Bill King: The El Mocambo? Everyone wants to know what’s going on!
Eddie Kramer: I so remember being there in 1977 recording The Stones.
The place was purchased, and I was asked to come up and have a look and see whether I wanted to get involved. I looked at it and I said OK, I’m going to do this, we’re going to put a studio in here. I wanted to bring in John Storyk, my oldest and dearest friend. He and I did Electric Lady for Jimi, OK. And that’s the reason. WSD Group, which is the architectural firm, is probably one of the largest ones in the world and one of the better ones. It’s almost there.
We’ve taken about two and a half years so far and basically destroyed the entire building and took it down below grade and built a brand-new building on the inside. All we kept was the facade and the side walls and we underpinned the entire interior. There are now two venues. One on top of the other.
You remember the old El Mocambo? It had about a ten-foot ceiling. It’s now twenty-six and a half feet high with a balcony running around top side and it’s going to be the preeminent and predominant facility in North America. They are soundproof rooms. Both are completely isolated so that I can record the two venues at the same time with live streaming.
I have a special room on the third floor looking down on the room. This is like Abbey Road. We have the same board, a beautiful Neve vintage board looking down at the stage and five 4K cameras and Go Pro’s – the whole thing and live streaming 24/7.
