Vintage decorations from 1930s and 1940s Hollywood adorn the walls of Flying Blanket Recording Studio. Historic recording equipment from over three decades ago make contemporary music.
The Flying Blanket Recording Studio is home to Bob Hoag, a record producer and musician who has been making records in the Valley for more than 10 years. Hoag has worked with several bands, including The Ataris, the Format and Dear and the Headlights.
Flying Blanket moved to West University Drive and West Third Place from an industrial park in Mesa last year, which Hoag described as cramped and overcrowded.
“The noise from the motorcycles next door was distracting,” Hoag said. “We wanted a more professional looking studio.”
The new studio consists of two recording studios, Studio A and Studio B, and two lounges complete with TVs and video game systems. Both studios are fully analog and digitally capable. The studio uses Pro Tools HD, a program used to record and create music.
“Acoustic engineers came in while the building was being designed,” Hoag said. “The studios here give the artists an echo, which provides a nice, natural sound.”
All the hardwood floors in the studio came from a reclaimed hardware store in Colorado that takes floors from historic buildings being torn down. The windows are made of stained glass from 1930s English houses.
Hoag said about 80 percent of the devices used in the studio are vintage, including amplifiers and a mixing consol from Fort Apache, a New England recording studio in Boston, built in 1978.
The rooms in the studio are named after bungalows in the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, like Rincon, Huerta and Reposa. Each of which contains vintage furniture and artwork.
Hoag said record producing is exhausting but rewarding, and he feels lucky to have worked with such special recordings.
“I started out working with awful bands, and I feel like I got to help them become better musicians,” Hoag said. “I don’t try to inflict my taste on the band but rather make a band sound like the best version that they possibly can.”
Hoag said his favorite bands to work with are those who have volatile personalities and who make a record for the love of making music.
“When you make something really great, I feel like there is a reason why things happened the way they did,” Hoag said. “My main goal is to make a record that we can be proud of, no matter how many people buy it.”
Studio manager Sarah Bingham has been working with Flying Blanket for about six months. She has also recorded at the studio with her band Juicy Newt.
“The songs that are recorded here are exactly where they need to be,” Bingham said. “Our band has spent so much time and money recording at other studios, and we have never found what we are looking for until now.”
Hoag said this most memorable experience as a record producer was with former local band the Format.
“I had a lot to do with the extended play, apart from the acoustic guitar and lead vocals,” Hoag said. “The Format was one of the best experiences I had. I was the interior decorator; they built the house.”
Reach the reporter at allison.carlin@asu.edu.
