Making Beautiful Music Together

Throughout 2005, Hive Studios will be recording a state-of-the-union document of Vancouver's thriving indie scene.

By Michael White

I want some Crazy Horse Jams today!" exclaims Hive recording studio co-founder and engineer Colin Stewart, to no one in particular.

He says this shortly after noon, and before nightfall the members of Vancouver rock five-some Blood Meridian - adept of groove and, for the most part, large of beard - have laid down "Let it Come Down," a long and longing song that would likely bring new lustre to Neil Young's heart of gold. In keeping with the spirit of the day, at least have a dozen friends, acquaintances and possible gatecrashers have joined in, providing handclaps, harmonies and cans of beer. The prevailing atmosphere in the Hive's cavernous Studio 'A' isn't a formal recording session so much as a small party that happens to have been caught on tape (or to be exact, hard disk). That atmosphere has spilled into the studio's control room, hallways, kitchen and foosball parlour - the latter being where experimental rockers (forgive the cliché, but they are rockers) Ladyhawk and the Secret Three are waiting to make some musical magic of their own.

Altogether, not an average Sunday afternoon in Burquitlam.

This is the first edition of Live at The Hive 2005, a year-long celebration of both the venerable studio's upcoming 10 th anniversary and the vibrant Vancouver indie artists that have grown up alongside it. One Sunday in each 31 day month of this year has been set aside to welcome in three local bands, many of whom have recorded at the Hivein the past. Those bands will be recorded live off the studio floor, often in collaboration with other participating bands, in front of a small invited audience. The highlights will make up the Live at the Hive compilation CD, to be released in early 2006.

Although the Hive has been located in the remote industrial wilds of Burquitlam for a year, it has as much, if not more, to do with the evolution of downtown Vancouver indie music as any studio in the city. Previously housed in a succession of cramped eastside basements, the Hive has recorded virtually every significant up-and-comer of the past decade, from Jerk With a Bomb to p:ano to Hot Hot Heat to Pink Mountaintops to...it goes on.

Late in 2003, Colin, his wife and business partner Terry, and former Rec-Age Recorders owner/engineer Jesse Gander (also of the week's cover stars, Black Rice) leapt at the opportunity to acquire the Hive's current home, a 3,000-square-foot facility whose kitchen is almost as large as the control room of the previous Hive studio at East 5 th and Nanaimo.

"But we don't live in Burquitlam," Colin clarifies, bristling at the thought.

"Right. We're still east van punk rockers," says Terry - and she means it. "Our motivation for moving into this new space is that the bands we've been working with are getting bigger, and if we wanted to keep up with them we had to get bigger as well."

"You can only take a basement so far before you need more physical airspace to create certain sounds," adds Gander. "So when it comes to documentation of a band's art, it's totally worth it."

The Secret Three's Chris Harris has participated in at least 10 sessions at the Hive since 1999, including with Ashley Park and for his solo project, Parks and Rec. He says that the Hive, regardless of its address, has consistently provided the greatest understanding among Vancouver studios of the music its clients come in to make.

"There was good equipment, it was cheap, and the people who were running the studio had a certain taste that other studios weren't interested in," he recalls of the Hive's earlier days, "So a lot of the smaller independent bands could come there and play cheaply because Colin was into that sort of music and it was geared toward those kind of bands."

"I'm sure Jesse feels the same way, but when I started, I knew there was nothing else I could do in my life," says Colin. "I can't even conceive of something else I'd want to do."

Nodding in agreement, Gander adds that Live at The Hive is ultimately meant to serve as a thank-you to the bands that have allowed the studio to thrive. That these bands, and dozens of others, now don't hesitate to haul ass and amp to Burquitlam is testament to the rare trust and respect the Hive has earned in the Vancouver indie community.

"It's nice to have a recording session that, for us, isn't just us providing a service for a price," Gander says of Live. "It has roots a little deeper that that. It's a preformance purely for the music and making the studio more of a community workspace for the bands we like."