Abbey Road has come a long way since the time when The Beatles virtually lived in the studios, recording their LPs, and the era when Pink Floyd crafted The Dark Side of the Moon.
The legendary Abbey Road complex has undergone a multi-million makeover, the biggest in its 87-year-old history. It is attracting new talents, such as Dua Lipa, as well as longer-established names, such as Craig David and Sam Smith. It has built new studios and launched initiatives such as its tech incubator, Abbey Road Red.
A tour of the St. Johns Wood building shows it has retained some features, such as the original microphones and tape recorders used by the Beatles and still available for use. In the corner of Studio 2 is an upright Steinway piano on which Paul McCartney bashed out “Lady Madonna,” with the ivory now worn off some of its wooden keys.
But it soon becomes clear what a transformation the studios have undergone. The incubator “helps new music tech start-ups using our reputation for audio and technical innovation,” says Abbey Road’s managing director Isabel Garvey. She says that that the studio’s guidance has helped 14 businesses that are now collectively worth $150 million. One of its projects is the creation of what she describes as “the third generation of sound” – after mono and stereo, Abbey Road is developing spatial sound. Nile Rodgers of Chic is one of the spatial system’s greatest enthusiasts: “It is revolutionary,” he says. A listener can move around a room and the headphone sound shifts depending on the closeness to vocals, drums and so on.
The Grammy-winning Rogers, who has long been associated with the New York Power Station, currently sees Abbey Road as his base and he is the studio’s Chief Creative Advisor. He recalls in an interview: “It happened organically. In the small amount of time that I first worked there, it was noticed by management that I brought in maybe 10 top flight artists and it was just pretty amazing. People love it there.” His guests in recent sessions include George Ezra, Disclosure, Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak, Emeli Sandé and Jorja Smith.
During a tour of the studios for this article, Garvey showed off the world’s largest purpose-built recording space, Studio One, which can accommodate an entire symphony orchestra. It has hosted everything from classical to “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles.
“There are artists who don’t typically go to big recording studios now – Daft Punk would make their records at home and they were doing really well,” says Rodgers. “They may ask ‘why do you need a place like Abbey Road?’ And you have to be there at the helm and show them the difference. It is not to say that the tried and tested formula that’s worked for them isn’t right, just to say that, ‘this is another experience and you might like it’ and so far it’s been wonderful. People love it there. They make us feel really comfortable. It feels like a song incubator.”
Isabel Garvey also proudly displays Abbey Road’s new smaller studios, The Front Room and The Gatehouse. These and other studios have already attracted artists from pop (Dua Lipa, George Ezra, Jess Glynne, Seal) to drum and bass (Rudimental), rock (The 1975) grime (Novelist) and EDM (Skrillex.) Noel Gallagher has been working in The Gatehouse for some time, coming and going every few weeks, and Rodgers has been working across the rooms.
Abbey Road has also opened a state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos Premier and IMAX production space called The Mix Stage, to create the final sound mix for films. The most recent include Mary Queen of Scots and the psychological horror picture Wounds. Giles Martin also found the studio useful when mixing versions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles (also known as The White Album.)
One of the favorite Abbey Road moments for Rodgers came last December when he teamed up with his old friend Robert Plant during sessions for the new Chic album, which is due out soon. The former Led Zeppelin singer had worked with Rodgers on the Honeydrippers EP at Atlantic Studios in 1984. This time they were joined by Plant’s son Logan and Logan’s children Tallulah and Harlen.
“That was probably the most surprising, working with Robert’s grandchildren,” says Rodgers. “I didn’t know what to expect. But we had a blast.”
For the last three years, the studio has had its own recording school in the house next door. About 70 percent of the school’s graduates go straight into a relevant studio career, with classes taught by the likes of the musician Bernard Butler and the Beatles engineer Ken Scott.
Rodgers notes that every time he goes to Abbey Road there are tourists on the crosswalk outside, reliving the Beatles Abbey Road cover: “They are always on that zebra crossing, every single day. It’s the only studio that I could think of in the world with that kind of allure.”
For an interview with Nile Rodgers about Chic and touring with Cher, click here.
