Kilkenny is well known as a hub of music, art and creativity. Just a few minutes drive outside the city centre, in an idyllic countryside location, is Crossroads Recording Studio, owned by Kilkenny local Shane Tobler.

Shane is a sound engineer, promoter and DJ, who started his studies in Bray Institute of Further Education and went on to London to continue his training in sound engineering. Wanting to break away from the hectic and saturated UK scene, he came home to Ireland, found his feet at Crossroads and has been steadily developing the studio over the past seven years.

The building itself has an intriguing history. For almost a decade it was the home of the original Kilkenny Community Radio (KCR), a pirate radio station which broadcast from 1979 to1988. With the advent of legal independent radio effectively putting the pirates out of business, they changed the space into a recording studio. That adventure didn’t last and the building was left lying empty for several years.

But it was too good a space to remain idle. In due course, it was taken over again, revamped and rejuvenated into what would become Crossroads Recording.

TALENTED NAMES

The studio area is spacious with a large live room, drum room, a vocal booth and a control room. Each room is separate, yet the musicians and engineers are visible to each other, so the drummer can see right through to the bass player and vice versa.

“Recording drums and bass together is kinda where the groove of music lies,” Shane explains. “A lot of the time, people used to record drums and bass together, in the one space, and add everything else in, once the backbone of the groove was there. So that's why the studio is designed in this way. You want the drummer and the bass player to be able to interact, but also to get separate recordings. That way, if there’s a mistake, you just have to change that one bit, not go over everything.”

Crossroads houses an abundance of hardware and analogue equipment including an 8 Track/1” Tape Machine. A lot of the equipment in the studio is of that older generation and gives a warmer type of sound.

“There’s been a move away from analogue towards purely digital – and then people wonder why they aren’t getting the sound they want,” Shane says.

“There’s a sound that comes with purely digital that leads to a certain flatness,” he elaborates. “For me personally, I would lean towards a more vintage approach and try to capture the sound with analogue recording. Analogue to me means real: it’s a real representation of what you’re recording. If you were to ask me what does Crossroads sound like, the key is that it’s got lots of valves, tape machines and analogue equipment.”

Crossroads are certainly doing something right. Some of Ireland’s most promising up and coming artists – like Ali Comerford, Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra and Loud Motive – have recently recorded there and gone on to receive national radio airplay. Sean Montgomery Dietz is the LA born, Irish-raised multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer currently working with many of the talented names coming through Crossroads, including Yankari, Elikya and Irial Jones. Thomas Donoghue, who is live sound engineer with Villagers, has also worked with Sola, The Kilkennys and Aiden Byrne to produce music at Crossroads. Michael Hammond (aka Cleveland Mike), a Kilkenny based DJ and artist manager works as A&R for the studio, which brings a further collaborative energy to the space.

INCLUSIVE SPACE

The Oscar-nominated Cartoon Saloon have also done a lot of their voiceover work at Crossroads, including voiceover for the standout animation of last year, Wolfwalkers. Last summer, with support from the Live Performance Support Scheme Grant, Crossroads ran a series of sell out shows at Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre, Kilkenny, which hosted Kíla and Rebekah Storm among others.

Summer 2022 will mark the first release on the Crossroads label, a limited, vinyl-only release by Elikya, a Kilkenny and Dublin based Congolese rumba band.

The location of Crossroads is a rural haven and would be a real retreat for any musician wanting to escape the bustle and pressure of city life. There is a strong community atmosphere in evidence too, something which Shane believes is an essential element for a studio: to be part of a community and be there for the musicians within that community.

He strives to create a relaxed but productive environment that enables artists to thrive and create to the fullest of their ability, in a safe and inclusive space.

“As technical as engineering can be, the fundamental thing that any engineer should be thinking about, before you plug anything in, is how you greet someone at the front door,” Shane enthuses. “How you bring a person into the space and how you make them feel in those first couple of seconds or minutes will have a direct effect on how they will perform.”

That welcoming ethos is vital. Crossroads Recording Studio manages to successfully combine the essential elements of functional space, top class equipment and technical skills with a really positive, productive atmosphere. No wonder they’re getting such great results and positive feedback.

Onsite Accommodation is available. Unlimited Free Parking. For more information see crossroadsrecording.ie, email [email protected] or call Shane on 083 0307986