High Volume Dealers
Sound Check Rehearsal and Recording Studios dials it in, reasonably
Tanner Parrott of Sound Check Rehearsal and Recording Studios isn't trying to get rich off your band.
How long has your studio been around?
We've been open about two years now. It's a business that was built by me. I did it check-by-check with a construction job. Every time I got paid, I'd build a wall. It took me about four years. I've been a drummer for 20 years, and I'd always get yelled at for playing my drums, so I got out of my apartment and got a warehouse and started building a little business. Sound Check was built because I got tired of how those other places treated you. They're overpriced. This place was built because of the love of music. I want to create a family of bands and have a rad place to practice and do what we love to do.
So practicing in garages doesn't really work for bands?
No, the cops these days are cracking down on people playing in their houses because of the noise issue—unless you have cool neighbors. But that's hard to come by. What I get a lot is, “Yeah, we practice in our garage, but we can't turn it up, so that's why we come to Sound Check. We can turn up loud and be the real deal.” I do have a lot of bands that practice at home, but they play acoustic. Their drummer can't be involved.
So as a drummer, you've been in that situation?
[When I was growing] up, my grandma was the only person who would let me practice because she was a guitar player. So she loved that I was into music. My dad was like, “No way.” So grandma's house was the spot. There was a cop who knew how to get in the back yard and open the door and say to me, “That's it.” He turned out to be a good friend over time. He was just doing what he had to do. I was 11 years old then. That was the start of this idea—soundproof rooms and having a rehearsal studio.
When did the recording side of Sound Check start?
I built the rehearsal side, and I had a storage room that was full of junk. A buddy of mine named Scott is a recording engineer, and he came over and looked at it. He said we could build a recording studio. Just on rehearsals, it's hard to make it. Adding onto the features fills another band need. We added that about three months ago. The hardest thing is getting known by word-of-mouth. It took me two years, but now I'm just barely paying the rent.
So you had to work to support the studio until recently?
Yeah. I worked 20 hours a day for about four years. I'd get up at 5 in the morning, go work for the construction company, and then I'd race here, and bands would be coming in. But there were only one or two bands a night, so I'd have to work to support the business. Just about a month ago, I quit construction, and I'm full-force into this now.
What's the niche or specialty of your recording studio?
This place was not built to let me drive a Mercedes; it was built so bands have a place to come, and . . . you've heard the phrase “starving musicians”? We're broke because we love what we do, and that's all we do. It's affordable for everybody. It's not for me to drive around in luxury. Right now, my car is broken down with a transmission problem, and I don't have any money to fix it, so I'm taking the bus. We're not here to make money off the bands. We do a CD for a reasonable rate. We have all the new stuff like ProTools, and we get a good sound. Other studios are $50 or $60 an hour, and we're $30 an hour. We're just as good. And we have fun recording. If it works, killer. And if we go broke, my grandpa always said it's better to be a has-been than a never-was.
Sound Check Studios is located at 16932 Gothard St., Ste. F, Huntington Beach, (714) 501-3669. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/soundcheckhb.
