George Brown.

George Brown studied at Spirit Studios in 2004 and has built a successful career in sound engineering and music production. He is the owner of South City MCR, a recording studio, label and media company in Stockport offering services including recording, mixing, mastering and production.

Working with independent artists and major labels including Warner Music Group, George has helped produce award-winning releases that have received airplay on BBC Radio 1, Radio X and BBC Radio 6 Music.

In this interview, George reflects on his journey from student to studio owner and shares his advice for aspiring producers and engineers.

Tell us a bit about what you’re up to and what you studied here at Spirit.

I’m the engineer at South City MCR, we are a recording studio in Stockport, located in Pear Mill, on the Gods Floor, we’ve been here for about 5 years.

I am an ex pupil of SSR, which is of course now named Spirit Studios. I graduated in 2004 after studying advanced audio engineering techniques and technology.

How did you get started in the industry?

I got started like most engineers, just through playing an instrument. I started playing the guitar aged 11 and quickly discovered that I loved sound recording. I got my first multitrack which was a small tascam portastudio and it recorded onto a little chrome tape. I graduated to an eight track and then a 24 track multitrack recorder.

When I left school in the summer I was working with my dad doing flooring contracting, we were doing the floors for the newly built blueprint studios. I got talking to the chaps there and they were the engineers and they were telling me about this amazing place called SSR and that they’d just left there and they were building Blueprint Studios.

I came away from that particular job with my dad really wanting to take this more seriously and take the leap. So I enrolled.

Can you tell us a bit about your journey since graduating and how you got to where you are today?

After I graduated SSR in 2004, I worked at a rehearsal studio in Stockport, it was the biggest at the time called greenhouse studios. I just let people in at the doors and locked up at night.

I had a 24 track multitrack recorder, and this was before computers were really a big thing and were affordable. So I asked the owners at the time if i could put posters up around the rooms and offer my services to bands around the area. I got a few microphones, and then from that I got a few jobs. I would go into the rehearsal rooms where the bands were recording and I would set up my microphones and record them, then I’d mix it and send it back to them.

When I left the greenhouse I got a permanent residential set up, and began to take it more seriously. I had bands and artists actually come to me and I began to build a reputation and network around me. It began to do really well, and it made enough work for me to get a bigger place with its own live room and vocal booth, along with a control room. I was there for around 7 years. That was quite a big set up and it was really great.

Now I’m here at South City MCR in Pear Mill in Stockport. I had a very DIY approach towards this career path, and it can be very challenging trying to land a job in a studio. It is completely possible to land one, and you must try to stay positive and proactive about your approach.

There are lots of avenues to making a career in music. You’ve got to be creative, you’ve got to network.

Think outside the box and don’t take no for an answer!

What do you love most about owning your own studio? 

The thing I love most about owning my own studio is having those real-life moments, where people are in the control room with me, discussing their projects and their creations, walking into the live room which is covered in cables, guitars, headphones, lyric sheets, things like that everywhere. Things are happening!

Knowing that people are coming to my studio, that I put together lovingly, to work on their creations, to get something out of their mind and on to the speakers. I just love being a part of that process, I love helping people bring their vision and their ideas to life, into something tangible and real.

The process of that is very wholesome to me and sometimes I take a step back, and see that I have all these guys here, talking about idea’s, riffs, lyrics, what sounds right – its all that really. As well as the fact that people are travelling in, taking the time off work to come here and make music, it’s just great.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to set up their own studio?

Invest in quality raw materials.

So, that would be your DAW, a good computer, a decent set of speakers, and some good microphones, and by good, I don’t mean expensive.

You don’t need to go spending thousands straight away. You just need to get the basics, and learn to master your tools after that. I believe firmly that a good engineer or a good mix engineer can do a great mix using basic things like stock plugins and such because the fundamentals remain the same.

A compressor is a compressor, an EQ is an EQ and and the fundamentals are the same across different genres as well.

So, yeah I would invest in the raw, basic materials, quality ones only if you can, and learn to master your tools!

What is your favourite album and why?

Jagged little pill, by Alanis Morissette. The rawness, anger and the way it was captured still amazes me. Chris Fogel, and Glen Ballard engineered and produced that album. The rawness and the live anger that just comes through authentically is just amazing. I just started getting into music at that time, and learning the guitar, so listening to that album takes me back there.

What is your favourite piece of studio equipment? 

I’ve got a brand new Audient console 4816 analog console. I anticipate that’ll be my new favourite piece of gear!

I would also say ProTools, it’s a boring answer but, I think ProTools is just such an incredible tool. It’s fast, it’s powerful. It’s the industry standard for a reason, and without it, nothing’s possible. 

What would your biggest career highlight be?

I worked on a session in 2015 that went off for mixing in America by Bob Clearmountain.

Those who are familiar with that name will know exactly how great that was! He is probably the biggest mix engineer in the world.

Just knowing that my guitar that I had engineered and vocals that I’d engineered were somewhere in the state side being mixed by Bob Clearmountain at any given time was quite surreal!

I’ve been lucky to work with a number of well established people over the years , such as Andy McPherson, Stuart McCready, and Mike Rowe.

If you could work with any artist past or present, who would it be?

It would be David Bowie, and its not even close. He’s a visionary, a pioneer, you run out of superlatives to describe David Bowie. I think he would absolutely bring the best out of people, as an engineer or as a producer.

What advice would you give to students at Spirit who want to build a career in music?

Building a career in the music industry is going to involve networking. Start small, just getting your name out there, getting your face out there. Be reliable early on. It sounds so simple, but just things like turning up on time, being nice to work with, going the extra mile as often as you can. Surround yourself with people you know will help you and you build a profile up slowly that way.

Word of mouth is a big component in this game. People will mention things to their friends, their manager, their PR people, and you will start to branch out and then that networking circle gets bigger.

It is a good idea to also think about specialising in something. Having a key essential skill that you know inside and out, then people will hire you for that specific job.

It is just a case of getting out there. If you do something, something will happen!

Where can we find out more about South City MCR?

Follow our socials at: @southcitymcr

If you’re interested in booking a session at our studios, we are located at:

South City MCR
Pear Mill Industrial Estate
Stockport Rd West
Lower Bredbury
Stockport
SK6 2BP

You can email us at mail@southcitymcr.co.uk