Featured Partner: Lantern Sound Recording Rig [INTERVIEW]

Covid-19 has been a really strange hit for all of us, in this time we have all had to make various adjustments to our daily routines. As many of us at WUSB are strongly involved in music, we’ve decided to ask Lantern Sound Recording Rig, a beautiful recording studio in Manorville, NY about how they’ve adapted to the “new normal”. 

WUSB Supporter and Community Partner Mick Hargreaves is interviewed by Jackie Guma, radio host of Equilibrium Radio on WUSB, alternating Mondays from 3-5pm!

“THE LANTERN SOUND RECORDING RIG - Only area recording studio located inside county park preserve land; LI NY's "Big Pink" - In a beautiful 1910 farmhouse - daily / hourly bookings. Full day rates include overnight accommodations. Two floors modern, vintage, analog gear, live drum room, ambient spaces, isolation chambers, baby grand, full kitchen. Logic, ProTools, Trident, Focusrite, Ampex, 24 inputs.”

Sourced from LSRR website: www.lanternsoundrecordingrig.com 

Q: What kind of work do you usually do at lsrr?
Full length albums/ singles/ live performances?

A: The Lantern Sound Recording Rig is known for being a comfortable recording environment where bands can perform and record as a unit, to get that magic "take". Once that's accomplished, I go to work on more engineer/producer type stuff, to help flesh out arrangements while overdubbing additional parts, and I pay particular attention to vocals. I'm a good vocal arranger. These days an artist's recording effort can mean anything from singles to full albums to things in between, including live performances.

Q: Are you currently the main engineer at LSRR or do you have anyone working with you?

A: I'm the sole proprietor and employee of the Lantern Sound Recording Rig. I know where every wire is routed in this recording studio, and I know every electrical outlet in this old house. In a hundred year old farmhouse, there are good power outlets, and bad power outlets, from a recording perspective. 

Q: The last few months have been an undeniable game changer for musicians everywhere due to COVID-19, what are some ways that LSRR has had to adapt?

A: Well, the first thing I did was freak out quite a bit. Is this business that I'm in completely toast? You have to assess what the worst case scenario is, and then prevent that from happening. So a long contemplation began, and of course the goal posts are constantly moving during a plague, so it's hard to know where to kick the damn ball. 

Then, a long time buddy of mine that I hadn't hung out with for quite a while had to wait around for a flight back to LA and needed a place to chill for a week and a half. So I put him up, and that was cool low-key bro-down and major catching up. 

As soon as he split, some top-notch steel case studio furniture showed up in my life, gratis, courtesy of Matt Harris. Again. I was initially going to turn down the offer, because it would have meant an ENTIRE re-working of the studio control room here, soup to nuts, like, a tear-down and re-build, but then I realized that if there was a time to do it, this certainly was it. So that happened

An estimated re-build time of four days grew into a week and a half, I'd say. Of course - It always takes longer than you think. 

So I had an entire studio control room makeover. As good a way to pass some time during a nightmare of a plague as any, I guess.

Then the work started coming in. I did a single with Winston Irie and another with the HooDoo loungers, both prerecorded songs for online benefit streaming shows on the East End, with a fun number of parts "flown in" from other studios before the mixes were done here. There were some overdub sessions for other artists too, and now The Crushing Violets are here doing their new record. But make no mistake, work is slower still, and there was a period there where there was none.

Q: Are there any adaptations you've made during the past few months that you see yourself continuing into the future? 

A: It comes down to this: First, Masks. Second, separate spaces. I formulated a plan for keeping the studio split in two, and it was George Howard that suggested it to me first. Of course! I stay in the control room, and the performers never come in the control room. Today, the Crushing Violets were in doing vocals for their new record. I put up two vocal mics in the front parlor, which is two full rooms away from the control room where I am, and they sing away. We communicate over the headphones, and I have a talkback mic of course. There's separate front and back entrances to the house, so that permits more space for all. Third, cleanliness. That room is theirs for the four days they're here for the record, too. There's guitar amps, bass amps, and a baby grand piano in there, and it's got a dead corner for acoustic interment treatments. Many artists have their own microphones, and I leave time between sessions for cleaning. Like, two days.

Q: What kind of work have you been doing during the stricter months of social distancing?

A: I've been really obsessed with the studio, honestly, just out of desire to not have anything fail. It's been a good time for maintenance. Now that the work is coming back, it's in really good shape. I got my tomatoes and basil in the ground pretty well this season, and re-did a big part of of the veggie-grow operation like the elevated soil beds. There was time, and it was good to be outdoors doing that work.

Q: What are you most looking forward to when things start to return to normal?

A: I'm looking forward to being on a stage performing with a band in a joint that's packed with fun humans. Who knows when that will be. I don't think soon, I'm afraid.

Lantern Sound Recording Rig hosts a very relaxed and personal experience for all types of musicians. Contact Mick Hargreaves for a one of a kind recording experience & check out this great space for creativity for yourselves!

Location: Near all Xport • Pine Barrens LIE NY Exit 70 • 631-909-3432 • Proprietor: Mick Hargreaves.