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Losing Tracks: iconic recording studio shuts down
All photos by Francis Brew
Renowned sound engineer Angee Rozul sits in front of a 24-channel mixing board, his face stern as usual, paying close attention to a pair of computer screens and speaker monitors.
He knows these instruments very well; behind him, an Otari two-inch analog tape machine has its pilot lights on, but no two-inch reel to record with. It was probably more symbolic a gesture: this loyal machine still works but the recording will be in the digital realm. The Otari stands guard.
In an adjacent room, the members of Imago play their instruments. Vocalist Mayumi Gomez is standing nervously behind Rozul as the crew of Radio Republic inspects their cameras silently as they document the moment.
The end
This one song session will be the last time Rozul and the band will be collaborating on inside one of the most beloved recording studios in the country. A few hours after Imago’s performance, the lights will be turned off, the mixing board shut down, the outboard gear packed and the room that has heard and captured countless notes and rhythms will be left only with non-musical silence.
Tracks Studios will be no more. Rozul will leave the one-armed armchair and continue on with his other projects but this is where he learned, grew and earned his reputation.
People even assumed he was the proprietor.
Growing up Tracks
Later, Ebe Dancel, Rico Blanco and Mayonnaise will be turning in their final recorded performances in one of the three rooms that has witnessed some, if not all, of the best material they have produced so far.
They, too, grew up here, inside the modest bungalow in Pasig’s San Antonio Village, where artists as diverse as Odette Quesada, Lloyd Umali, Bob Aves, Parokya Ni Edgar, the Eraserheads, Francis M, Bamboo, Sandwich, Slapshock and many others also brought to life their best melodies (and perhaps in a few cases, some of their worst dramas) and redefined the local music scene.
“I have a home studio now,” Rico Blanco says to Tracks owner and FM radio pioneer Mike Pedero. “But I always felt like my best work will happen because I know Tracks is around if I can’t get the sound I need.”
‘Home talaga’
Blanco spent countless hours here with Rivermaya and on his current solo career, in addition to being a producer for other projects.
He pauses and succinctly verbalizes what almost everybody who has ever recorded in Tracks feels, “This place… is actually my first ‘home’ studio. As in HOME talaga.”
Pedero nods and smiles.
Version 3
After all, Tracks started out in 1983 as a personal place for Pedero to record his commercial jingles. His contemporaries noticed the quality of that first studio and also began to use the facilities until Pedero found himself, funnily enough, out of his own workspace.
He put up another version of Tracks, quality intact, and again found himself pushed out of his own space because there were just too many clients.
In 1994, he noticed a “For Rent” sign on 19 Scout Delgado just as he was driving by. The home’s Mexican villa-ish looks appealed to him; the vibe was relaxed unlike the formal or, worse, clinical environs of most recording studios.
Tracks remained there for two decades and proceeded to make history.
Musical heroes hanging in the neighborhood
Between recording takes, artists would simply walk across the street to a well-stocked sari-sari store to snack on barbecues or buy beer as simply and as naturally as they would in their respective residences. Or they would jog around the village.
Passersby would wonder what was special about the nondescript house where their heroes were milling about. (“Wait, is this where Francis M lives? No, no, Rivermaya lives there… the Eraserheads!”).
It was not unusual for artists to hang out in the premises after their sessions.
Homey for homies
Tracks was homey and casual but as serious as any recording studio when the tape (or virtual tape) starts rolling.
As digital technology became more convenient, compact and affordable, people eventually started to make their own home setups and would record, say, drums and vocals in Tracks and then finish other parts in their own lairs.
But Tracks was a studio that felt like home. It was probably the feel of Pedero’s initial intent to put up something for his personal requirements that permeated the place.
Master tapes in storage; equipment to be sold
Boxes of two-inch analog master tapes containing music from Tracks’s history sit silently in shelves, with scribblings on the side that reveal original working titles and band in-jokes.
Pedero says he will keep these tapes in proper storage until the respective artists, record labels and publishers figure out their ownership.
Most of the studio’s gear will be sold except for a mixing board and two-inch tape machine. The idea is to retain part of the analog facilities so that owners of the master tapes can still have the option to remix or remaster their old material should the need arise in the future.
Humor and sadness
The last day of Tracks felt like a typical Tracks recording day: food, beer, laughter, a recording session in progress, musicians and managers trading stories, memories and even a few past occurrences kept secret. The air in the old bungalow is rife with humor and sadness.
The reverie is interrupted every so often when eyes stare, then look away, at a piece of paper taped next to the number 19 on the familiar gate.
Handwritten were the same words where Pedero saw possibilities 20 years ago: “For Rent.”
