April 16, 2016 editorial: comments

Studio in Chaos

As much as I like to work in an organized, neat environment, my studio has the tendency to descend into chaos whenever I’m hard at work on a project. Instruments are out of their cases and leaning against furniture, cables lie tangled on the floor, papers are strewn about, and there are the ubiquitous plates and coffee cups — the remains of my in-project snacking. After I finish the job, I have to do a massive cleanup just to get things back to a manageable state. But then along comes the next project, and, boom, my studio is back in disarray.

I’m guessing that a lot of you experience a similar pattern. But there are folks out there who are somehow able to keep their studios perpetually spotless, even when they’re really busy. How do they do it? I’m not sure. But if, like me, you lean to the disorganized side, you might feel vindicated to know that the scientific research on the subject indicates that creativity is actually more likely to occur in a messy environment.

That said, your creative spirit can be seriously dampened if, in middle of a project, you can’t find something you need because of the clutter. I’ve had occasions where I'm unable to find a particular small studio item — like a cable, adapter or capo — that I know should be there. Where these things disappear to, I have no idea. Perhaps the same place that some of my socks go after I put them in the dryer.

I do try to adhere to the old adage, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” which definitely makes finding things a lot easier. But when I’m in the middle of recording that concept usually goes by the wayside. 

When I do manage to do something positive in terms of my studio’s organization, I get a lot of satisfaction. For instance, I recently spent a couple of hours untangling and labeling cables. It made me realize that what might help is to try to do small things like that on a regular basis, and chip away at the chaos. Attempting to tackle it all at once is simply too overwhelming.

So how would you characterize your studio space? Do you keep it perpetually neat? Does it look like a bomb went off in it? Or is it somewhere in between?

One studio that unquestionably was always highly organized was EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) during the time of the Beatles. As you’ll read in this week’s story Fab Four Gear!, it was also so rigidly controlled in terms of what recording techniques could be used by the engineers that the Beatles, even in their heyday, had to sneak around when they wanted to try something out of the box. 

If you haven’t read the story, which is an interview with author Andy Babiuk who wrote the book, Beatles Gear: The Ultimate Edition, I recommend it highly. Babiuk interviewed Paul and Ringo and the late George Martin, among others during his research, and he has lots of great stories to tell, not only about the Beatles in the studio, but about how they ended up with the particular instruments and amps they used during the years they were together.