Where vestments for the masses were once stitched, sounds from guitars and drums are now deftly woven. Another example of Illawarra’s historic focus turning from manufacturing to the creative arts is becoming a dream come true for two music-loving mates.
The building which used to house King Gee clothing factory – part of Bellambi’s community fabric for 43 years until closing in 2009 – has nurtured new commercial life in several forms, one being Stranded Recording Studios, an acoustically sealed unit beginning to garner a following in the district’s musical coteries.
Cody Munro Moore and Bowen Shakallis had been bandmates and had dabbled in recording with others, but when lockdown hit, they knew they wanted to give their own thing a go. What was a concrete slab in November 2020 is now a font of recorded music of various styles.
“Bowen and I have different strengths but we both work together,” Cody, a Wombarra resident, said. “Bowen has a background in sound engineering while I come from running an independent record label for many years.
“When we work together, we encourage community through music while maintaining technical expertise for the great artists we have coming in.”
As Cody swings open the former ABC studio door, an Aladdin’s cave of all things musical, some of great vintage, is revealed, and every piece tells a story. There’s the jarrah floor they picked up for a few hundred dollars that helped stabilise acoustics, the door itself, and the main attraction – the 30-channel Auditronics recording desk made in Memphis 40 years ago, which was languishing in a Gold Coast container. The team needed an exemption to cross the border during lockdown to pick it up.
With Cody’s builder dad keeping an occasional eye on construction, plus Bowen’s sound engineering knowledge, things slowly took shape, and Stranded (named after the strandboard used in its genesis) has been running with three or four sessions a week since November 2021.
A growing reputation has lured emerging Sydney-based artists such as Caitlin Harnett (country), Flowertruck, Babitha and Bored Shorts (indie rock) into the Stranded embrace.
Cody tends to encourage ensemble playing when he is in the chair pushing the slides.
“If bands are not confident doing that, I’m happy to hear their ideas and perhaps do it a different way,” he said.
“It’s a really great puzzle bringing people together to record, you know … you’ve got to lead the way for them but you can’t get in the way,” Cody says of the need to blend technical skill with creative awareness.
There’s a sense the studio is a bubble away from the wider world “and that’s what we’re trying to create here – that feeling when you walk in, that ‘Wow, we’re in a studio’.
“A lot of people might be afraid to go into a studio because of past experiences, but they should be able to come in here, have a chat, we’ll get on the same page and they can have a good day with us.”
Visit strandedrec.com