South City

Stockport is well known for its hidden gems, but we are about to uncover one of its biggest and shiniest, where Detroit meets Stockport!

Located in Bredbury, is a world-class pre-production and recording facility providing high quality studios for the creative industry. South City Studios boast the finest PAs, backline and modular staging, encompassed in highly specified rooms. And it’s attracting worldrenowned bands.

We caught up with South City Studios’ creator Paul Bowe to hear more.

Tell us about the Studio and its rehearsal facilities South City Studios are a fully equipped rehearsal and studio space in Bredbury. We have rooms for song and lyric writing and all the gear you would want to bring it to life. We have drums, guitars, amps, mics – you name it we have it and if we don’t have it, we can get it.

We’re based at both Pear Mill and at Welkin Mill, a 5-minute walk where we have just launched a full stage for tour rehearsals. This is really exciting, there’s nothing like it in the area.

Pear Mill is for bands and soloists to come and write in sound-proofed rooms; we also have a state-of-the-art recording studio and ‘live’ room for bands to use. Some quite amazing stuff in there .. oh and we also have a bar. Preconceptions are it’s expensive, but we charge around £10 an hour for some of our rooms as I want to keep it accessible for everyone. Something I really believe in.

Welkin Mill is a very exciting part of the development. When bands go on tour, they may play big arenas and venues with little space to rehearse before and run through stage management and technicals. We have created a fantastic space for this to happen. It’s crazy. We are attracting bands and artists from all over the world - some big names have passed through our doors and some exciting ones coming to Stockport past and future include Johnny Marr, Leona Lewis, Sam Smith, Anthrax to Skid Row, Loyle Carner, Midge Ure, Clutch and Everthing Everything. We have loads of others in the pipeline as word is getting out in the music world.

Our team have a load of music industry experience so anyone out there starting out or looking for the next step –drop us a line.

What’s the music scene like in Stockport and what talent are you seeing coming through?

You can’t not think of Strawberry Studios when talking about Stockport and its music heritage. We are built on solid history and it’s a great time to be a band and musician in Stockport. It’s a really great community. We often find bands go off to the Underbanks for a night out as the vibe down there is really cool and the live music scene is growing.

I really encourage our clients to play as much live music as possible as it really helps nurture their sound and stage presence. One thing we also help and offer, if people need it, is a bit of expertise and support from me and the team. We are always on hand in the studio to answer questions and just help where we can. I’m always telling them to get out and play live as much as you can.

Back to the Stockport vibe – yes, some really interesting sounds coming out. Obviously Blossoms put us on the map but other people like Fuzzy Sun are creating a great sound. We are seeing and hearing some really interesting stuff coming through the studio which is great for that Stockport sound. I’ve noticed the sound style getting a little heavier and I’m hearing more of a rock drum sound. I love the rock sound – it’s what I grew up on.

Where did it all start and what or who inspired you growing up?

I was born in Stockport and moved around a bit as a kid. Moved to Leeds when I was young and came back to do my GCSE’s. I have always been surrounded with different genres of music and I think that’s important to get a good, rounded feel for music.

My Dad was a massive music fan with a huge vinyl collection and my uncle was very much into the metal side and he was a lot younger than my mum. My Dad put on Leonard Skynyrd, Bowie, Supertramp and lots of 70’s and I’d sit there with vinyl literally staring at it, fascinated. I’m so lucky to have had that exposure at such a young age then my uncle would put on Iron Maiden and I love the heaviest stuff on it. Rainbow and Van Halen really struck a chord with me. That’s what made me want a guitar. Me and my brother talk about this all the time because it’s very strange for eight, nine, and ten-year-olds to be listening to Bowie and Fleetwood Mac but that’s what we grew up with.

Inspired by all that music I got my first red acoustic guitar and remember then listening to Eruption - Eddie Van Halen do this tapping thing – it was amazing it was like something out of space. I was like, how can a human do that on a guitar?

I never saw guitar practice as chore or homework. Just something I liked to do. I love writing music. I get a great sense of satisfaction when a chord sequence works, and you create a good song structure. But one thing I will admit – I can’t sing.

In terms of schools and encouraging kids in Stockport, are facilities like this accessible to kids who’ve got aspiration? Peripatetic teaching still exists in schools so you can still have a guitar teacher and a drum teacher but you can only generally go for 20 minutes, probably once a week, if private lessons are a bit out of the question. As the prices go up, how do you value that lesson against the YouTube lesson for free? If we’re at £30 an hour now you need to get value for money for that and is that accessible for most people? Schools’ peripatetic I think is key, I think it has to stay.

Stockport Music Service has always been amazing; they are sending in everybody from vocal coaches to classically trained musicians, and operatic music, learning notation and learning the fundamentals of music - that still remains. And then bringing in a rock school element so there is a contemporary side there. Pop grades of rock and roll means getting somebody at six or seven into playing a stringed instrument or singing; I don’t think it’s in bad condition but don’t forget the world of Instagram and YouTube lessons is just phenomenal, now there’s nothing you can’t learn, there’s nothing you can’t find to learn so it’s down to the individual to sit there in front of a laptop and commit to it. That said, I learn the best when I’m sat with somebody going through the mechanics of something, but that’s personal to me. It’s probably never been a better time for kids to go on YouTube and write stuff, do their own publishing, and find their own kind of style and market themselves.

Advice to a younger Paul Bowe or anyone looking to be creative with music?

Don’t rush – take your time. Don’t try and speed through stuff. Learn the basics and listen, watch, and pick up a wide range of styles. Go to live gigs and don’t’ be afraid to try instruments and find your own style. Keep practicing, get a good regular time slot in your diary to do your practicing. Practice. Practice. Practice.

One other really important part is networking. Get out there and meet fellow music makers. Meet managers, promoters and if you can, get into record labels. I remember taking bags of CD’s down to London and literally knocking on doors. I used to spend days in Camden in London just trying to get my CD on someone’s desk. I’d go to conventions to meet people in the record industry. Rejection is part of the game, but something will come of it and you will meet someone who can open doors or give you a nugget of advice. Johnny Marr works with me on the studio project as a consultant. He has been invaluable and is there to sound out and knock ideas around with. If you had asked me a few years ago if I’d be working with Johnny, I’d have laughed. These things happen but only if you are in the right place at the right time.

What would be your Desert Island disc?

Wow – that’s a tough one. It has to be Led Zeppelin, probably. There’s a lot of bands and songs that I could choose however looking at Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue, they were heavy in the 60s and 70s and they were a game changer. They were smooth, they were cool and when Jimmy Page was playing, I just fell in love with the Gibson Les Paul. So, a Zeppelin album for sure and probably would be the Physical Graffiti album because it’s a double and there’s more tunes on it and it’s very diverse in styles.

What’s your ambition for the studio facilities? World class. I mean that. That’s my aspiration and my vision. Stockport has a backbone of music, culture and talent. I want South City Studios to be on the global map for recording and rehearsal space. We are so close to Manchester Airport, excellent rail links from London and a motorway close by. We have such a nurturing team here and we are happy to speak to established artists and their management and also to up and coming talent who need some direction. Everyone has to start somewhere; we want to ensure everyone gets access to the highest quality space and facilities.