When Kevin Starr, drummer of Tanz Der Vampyr, bought the former Roadrunner Florist & Gifts building (and a Texaco gas station before that) at 1350 Highway 92, he didn’t know exactly what he was going to do with it. The floral shop sat vacant until Starr bought it as a business investment three years ago, and the building (casually) opened as RoadRunner Studio about a year ago.
As a native of Los Angeles, California, Starr grew up around music and the music industry. Straight out of high school, Starr started working as a runner at Cherokee Studios – a recording studio founded in 1972. Within six months, he was promoted to the studio operations manager.
Working there for three years gave him the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the studio recording business. And after all these years, the knowledge he acquired during those early days have proven useful as an owner of a recording studio decades later. “It was two years in the making before we finished it,” said Starr.
As a musician, Starr appreciates not only the quality sound RoadRunner Studio brings to Bisbee, but he also appreciates the chill, fun vibe the studio offers. Through his experience working in a studio and recording in them with former bands – such as Lords of Altamont and The Zeros – he knows the right recipe to making a magical record.
Enter Dan Simonis, who had a background in designing and building recording studios. The two met after Starr moved to Bisbee five years ago. They got to talking and decided to turn the former floral shop into a recording studio to put Bisbee musicians and their music on the map. Simonis was a missing ingredient to Starr’s recipe that he didn’t even know he was baking at the beginning of the business’s journey.
With all the great artists who live here and the ones who come through for Sidepony Express Music Festival, they saw a need for a gathering place where musicians could hangout and collaborate. “It’s one more piece of the puzzle to help pull together the music scene in Bisbee,” said Simonis. “It’s a place where people can meet and share ideas.”
Simonis moved to Bisbee 20 years ago from New York City, and there wasn’t a need for a recording studio in town then. He gained firsthand experience in the business when he worked at Sony in NYC as a songwriter, and he learned about setting up festivals/stages after moving here.
He got into designing and building studios by chance. He was working in a recording studio in New York City painting a wall and fell into building studios with an acoustical engineer as a side gig (Whitney Houston was a client). The bonus for him was he could use the studio without having to pay and could meet renowned producers.
After Simonis and Starr joined forces to make this vision happen, Simonis moved the private studio equipment he had in Lowell and built what would become RoadRunner Studio, essentially in the middle of nowhere. However, the location adds to its laidback, intimate setting – making it a comfortable space for musicians to make magic happen.
The only issue with having a recording studio in the middle of nowhere was finding the last missing ingredient of Starr’s right recipe – a sound engineer to bring it home; however, the duo had faith someone would show up. It’s been their mentality since the start.
Enter Matt DeCosta, a sound engineer – who lived in Bisbee. He and Simonis knew of each other; however, a chance encounter connected them. The two met when they were both at the tire shop, and they started chatted about the studio. They realized they shared the same vision, and DeCosta became the final ingredient of the recipe.
One of his biggest strengths is helping musicians get in the mindset of making a record. He is the maestro behind their “new” British recording console that was built in 1989, which is an upgrade from what they had. They are now a 24-track digital studio with old school 4-track capability.
With a tiki bar lounge set up as the first room musicians experience as they enter, they are instantly taken back to a time when bands were rocking out together live, not in their bedrooms or basements using computers to supplement the real thing. “They (musicians) will leave with a record of a time in real life,” said DeCosta.
The recording room is an affordable private studio you can rent with the local Bisbee community in mind. There is isolation, as well as insulation – with floating mats built into the floors so sound doesn’t transfer.
The room has been acoustically designed to absorb soundwaves, so DeCosta doesn’t hear the sound twice. There are individual acoustic spaces for musicians to record, and the wall panels are stuffed with sound deadening materials – like mineral wool – so sound doesn’t transfer from one room to another.
The end game is to be a part of creating their own Bisbee sound – like Motown but with a Sonoran Desert flair that is unique to this tremendously talented and quirky town. “If we build it, they will come,” said Simonis. And they hope you come check them out for your local recording studio needs.