As you may have seen from our previous blog post, we are currently in the process of saying goodbye to the building that has been our home for the past 15yrs! We wanted to go out on a high note, fill the last month here with recording work and close this chapter by doing what we do best. Sadly, as it stands, another national lockdown will make that unlikely.

To be clear on how the lockdown rules apply to us, we are able to remain open and operate recording sessions.

As confirmed by the The Musician’s Union, The Music Producer’s Guild and Oliver Dowden of DCMS, recording studios are classed as places of work and musicians as workers - you are recording to support your career in music, regardless of whether you are directly creating income from a recording or not.

https://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/Home/News/2020/Nov/Lockdown-in-England-The-Likely-Effect-on-Musicians

Despite this, we realise that this lockdown is in place for a reason. To keep people safer. We understand that many musicians simply do not wish to contribute to increased risk or group work during this time as cases are on the rise. We totally respect this position and are doing everything we can to ensure that we are providing a safe working environment to support those musicians who do wish to continue creating work during this time. This combination of being technically able to remain open, whilst having demand for our services drop dramatically is sadly becoming more common within the creative industries.

With that in mind, it’s worth talking frankly and openly about how we as a business are tackling the next few months. We are moving ahead with our plans to move into the wonderful new space over at JT Soar in Nottingham. This move will begin in late November and we are aiming to be completed and operational in time for the new year.

The last 7 months have been incredibly difficult for everyone in our industry. We have been ineligible for any government support to pay our wages or go on furlough. We have continued to work remotely where possible, but musicians are facing the toughest time and our income is roughly 40% of what it would be in a normal year. I think you’d struggle to find many businesses that can cope with that level of income reduction, but we are fortunate in that we are small, agile and adaptable, so for the time being, we are still here. This, in my eyes, is the unique strength of the independent creative industries, the DIY scene and the resilient people that work within it.

Moving premises comes with its own costs and things will be incredibly tight unless more comprehensive support packages are announced soon. Still, we are incredibly excited about starting a new chapter for the studio and we’ll be sharing that excitement soon, over on Instagram (and a little might spill over to Facebook and Twitter too). For now, the most helpful thing will simply be your support. We can still work on audio production, editing and mixing remotely without interruption during our relocation. For the next few weeks, we will be operating small recording sessions within Covid-secure guidelines before we begin our move. If you have a project you need help with, get in touch. If you have plans for recording in the new year, we want to hear from you. If you can recommend us to others, share posts, engage with social media - every little helps.

Thank you to every person that has worked with us on Agard St over the years. We can’t wait to welcome you to the new studio soon. Stay safe and inspired x

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