Pressure Point Recording Studio hopes to return city to musical glory

By Jennifer Nunez

It has been more than a few years since Chicago was the musical epicenter of the Midwest, but the people at Pressure Point Recording Studios at 2239 S. Michigan Ave. plan to bring back the days when the city had a prominent place in the music industry.

In the mid-20th century, most of Chicago’s record companies and distributors were located just south of the Loop on a 12-block stretch from 12th to 24th Streets, commonly known as Record Row. It was the center of the city’s flourishing popular music industry and comparable to Detroit’s Motown.

Before 2239 S. Michigan became part of musical history, the space was used as a speakeasy. Gangster Al Capone could be found there frequently in the early 1930s, said studio manager Chris Schneider.

Pressure Point opened in 1998 with one studio on the lower level, which is known today as Studio B. The studio has a small control room and recording booth used mainly for vocals and some single-instrument sessions.

In 2002 the studio began major renovations and built Studio A on the second floor. Acoustic consultants Kirkegaard Associates, architects Krueck & Sexton, and lighting consultants Schuler Shook aided the renovation effort. The team’s goal was to build a creative environment that could rival any place in the world to make a record, Schneider said.

The studio completed construction in 2004, and on June 17 Mayor Richard M. Daley came by for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Later that year, Mix magazine, an important music industry publication, recognized Pressure Point as Studio of the Year. 

State of the art

Studio A houses a tracking room, live room, drum room, and midi room as well as two vocal booths and a large control room with a state-of-the-art console—a 72-channel SSL 9000 K. It was the third studio in the world to own one.

The design team exercised great care in providing isolation detailing that took the building’s floor-to-floor height into consideration. For example, a second window isolates the room acoustically from Michigan Avenue street noise without altering the historic facade.

The space also offers a wide range of acoustic conditions that can be altered easily. One room features an adjustable wall of hinged panels, allowing recording artists to choose a surface that is reflective, absorptive, diffusive, or a combination of the three. Also, curtains can be drawn over the rough mosaic wall to provide diffusion, reflection, or absorption.

The tracking room features natural lighting courtesy of second-floor skylights that employ a three-layer system designed to keep external sound out and maximize isolation on the third floor. On that third level, the studio built a small venue to host parties and musical showcases, which makes Pressure Point not just a studio but is a multi-use facility.

“We wanted to build not only a beautiful place but a place technologically superior that has all of the elements to enhance the creative process for our own artists as well as other artists who come here,” Schneider said. 

A sanctuary

Designer Jason Fate incorporated Moroccan themes throughout the space, creating a sanctuary for artists to hone and express creativity. The live room, although functional, is furnished with a mosaic wall of the Tree of Life. Other features include a pillow-filled seating area and a multi-colored lighting system.

Artists such as Mariah Carey, Smokey Norful, Timberland, Rihanna, and Chicago’s own rock band Dearborn are just a few of the names that can be found on Pressure Point’s client roster.

Although Pressure Point has the newest technology available in the studio, it values old-fashioned equipment as well. Schneider favors old-school microphones like the E-Lamp 251, which was made in the 1960s.

Hit-maker Larry Sturm, who worked on Dearborn’s album The Old Way there recently, said the studio used two-inch analog tape to record Dearborn’s record. “I wish more people were doing analog,” he said. “It’s getting to the point now that most of the schools that train these new engineers don’t teach that anymore. They don’t even know how to set up a tape machine.”

Sturm’s work can be heard on Twista’s Kamikaze album, Michelle Williams’s new record, and Beyonce’s song Crazy in Love. He also has worked with Destiny’s Child, Mary J. Blige, Buddy Guy, and Disturbed.

Former Chicago Bears coach and football hall of famer Mike Ditka produced an album at Pressure Point last year for artist John Vincent. The album, entitled Eleven, includes ten remakes—nine of Frank Sinatra songs and one of Louis Armstrong’s. The eleventh track is The One, a country-blended song by Vincent.

Justin Timberlake recently visited the studio to lay down vocals for 50 Cent’s forthcoming album. Schneider added he was fortunate enough to work with one of his idols, Ray Davies from the Kinks, last summer. “In my mind, he is one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived,” Schneider said. “I was in awe, but I had to treat it like any other session.”  

A lifelong calling

Schneider is not only the studio manager but an in-house producer for Pressure Point. He has been involved in music since age six, when he would grab chimes out of the music box in school before anyone else could. He said he liked them best because each made a distinctively different sound and he could create music with them.

Schneider has played in bands since he was 12 and was offered a record deal at 16. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in music.
From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, Schneider played guitar and sang vocals for the Euro-influenced pop and rock band The Ultra Violets. They toured the nation and became well known. They even had a Top 40 single in the United Kingdom, No One in Here, that played on MTV.

Pressure Point’s label is the home of Margo, its latest artist, who is bringing back classic R&B. Pressure Point is working on her website, which will be up soon.

“We never wanted to be just a recording studio,” Schneider said. “We also have a production company and our own label. We want to put Chicago back on the map as a music town.”

He believes “every musical road there has ever been in modern-day popular music, whether it’s gospel, jazz, rock, hip-hop, you name it, it has come to Chicago. They have either originated here or have been touched by the city in a way to make it a…unique thing, and it has impacted what we call American pop music.”

For more information, call (312) 842-8099.