No more cobwebs and outdated computers. The South Dallas Cultural Center has upgraded their free recording studio to begin working with musicians.
The South Dallas Cultural Center is the only city of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture facility that has a recording studio open to the public. While it has existed for about 10 years, the space was mostly used for rehearsals and the recording of interviews and podcast episodes, rather than recording music. John Spriggins, general manager, said the lack of professional equipment and an on-site audio engineer limited how the space could be utilized.
“When I came to the cultural center, we didn’t have an engineer and an engineer was absolutely necessary to manage the space,” he said. “We didn’t allow artists to use the equipment without there being someone actually having the credentials to utilize the equipment we have.”
Now they do. The cultural center recently welcomed Kandon Phillips, a music producer of almost 20 years, as its first on-site audio engineer. Phillips, also known as Piff, will take over the recording studio, handling booking and operations with recording equipment from his home studio.
Phillips has worked with many North Texas rappers, including Grammy Award-winning Bobby Sessions and Jahn Dough.
Phillips joined the team almost immediately after visiting the recording studio for the first time in January. He said the recording studio looked like it hadn’t been touched for years, but he saw a lot of potential. Phillips and his family were in the middle of moving to their new home when he decided to take his packed recording equipment to the cultural center instead.
“Just to give some kind of reference of how old it’s been, or how long it’s been since someone used it, the motherboard, or the computer, was from 2012.” Phillips said. “When I saw it, I was like, ‘This studio was built and made so well, I can’t believe nobody has taken their time to really revamp, update and make it useful to the community.’ "
The recording studio is now equipped with a newer iMac, microphones, speakers, a drum kit, updated systems and more for musicians to come in and create art.
“From the stories that I’ve heard about successful artists – musical artists – and their journeys, and where things started to become more than a dream, [it] was the studio that they were in,” Phillips said. “I would love for the South Dallas Cultural Center to make its mark in that essence.”
While the cultural center is still figuring out the best way to give the community access to the recording studio, those interested can submit a request for a free session through this link.
“It’ll be a place where not only great albums came from, but great stories came from,” Phillips said. “No-name artists to big-name artists, just help to cultivate the Dallas scene in a way like, this place right here is history for the sound of Dallas,” Phillips said.
The cultural center will continue to offer music-related programming, including concerts and workshops.
On April 20, the IRAS Foundation, a nonprofit sponsored by local record label IRAS, will host a “Mastering the Music: Protect, Register, and Profit” workshop at the cultural center. The event will include talks about the complexities of navigating the music industry and how to maximize profits. IRAS founder Matt Winn will host the event from 4 to 6 p.m.
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