” coloured vinyl and sent out to guests/fans attending the experiences. The series is well into its third year, our vinyl archive featuring the likes of Kodaline, Gabrielle Aplin, Lewis Capaldi, Jimmy Eat World, Frank Carter, Portico Quartet, Nothing But Thieves, The Big Moon, The Vamps and Tom Walker. We have live-streamed the last few shows without guests in attendance (for obvious reasons) and we plan to deliver a similar hybrid format even when we can get guests back on site but in the meantime, grab a ticket to see what it’s all about. It’s by far the best music studio experience out there and designed specifically for music fans. Learn more here.
In the midst of all the post lockdown activity last summer, The Streets came in to record a wicked Amazon Original session in Studio A. We had a very small window of opportunity in which to make this happen as the band were spread around the country and only in London for a very short time. The unforgettable session featured two live performance mash-ups, ‘Has it come to this / I Wish You Loved You’ & ‘Fit but you know it / Take me as I am’. Recorded and mixed by Metropolis Chief Engineer Paul Norris, the audio released last month is available exclusively on Amazon Music (ask Alexa). Big shout to Chris Koegen and Jack Lowe from Amazon Music UK. You can watch the session below.
Get in Touch
For Metropolis Studio Bookings and queries please contact our Studios Team. Email studios@thisismetropolis.com
For Metropolis Mastering enquiries and bookings please contact our Mastering Team. Email mastering@thisismetropolis.com
For Metropolis Partnership enquiries please contact Gavin. Email events@thisismetropolis.com
