Inside the Studio

major project
In 2016, Kevin bought the complex and renamed it The Hideout. Today it features four recording areas that can operate separately or as part of one major project. As for Studio A, this is now purpose-built for tracking and mixing. Aside from the Solid State Logic (SSL) Duality console, it features an Ocean Way Audio monitor system, a live room, control room, stone drum room, two vocal booths, and a comfortable private lounge.

Studio B is a recording/mix room with a Solid State Logic XL9080K Series Console, Ocean Way Audio monitoring, an overdub booth and lounge. Studio C is for writing, editing, vocal editing and pre-production while, finally, Studio D is a hybrid recording and mixing room with facilities for creating Dolby Atmos sound.

Kevin is aided in running all this by his son, Kane, a Pro Tools expert and multi-instrumentalist. ‘To me, production boils down to what you can do to impact what the listener hears’, is Churko Senior’s studio philosophy. ‘All the technical stuff doesn’t really matter as long as that person gets that feeling or gets that excitement from it. I’m constantly trying to think of techniques to spread out over different genres. I’m always trying to understand what makes people like something and what makes them not like it. The listener doesn’t need to be conscious of all the stuff that’s going on in the mix, they just need to hear the song and like, or not like it.’

Tailor Made
Focusing on the talent, he says: ‘I tailor a song to the client. Be it metal, rock, country, or whatever, a good song is a good song. I’ll just say, “This could use a better chorus. Let’s see what we can do”. So I do this and that and see if they like it. Sometimes I do more, sometimes I do less. It’s all in the service of getting the song at its best’.

The Hideout’s other successes include Immortalized by Disturbed and Papa Roach’s Crooked Teeth, both massive US hit albums and both produced by Churko. ‘Artists will come in and say, “I need a song like one of your bands, so-and-so. Will you help me write that song?”’, he says. ‘My son Kane and I work in collaboration, and when we get one of those, we can start working it out ahead of time. It’s almost “skeletoned” when the artist comes in for the fleshing out.

‘Kane is a songster in his own right. He’s already co-written some of the hits we’ve had, and has his own band, Modern Science. I work with Kane not because he’s family, but because he’s the best I could find. He brings a new generation’s ideas and often he guides me along.’

open plan
The studio’s website sums it all up thus: ‘The Hideout Studio is a truly full-service recording and production facility. We are old-school analogue and cutting-edge digital under one roof. This is a creative space with talented engineering and state-of-the-art equipment’.

What’s more, it’s open to newbies and multi-million-sellers alike, with costs calculated accordingly.