Morphonic Productions & Studio

You've got the talent but you haven't got the gear. Sound familiar? Christopher Holder visits a production team who decided to do something about it, and are reaping the rewards.

Ealing, West London: a classic scene of middle‑class suburbia. Leafy streets of terraced housing are filled to capacity with parked cars — here a Mondeo, there an Escort, further on a Cavalier nestled behind... a Yugo? The spluttering example of precision Eastern European engineering falters to a stop, the occupant unfolds himself from the cockpit and invites me indoors. Amongst manicured gardens, polished brass doorknobs and contrastingly coloured eves proudly stands a bastion of Young Ones living. The front yard looks like a building site; inside, the hall and ground floor looks as though it should be a building site. Up a flight of crotchety stairs and through another door is an environment you're less likely to expect — a recording studio, meticulously laid out and obviously maintained with absolute care. The Morphonic studio is the spiritual home of the bright young production and remixing team I've come to meet.

We've all looked at the gear in our home studio and fantasised about making a living out of what is more often a serious hobby than any foray into the heady realms of commerce. Just think of it, being able to dedicate all your time to your studio and making music. Rob, John and Thor are Morphonic Productions and are essentially living that dream (cue Police Academy‑style theme music).

Cruising On Impulse Power

How did Morphonic get started?

Thor: "At Thames Valley University, doing a course in Music Technology."

Rob: "I was sharing a house with Thor and we had a little setup there — just a sequencer, sampler and the [Casio] CZ5000."

Thor: "I managed to nick a Seck desk from college for a while. Then John bought a load of stuff as well."

John: "I had an option on this loan, and I asked these guys whether they wanted to share the brunt of it, going with what they had and what I had, trying to get a decent studio up and running. The three of us then began teaming up on projects at college."

Rob: "It was about that time that we were invited to audition a track for an advertisement."

John: "It was an Impulse ad, and I think it was Underworld that got it in the end."

Thor: "They gave us a brief on a Monday to do this advert, and gave us a week to write a track and mix it. They put us in a studio that was still being built!"

John: "We spent a good part of the time rewiring. Effectively we only had about 30 hours to finish it."

John: "We're all for the community spirit thing, because there are a lot of people trying to get going without having the resources."

Thor: "Later on, in June of last year, we approached a guy we knew of who was producing a charity compilation album, because we knew that they always have a couple of unknowns on it, to keep the balance of the CD. We eventually put a track together after three and a half weeks of slogging our guts out. We played it to this guy and he really loved it. So that was like, 'yes, we're onto something' — somebody likes our stuff and is willing to sign a contract to that effect. A little later, John was working at Koch Studios as an engineer for Painting By Numbers, and through that we were given a few remixes to accompany their releases."

Three's A Company

But Morphonic is more than a funky‑assed name for three guys tinkering around in a studio in their spare time.

Thor: "Morphonic actually began life as a college project, when we decided to set about starting a production company. At the time we thought, 'we've got the studio, we've got the talent, we've got the right team, we've got the technical ability; in actual fact we've got everything we need', so we started from that point. As soon as we made that start we had projects on the go, so Morphonic had an identity from the start."

John: "There's two elements to Morphonic: Morphonic Studios Ltd, and Morphonic Productions, so when we use the studio as a production team we have to charge ourselves for the time, just to make it easier for tax purposes."

Rob: "We have investors in the studio, and we wanted to make it clear from the start that they were buying into the studio, but they couldn't really buy into us as such — we might go off and do different things later on, or we might stay together or whatever. That's the easiest way to make that distinction, otherwise they might want 10% of everything we earn for the rest of our lives."

It all sounds a bit like heavy going.

Thor: "Absolutely, but we can't afford not to be organised."

Rob: "We're beginning to be quite clued up on the business side of things. We've got an accountant, Alice, and for things like checking contracts we use an old one that we know to be correct, as a template."

Thor: "When you're starting up you've got to do everything on the cheap — if there's somebody you know who can do something for you, use them."

John: "It's like the brochure we're doing; we're hoping to get some time on this guy's computer, designing and printing it all off, in exchange for a couple of days in the studio. It's like a bartering tool."

Perhaps, chaps — but is mum due a couple of weeks studio time for all that washing she did last weekend?

Getting Serious

Rob: "Being a business does force you to take it all more seriously, which can be good if that motivates you. If things aren't formalised it's very easy to say, 'we'll do it tomorrow'. When it's turned into a business there is always this air of seriousness, so that's a good thing. The bad point is that I can't get any cash out without one of these two guys signing the cheque!"

Thor: "Ideally, the Morphonic bank account was created for expanding the studio. So the money the studio makes is used to make this a better place. In the future that'll mean finding premises, so we can incorporate a live room and expand the amount of work we do — without a studio bank account the money can just vaporise."

John: "I think we're quite lucky, in that we all get on so well, that's a major part of it. We do trust each other completely. I think you have to, really, to make any kind of go of it."

Smells Like Community Spirit

You've got a good collection of gear: how did that happen?

Thor: "A lot of the gear in here isn't actually ours. We've struck a few deals here and there to try and expand it, so we can get better results. But that's what you have to do really — beg, borrow and steal to get the gear together. For the [Ensoniq] DP4, and one of the [Novation] BassStations we did some work for Koch Studios, helping to set up a little mastering suite. Pretty easy work really, just plugging in a few leads."

Rob:"They had just broken down their main studio, which myself and John had worked in. They'd recently stopped production, and closed down their studios and this gear was lying about, not being used. We thought it was such a waste that we convinced them to strike a deal with us."

John: "We met these two guys, Matt and Charlie, they come down and take a couple of sessions a week, and for that they leave their [Roland] Juno 106. They like the arrangement, because they get a lot more done than they would in their own little setup."

Thor: "Everybody's happy."

John: "We're all for the community spirit thing, because there are a lot of people trying to get going without having the resources."

Rob: "Being a business does force you take it all more seriously, which can be good if that motivates you."

Thor: "We know another guy who has offered to lend us his Yamaha desk and [Roland] TB303 for use during mixdown. We reckon he'll try and ask for time in our studio for that, which is fair enough — the more people involved, the better."

John: "The more stuff happening in a studio the better as well. If you've got five or six different projects on the go, even if you're not personally involved, it's all revolving around the studio. So if something comes of it, you'll benefit from it anyway. We've got involved with people who think pretty much the same as we do. It works out really well. We're getting more work, and lots more interest from various quarters — having a great time and making some good tunes as well."

Thor: "When we've got time."

Morphologically Speaking

Producing professional results from your home setup can be incredibly frustrating — fighting against faulty equipment, not enough equipment, not the right equipment... and so on. What's worse is hearing stories of people with great studios that they've got together because their father owns most of Latin America, or they've just scored £50,000 from Swindon Council for falling down an open manhole. Morphonic are a lesson to us all to stop our whingeing. Without the rich parents, or the windfall, or the high‑up connections, they're making a go of things, producing professional material and running a fully functioning MIDI suite and studio. It can be done. No regrets, then?

John: "It's great, definitely, it's been brilliant."

Thor: "It's been better than plugging away on your own. There's more input, more people to carry the load."

Rob: "If you enjoy soldering, it's great."