Southern Studios is a recording studio in the
Wood Green
Wood Green is a suburban district in the borough of Haringey in London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London, and today it forms a maj ...
area of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. It was founded in 1974 by
John Loder, and came to be the recording studio of choice for
Crass
Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977, who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of life, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk s ...
and their record label
Crass Records. Southern Studios Ltd. continues to grow its label and provide label management and distribution services throughout Europe.
Background
In the 1980s and 90s, Southern Studios Ltd. (SSL) started a record label and a distribution company. The label used the name
Southern Records
Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin.
The label is closel ...
. The distributor uses the name Southern Record Distributors Ltd. (SRD) and took over UK distribution. The distributor is now independently owned.
SSL continued to serve the needs of Europe, as well as signing and supporting artists on the Southern Records.
During the massive growth of the independent music industry in the mid-1990s, Loder decided to establish Southern Records Inc. (SRI) in Chicago, which added artists to the roster and operates a distribution business for labels in the US and elsewhere.
Technical details
Steve Albini
Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...
, a long-time friend and associate of John Loder, has described the set up at Southern Studios as being completely
analogue.
[Fremer, Michael]
''The "Dean" of Alternative Rock Engineers Steve Albini—Way Back in 1993—Part II''
1 September 2005. Although not entirely analogue, the vintage Raindirk Series III 24-channel desk dominates the studio control room. The studio retained two key time-based signal processors: an
EMT 140 plate reverb and an AMS RSX-16 digital
reverb.
[Southern Records
Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin.
The label is closel ...]
The following is an incomplete list of artists who have recorded at Southern Studios:
*