My History.

By Doug Brady

I started my recording career in a small studio in West Melbourne in 1980 called Flagstaff Studio, (formerly known as W&G Studios) under the training of Ian Mac MacKenzie and John French who were two renowned experts in their field. Prior to this I had had the fortune of growing up in a house hold with a home multi track recording studio, which was rare in those days but coming from a musical family it seemed to lead me down that path which I certainly don’t regret.

At Flagstaff it was all analogue recording as this was well before the digital age, the only digital piece in the studio was the Lexicon Primetime digital delay (wow).

At this studio we recorded many projects; albums, Commercials and film soundtracks, anything at all to do with audio. We had recently purchased Harrison console and a beautiful Steinway piano, what more could a studio want.

Early in 1983 I moved to AAV Studios music Department (formerly known as Armstrong Studios to which I will come back to later in more ways than one).

Assisting engineer to recording engineer was all happening still on analogue and with many different bands and Jingle Writers, i.e. Australian Crawl, Peter Best Mike Brady (yes my Brother) Dear Enemy, Goanna Band, many different commercials to which I always thought was the best thing to cut your teeth on because you had to record so many different style of music, sometimes in the one day and work as fast as you could for the client, a challenge I loved doing.

As an engineer in a major studio, it was also the best opportunity to work with many different overseas producers on projects like, Hunters and Collectors, Human Frailty album, (Gavin Mackillop) Nic Garvey from the Motors, Jimbo Barton to name a few.

I also got to record many film soundtracks in the early eighties, Crocodile Dundee 1 with peter best which was one of the biggest films from Australian shores (wish I was an investor) and as well I started my relationship with one of my heroes as I was growing up, John Farnham on the Whispering Jack Album which sold more than a few copies. With John I went on to record and mix all of his recordings as well as his many live shows around Australia and in Dilli (when required).

Bands like Big Pig Uncanny X-men  Jimmy Barnes, His kids, Daryl Braithwaite, Kylie Minogue, Black Sorrows, god I hate name dropping, Girl overboard, Dragon, Del Amitri, Bobby Brown, Chocolate Starfish Deborah Conway,  Kate Cebrano, (I worked on the song Trust me from the band I’m Talking with Cameron Allen which was quite exciting as it was basically the launch of Kates career. Many bands had big sales like an album with Southern Sons, Pseudo Echo, Skyhooks, Daddy cool, Split Enz, Little River band, Tommy Emmanuel albums and his brother Phil. Wendy Mathews Tina Arena, The Seekers many many more which I cant think of right now.

Then along came Digital, we got the first Sony 3324 Fairlights, 3348’s and onto Protools,

Before that we got into SSL consoles to which I was very familiar with, probably in most studios around the world. I went to work for a small while in Electric Lady Land (Jimmy Hendricks studio (he wasn’t there of course) and other studios in New York.

An extension of my work took me into the wonderful world of Baz Luhrman the Film Maker, (on the recommendation of Roger Savage, Another of my wonderful teachers in the art of recording to work on the film Romeo and Juliet, which won many audio awards around the world. (That was by the whole team of course, but a wonderful experience. I built a small studio in the building Baz was editing the film in with Jill Bilcock (renowned Film editor) and created his sound track for that film as he was editing; I was given the title Australian Music editor. I ended up working on many films in that way like Working Dog’s (the Dish) and so on.

I guess recording so many different styles and on so many different projects i.e., The many Myer xmas albums led me to country music and got the chance to work with different artists like Lee Kernaghan, troy Casar-Daley, A fun project was the hit single I did with James Reyne and James Blundell, Way Out West which is still their biggest selling single. (Funny that). I recorded songs with Olivia Newton-John and her daughter for an American film called Wild Girls.

In the early nineties I had left AAV which had become Metropolis Audio to go out as a freelance engineer, especially as John Farnham had bought his own studio up in Warranwood called Gotham Studios and worked on many projects up there for him and others.

I built my own studio in the late nineties to which we recorded all the music for the Olympic games in Sydney. That was an incredible experience but one to be short lived as a flaw in the lease agreement led me to pack up shop in 2002. Oh well no regrets.

Going on for a moment as a studio owner, Metropolis Audio fell over in late 2006 and as I was looking to set up a recording area suitable for recording bands I did a deal with Digital pictures who still had the space Metropolis occupied and which of course was the same space AAV Music dept’ and of course Armstrong studios was so I thought what better place to set myself up in, Felt like I was going home.

With Bill Armstrong’s blessing and no chance of a sign out the front of the building, I thought what better than to call it Armstrong Studios with its 180 Bank street address home to many Australian classic recordings from the seventies onwards. Certainly a great heritage in Australian music.

It is here now that I reside and also where I recorded albums for David Cambell (swing sessions 1 and 2) and David Hobson’s latest projects, Ross Wilson’s new album for Liberation Blue. Mixed Guy Sebastian’s Dvd for the Memphis sessions Live, Shannon Nolls Live projects for Sony/Bmg Music.

Another band that I have had the pleasure to produce is the Aaron Daniels band. We went in to the studio with the mission to capture the band as it performs live.

I feel we did this, which sometimes is challenging in the studio environment. All in a weekends work.

The future for me in recording feels good with lots of albums on the ready, a film score in Singapore, and building of more studio spaces.

All in all an exciting time ahead.