DECISION 2: BUILD A SINGLE ROOM It’s a big decision today of whether to build a single-room facility or a big studio plus secondary space. From a business standpoint, each option has its advantages, each has its concerns. “We finally had the building, and we said we could have two workable spaces or we could have one great space,” Goodman says. “New York City is full of these kind of mid-sized workable rooms, maybe with a small production room attached to them. Everywhere. So we thought, ‘You know, if we can’t have the room we want, it doesn’t make sense to build rooms at all.’ We wanted to have a space that we knew was right all the time and be able to focus on it. That has allowed us to continue to develop in our own way, like putting in the first API Legacy AXS, or we just bought a new piano yesterday, a Steinway B. We only have the resources to maintain this level of quality because we can focus on a single room.” DECISION 3: HIRE A REAL STUDIO DESIGNER The very process of buying the building made Goodman and Schlett realize that their indie DIY days were coming to an end, and that they
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The microphone cabinet at Strange Weather is an old card catalog from a branch of the NYC Public Library system. It now houses a Neumann U48, Sony C37a, RCA 77, Neumann m49 and many more vintage and new microphones. Photos: Dan Perrone
The ordeal is chronicled so well—humorously, realistically and frustratingly—by Goodman in a blog that he did for SonicScoop.com back in 2010-2012 that it would be a shame to try to paraphrase it here. Look it up. Suffice to say, eventually they ended up in a house on Graham Avenue, the edge of Williamsburg, with a ground-floor studio and apartments upstairs. Meanwhile, work continued, and Goodman and Schlett became more comfortable working together, their different skills complementing each other. Goodman moved more toward the business side, having dealt for two years with construction, and Schlett slid into producing and engineering. Their personalities mesh handin-glove. “Eleven years ago, when we first met, we were both young and were both willing to work 90 hours a week, and we both wanted to do every job, wanted to have our hand in every part of the operation,” Goodman recalls. “And over the course of our friendship, we both have kind of figured out what our own roles are and backed off of the other person’s, and we’ve ended up making space for each other. I knew from the beginning that Daniel would become an amazing engineer. But he doesn’t answer emails and he doesn’t know what to do if his computer crashes. [Laughs] So I deal with that.”
were entering a new level. Not that their clients or approach would change, simply the business. With building in place and interior walls about to be gutted, they went looking for a real studio designer. They did their due diligence, they knew the right calls to make, and eventually, after Goodman made a mad 13-hour motorcycle dash to Charleston, S.C., to see and hear the new Charleston Sound, they picked the thenrelatively unknown Wes Lachot. “I met with Wes and his wife, Lisa, and we sat down and put a record on and listened for about 30 seconds,” Goodman recalls. “Then I stood up and I sat on the couch for about 20 more seconds. And then I stood up and shook his hand and said, ‘I don’t know what are you doing here, but this is what I’ve been looking for. I’d like you to build me a room. This was a room that I could make good decisions in, where the first decision I make is going to be the right decision. I don’t have to worry about going out and checking the mix in my car.” Strange Weather opened officially in December 2012, with Dynaudio monitoring, Studer tape machines, Pro Tools, an API 1608 console and racks and racks of esoteric vintage outboard gear and mics. In late 2017, the 1608
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was replaced by the first API Legacy AXS. With Goodman focusing more on the business and less on engineering, they hired an engineer, Garret De Block, who Goodman says has proven a life-saver. After seven years, the studio has seen its packed runs and its dry spells. But life is good right now. A small selection of recent clients includes Steve Gunn, GhostFace Killah, Arto Lindsay, Diiv, Big Yuki, Theo Croker, The War on Drugs, Combo Chimbita, Sophie Auster, Curtis Harding, Sessa and CHAI. Visiting producers and engineers have brought in the likes of D’angelo, No Vacation, GRiZ, Life Of Agony, Nothing and Nels Cline 4, among many others. Projects come in from all over the world. You get the sense that this is home for a long, long while. “I think it goes back to the whole ethos of the business model in the first place, which is that we want to focus our energy on making the record,” Schlett concludes. “I don’t want to be worrying about whether a camera is in focus while we’re doing this take. I want to make sure that the vocal take is good. I want make sure that the drums take is good. We’re here to be making a record and it’s hopefully going to stand the test of time. That’s what I’m interested in.” n