Monday 4 August 2014

The saga continues!

After sugar soaping the walls (the funnest task ever invented), we had to sand down and cover over the artwork that had been painted onto the walls by a mate of the previous owners. This was as fun as it sounds so here's a quick photo montage of it all.



No Rolf comments please!                                  







After we had done this it was time to find all the little dents and scratches in the wall and cover them up with Polyfilla. Amazing stuff and after a couple of youtube videos I was ready to take on the walls! Again with the montage!




Turns out there were quite a few dings we had to cover up. Hopefully now people have seen what we have done they can be a little less cavalier with their guitar cases, amps and bags!

Now we have to wait for it to dry, sand it again and paint it over with a ludicrous amount of paint! Till next time.

Friday 18 July 2014

And So It Begins...

Firebird Studios - Studio corridor

We bought a rehearsal studio! Oh my frickin god! What are we doing?! This is ridiculous! 


Just some of the thoughts that ran through my head when this all started on the 1st July. But we're here now and I know it was the best decision we could've made! There is nothing like running your own business, all the decisions stop with you and the freedom you have to do as you please is genuinely thrilling.

Firebird Studios - Charlie drillingWe knew that we were going to have to do some cosmetic work to the studio to get it looking how we wanted and had factored that in when we took over from Jon and Fedelma. I guess it's kind of like when you buy a new home and you want to put your own stamp on how the place looks. 

Luckily for us they did a bang up job of soundproofing the rooms so almost nothing has had to be done to this, save a bit of work on the doors and finishing off the ceilings so that slightly less sound escapes from these areas.

Firebird Studios - removing the plasterboard
The place just needs a lick of paint and some freshening up so that when you walk into the place, it immediately feels welcoming. So we set about trying to create that
very atmosphere. The first thing we did was to open up the reception space. Previously the reception desk had been covered up so that no one could access it. The reason for this was that the previous owners had been taking overnight bookings where the band could access the studio 24 hours a day. With that in mind it made sense to make the reception impregnable. You don't want anyone wandering places they shouldn't.

As we won't be offering that service (sorry guys) we thought it'd make a lot of sense to take the extra cladding down and open up the space again.

Firebird Studios - Terry with drill
We had some help from Terry and Kevin, good friends of ours who had popped by to have a look around the space. Terry's band Jilk have already been in the studio and made very positive noises about the space and what we could do with it. It's great to have people around you who are so supportive of what you're trying to do.

So with more grit and determination we got the frame and plasterboard down from the reception space and the difference is amazing! It feels so much more open and inviting from the get go.






Firebird Studios - An open reception area is a happy reception area

Et Voila!