ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100122
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
A couple of weeks ago, when a musician called from outside the empty recording studio on Memorial Avenue and asked, "Where are you?" Chuck Crush realized he should have put up a sign.
But so many bands that record at Southwest Recording Studios are there so often - "It seems every couple of months they're back in here doing new stuff" - Crush thought most people knew he'd moved.
"I just figured he was a no-show," Crush said of the musician who waited for 45 minutes outside the old, vacant building. "But then he called and said, 'I'm down here and you're not here anymore.'''
Crush moved to 410-C Elm Ave. in October, to bigger digs that can comfortably accommodate as many as eight or nine guitarists, drummers, keyboardists and bass players, just in case your band happens to be that large. The new studio is a vast improvement over the 12-by-12 room on Memorial - perhaps because it was actually built as a studio back in the 1970s, Crush said.
He's made his own modifications. He spent New Year's Eve painting the "Greg Brady wall paneling" a clean shade of white. He's purchased and wired new equipment; now he has 24 tracks instead of the eight he used seven years ago, when he first went into business recording area rock bands.
"When the first band came in I was still hooking up cables, soldering the ends while they were setting up," Crush said. He closed between Christmas and New Year's to make the changes he should have made when he opened, he said. But when he took over the space, business was waiting for him.
"I kept telling bands 'Don't come now, when I move it will be a whole lot better.' Now I have a backload of work."
Crush has no idea how many bands he's recorded over the years. He has boxes of demo tapes for bands with names like "Suppression" and "Weak Link," and now he's doing a few demo CDs, too, he said.
Area bands record in hopes of playing clubs, selling their own tapes and CDs to fans and friends, or attracting a nibble from a major label.
Sometimes, labels pay for studio time. That was the case when Virgin Records covered Crush's $40-an-hour rate to record Twice Told Tales - the band that's come the closest to making it in Crush's recording history.
"Virgin paid for the studio time for a year, but at the end of the year, they decided not to sign them," Crush said. The band members were "just sick, and livid, also. They were a good band."
Crush operates his business on band time - that's about noon until midnight and includes weekends, of course.
"I have no life," he said, grinning. "But it's still fun for the most part."
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB