2026 October 5
In 2013 I began recording at Real World Studios in England, working with Patrick Phillips and Tim Oliver. That first visit led to others, thanks to Patrick’s creativity and to Jerome, who kept us fed.
Each room has its own acoustic character and its own architecture: the iconic Big Room, the Wood Room behind it, and Peter Gabriel’s personal studio, set beside the main building in what amounts to a mash-up of an English and an Italian village.
I later spoke with one of the original architects, who sent me copies of the early plans. They called for a film sound stage and a different exterior for the Big Room.
Real World Studios, 2013 November 11
Four Things Stayed with Me
- The buildings sit with the pond and the planted landscape on what had been a parking lot.
- In a vast storage building, stages from Gabriel’s tours were still standing, so that you could walk across his touring history.
- The secret garden.
- And there was the original Red Room, once the hallway that joined the entrance foyer to the rest of the main building. From that modest beginning came the best-sounding mixing space I have worked in.
Aspects of each of these are guiding Sue and me as we build a house in the hills of Kentucky, out in the middle of nowhere.
Sugar Hill, 2026 May 14
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