State Of The Ark Studios is a private boutique studio, packed full of vintage gear, located near Richmond in Surrey. It began life ‘hundreds of years ago’ as a writing studio for songwriter and producer Terry Britten. However, with Terry’s enthusiasm for all things vintage and ‘Beatles’, the studio has grown so much that it is now fully-equipped and suitable for near enough any application. So much so that, due to the large number of artists wanting to record there, Terry was unable to get back in to work there himself and has had to build a new studio for his own personal use!
Studio manager, Dan Britten told us, ‘We tried to start off low-key. The studio was only really designed for the needs of one person and we didn’t know how it would cope with the increased traffic. However, we’re continually adapting the available space and the old gear has held up amazingly well. Studio maintenance occasionally takes priority over filling studio time, simply because of the amount of equipment we have and because we want people to be able to enjoy it all!
‘State Of The Ark’s control room plays host to a vintage EMI TG desk and we have a fully-equipped live room as well as four separate isolation areas, two of which are large enough to record drums. We have a great collection of valve outboard gear and mic amps as well as a great selection of rare valve and ribbon mics. Also available (when working) are vintage drums, basses, guitars, amps, a Steinway B Grand Piano, a vintage upright piano, a Hammond B3, Wurlitzer, tape delays, Leslie cabinets and … much, much more.
‘Recent clients to State Of The Ark have included Stereophonics, The Verve, Snow Patrol, Kylie Minogue, James Blunt, Detroit Social Club, The Charlatans, Cassidy, Regina Spektor and Tina Turner. Not bad for a studio that no one has heard of!’
For further information and bookings enquiries for State Of The Ark, contact Dan here. (May 2010)
