Amidst the gypsyesque and often chaotic lives led by musicians, certain places arise as safe haven in the storm. This evening marks the passing of one of those special places. After one very busy day, Love Tribe Studios has closed its doors after nearly twelve years of existance. Love and Peace to all who have been a part of it.

It all began somewhat innocuously In the Spring of 1996, when my dear friend Lisa Lynne Franco called me to help out with what would become her breakout release, “Moonsongs”. Shortly after the release, Lisa called me up and asked me to setup a van full of gear she’d bought in a house she shared with two girlfriends. Our first session four years previous was in Mick Guzauski’s home studio using prototype ADATs, and so it was fitting to setup a trio of them in her room. The studio went to work immediately for the tracking of “Celtic Zen”, a collection of improvisations featuring Lisa, Michael Masely and Levi Chen. Shortly thereafter it was used to record a number of tracks featuring the crew of musicians hanging out at Lisa’s called the Love Tribe. During these sessions the studio was dubbed ‘L’Boudiour’ due to its location in Lisa’s room. Late in ’96, Windam Hill Records signed Lisa to a deal and the pace quickened.

While writing the credits for the first Windam release in ’97 Lisa thought the name wasn’t professional enough and so we renamed the studio “Love Tribe” in honor of the crew. In early Summer, Lisa’s housemates moved out the same month my place was sold so I moved into the North wing of the house, pooling our gear and setting it up in the master bedroom. With a separate control room and professional wiring throughout, Love Tribe Studios, aka LTS, was in full swing. By the end of its first year six nationally released CDs came out of LTS, an output it would average for its entire existence.

In ’98 Little Feat called me to record a project for them and they wanted to do it in Paul Barrere’s house. Bolstered by endorsements, we built an amazing setup using a prototype of Panasonic’s DA7 digital console, AT mics, TC outboard and several hundred feet of Monster Cable. After finishing the project, dubbed “Under the Radar”, we did an interview with Electronic Musician magazine discussing the pros and cons of home recording and I was quick to mention the culinary advantages of such activity…
After the Feat CD I took the console, mics and a few recipes home. With the addition of another DA7, a quartet of ADAT XTs and Genelec monitors, LTS was a full-fledged pro studio. For a decade, between Lisa’s records and my clientele’, LTS was a part of 6-10 CDs a year, as well as countless other sessions, featuring a wide range of artists from Ireland to Iran, Mexico to China and everywhere in between.

2000 saw the addition of surround mixing, and ’01 brought with it a Mac running Logic and soon the tapes stopped moving in favor of hard drives. About this time Lisa began hosting Windam Hill rehearsals at LTS, where her cooking became the subject of touring legend. During one rehearsal, Paul Barrere came over to pick up some CDs I’d burned for him and wound up listening to my monitor mix. Two months later, all 7 of Feat were blowing the roof off of my humble home in Van Nuys.

In addition to the many recordings, LTS was the scene of many jam sessions and parties, a number of which are already a part of world music infamy. In between sessions and soire’s, LTS was a crash pad for an amazing series of traveling musicians. Nearly every Celtic harpist of major stature slept in the guest room, as well as Sufis, Jazzers,
Pagan sirens and charros Mexicanos. The photo albums and guest books are a veritable who’s who of LA’s Celtic/New-Age/World music scene for over a decade.

Shortly after New Year’s ’06, the house Lisa and I were renting went up for sale, forcing us to move hastily. We were blessed to find a place on an estancia in North Pasadena and were cutting tracks less than two weeks after moving. Despite the change of location, LTS continued to rock-n-roll, aided and abetted by two new mascots a pair of kittens named Nikki and Reggie.

As is often the case in this transitory life, all things must pass and LTS was not immune. Lisa came home off the road in the Summer of ’07 to announce that she was wanting to move to another place and explore new directions with new people. Despite Lisa’s departure in September, LTS continued to roll well into ’08. Unfortunately the disparaged state of the music business and the harsh reality of maintaining a big place proved to be too much. I hosted one last and perhaps the best soire here on my birthday in March, and concluded the last of the works in progress this week. In its last day of operation, LTS was triple-booked. First, vocal overdubs for Sergio “Checo” Alonso’s solo record with members of Los Camperos; Writing and rehearsal with my new band featuring Susi, Lorraine and Neza from Mariachi Divas; Lastly and synchronistically, mixes for a new release by Lisa Lynne and Geo Tortorelli.

…And so it was that with a shot of tequila con lagrimas, the last phrases of “Wild Mountain Thyme” played through the speakers and a very special chapter ended. Fortunately, there’s about a million CDs out there bearing the Love Tribe Studios name so the scene won’t be forgotten any time soon. I’ll be re-opening the studio in June in a commercial space under a different name, but the guest book and photo albums will go with it, as testimony to the beauty and joy that was Love Tribe.

A big shout out goes to all of the artists who shared their talents here – I can’t wail to see ya’ll on the road and joke and laugh about the good ol’ times at Love Tribe…

PEACE

G

btw a few pics…

Lisa ‘n Kim, Pasadena ‘06

The view from the Van Nuys control room

Lisa dubbing a mando, Van Nuys ‘04

Hudost’s Jelal, November ‘05

Last Day: Checo y Los Camperos April ‘08

Last Day: The Future