THE HIVE MINDS pt.2

A retrospective on the famed Vancouver recording studio on the occasion of their 10th anniversary

By Julie Colero

Ah, Vancouver. So when I asked for Hivers past and present to send fond memories and anecdotes about time spent with Colin and co., I forgot one very important thing: musicians are high ALL THE TIME. They forget things. Well, maybe that's not exactly the case, but, despite the fact that everyone I talked to got al grinny at the mere mention of the Hive, nobody sent me a thing. Part of the problem could be that everyone's just too busy honing their musical kraftwerks to take a turn at writing, or that bands like Pink Mountaintops are on multi-country Euro-tours.

Steven Balogh was once a part of the touring Pink Mountaintops troupe, but is now staying put in Vancouver to play with the Anemones. Steve had a good story to tell about recording with Colin with one of his other bands. "Colin did a lot of live recordings when the Hive was still located in the basement of their house, he'd pack up his gear and take it to the venue for a very reasonable fee. I'll always remember the day we recorded the first Baron Samedi ESQ record at the Sugar Refinery. We played there on a Friday, left our gear set up and returned with Colin the next day at around 11 am. The whole time we were recording there was a prep cook in the kitchen making soup and Stephen (Horwood, original proprieter) weaving through us with a ladder replacing lightbulbs, making espressos and just generally going about his day oblivious. Still, 3 hours later we had a decent (and surprisingly ambient noise-free) album in the can. I'd be perfectly happy to record anything I ever do with Colin, he's the ideal engineer in my opinion. 'Course I do still own them some money..."

The Hive is forever there to document local music and help fledgling artists enter into the world of recording, whether they have the cash or not (although this may have changed a wee bit since the move, what with all those heating bills...) Hive-Fi Recordings, the Hive's label, was up and running for about five years, adding a further dimension to artist development and distribution of the good musiks. Hive-Fi released albums by The Secret Three, Chet, Parks and Rec, Burquitlam Plaza, Jon-Rae Fletcher and Great Aunt Ida: most of these albums are still readily available, even if a spot on the roster isn't. The rigours of running the label eventually proved too time-consuming with such a large studio to run (and a kitchen to constantly clean up), and so Terry decided that Hive-Fi Records had served it's purpose. Sadly, not all the bands on the roster have found alternative labels to call home yet - anyone out their interested?

Larissa Loyva, a Hive vetern and still in her early 20's, benefited from Hive-Fi's support when they released the first p:ano records. For Larissa, both the label and the studio were key components of her youth. "I used to go the the Hive after school, and I remember doing my French homework in between takes in the control room, offering advice to Nick and Colin while they were recording. I was experimenting with smoking at the time; sometimes we'd go and smoke in the backyard, then make Slurpee runs to the 7-11. Rob had a big crush on me at the time."

That's just how laid back it is at the Hive. Everyone's having good times, playing with Moz the dog, and reminiscing about days bygone. Colin's glad to talk about local indie superstars Black Mountain, and is happy that the band has progressed to the point where they barely need him anymore. "They have always been very, very self-sufficient," he explains. "Now it's reached the point where they record their record and then bring it here and mix it on my stuff." He's way more interested, though, in talking about where Black Mountain came from, the unknown (or if you're lucky, beloved) bands that he's had a hand in recording.

When I ask about band that have gotten away, I'm quickly assured that the Hive doesn't look at things that way. Success is not really what it's all about in Hive-land. When Destroyer comes up in conversation, Rob happily states, "We were just glad to do the one album with them." The Unicorns wanted quite desperately to [release a record on Hive-Fi], sending "elaborate love letters," according to Terry, and demos galore, but Colin and Rob didn't see a fit. Mark Lawson, first a Hive intern, later roommate, and lately long gone out east to fame and fortune, ended up recording the "good" Unicorns stuff and doing some work on the Arcade Fire album. Mark was happy to share a tale or two about his Hive connections.

"It was spring 2001; I had just moved into the Hive, I was finishing school, and already living the audio wet dream: creamy synthesizers, sensual drum machines, lush organs, big machines with blinking lights, microphones and rock and / or roll. One of my goals was to try to figure out a way to earn a living with all of this butter. Then, it came to me: Stay up late, wait for Travis to come home from work, smoke a little dope with him. Then we'll turn on all the machines, microphones, turntables, and plug them all into each other while playing the bass in the dark, all the while trying not to wake up Rob." The plan paid off, and loking back on his formative experience living in the Hive, Mark muses, "It's not just a studio, it's a community of love."

A community of love is right. Colin enjoys the nurturing aspect of recording far too much to go chasing after worldly rewards. Explaining a recent experience in the studio with a young band, he says, "You kind of feel like a dad when you have a band like that, even though they're not all kids, they're kind of like, 'what do I do know? I'm scared,' When I get these young bands, I try to do the best I can with what I'm given, and that's it. I'm not going to embellish them and make them sound better; I don't have they patience." Unwilling to push too hard, Colin likes to let bands learn from their mistakes.

Jesse works in a similar way, standing by the idea that he "would rather one of the bands that already comes to us become popular, rather than have more popular bands than them come to us. It's nice to help people develop their sounds." He's had the privilege of helping ex-d.b.s. bandmates Andy Dixon and Paul Patko with all of the Red Light Sting recordings. "They were a cool band that had a good sound to begin with, and it was my job not to fuck it up." Recently he's done albums with the Doers, Lethbridge, Alberta band Atrophy Manuscript and Ontario band Varge, who he claims "are one of the most intense progressive bands in Canada. They sound like Nomeansno, only take away the structure and take away the tightness at times and make it crazy. Their singer is like the Jacques Brel of punk rock. He sings with so much charisma, it's almost uncomfortable." Jesse also works on his own projects when time affords, most recently completing his Ghost House record in the living room of his home during a bit of downtime.

According to Jesse, Stu's currently in the middle of two months' recording time booked solid, so it didn't really seem necessary to intrude upon the guy's busy schedule. Stu's got bands coming up from the States on a regular basis, band who seek him out, much like all the bands who find their way to the Hive do, based on word of mouth or having head records he's engineered. Jesse claims that the band to watch right now out of Stu's stables is Textbook Tragedy, a band that's also given Colin pause for thought - he had to revamp the Hive's vending machine because of them. "This young band called Textbook Tragedy came in, all underage, and they bought out all the beer in the machine. I was like, "I don't want to be held responsible for this." And this from a man who, thanks to "some great mushrooms in Hive C," has given Terry cause for grief. "I have boxes and boxes and boxes of cassette tapes in my house, " groans Terry good-naturedly, "that my husband will not let me get rid of, that are all just stoner jams!" So we know that, ten years on, the Hive , despite being bigger and better, is still very much the real deal.