Cult Studio : Space to jam
Bernard
Cult Studios began rather modestly, founder and guitarist Bernard Botejue needed a space six years ago for his band Circus Cult to practise. At his father’s garment business was a room that was housing spare machine parts collecting dust. He cleared the room and set up two amplifiers and a drum kit.
Bernard remembers his father taking him as a child to Majestic City during Christmas to see bands play. Being more fascinated by the keyboards, mixers, cables and speakers.He would take apart speakers at home and attempt to put them back together. Shortly afterwards he began to play the guitar in his early teens, influenced by Colombo’s flourishing music scene. “Prior to today there used to be just Sinhala bands playing along with keyboard syncs or Western bands playing covers, round about 1999 there was an influx of rock bands which played original songs like Independence Square and Stigmata,” said Bernard.
Bernard then left to Liverpool to study Business Studies and Music. This further influenced him, however he never thought of getting into music as a career or to be part of the music industry. “Liverpool paved the way for the idea for rehearsal studios,” said Bernard. Upon his return in 2008 Bernard worked at his father’s garment business from Monday to Friday and on the weekends he would jam with his friends. They would predominantly play at friend’s houses and after getting scolded for the noise he decided he needed a space where they could make as much noise as they wanted.
“Right now every single square space in this building is being rented out to different companies. Back then there was a lot of halls just housing junk. The first studio had no AC, it was just a room with my guitar amp, a drum set and later I bought a bass amp. This was the first purchase I made for the room so that my friends and I could jam,” said Bernard.
Later on a bassist Riyal Riffai called him up by about late 2010 and asked to use his studio for his band. Bernard then told him “It was not a studio but a room that he jams in, it’s just a room!” He just charged him Rs.100 an hour and this became his first client. “People loved the freedom, we didn’t have a timeline,and people could come at anytime and just play. Also being a warehouse no one would hear you. There was no sound proofing but then there was no one around,” said Bernard as he gestured around the vast industrial estate. By then he had about three to four bands coming regularly, it quickly grew to about 20 bands that wanted to use one space.
When he had to shift the space to a different room he realised that he needed to equip the room with an AC after one band he approached to see the space said it was too hot to practice. “I stared off with two guitar amps, a bass amp, a drum kit and on occasion a small amp for the mic, but you couldn’t hear much. I went from one band a day to three to four. A band approached me called White City back in 2013, comprising expats living in Afghanistan. They wanted to book the studio out for a whole month.
I then realised I needed multiple rehearsal rooms to cater for my other bands. Everyone loved the freedom and flexibility, back then you could eat and smoke in the rooms,” said Bernard.
By 2014 Bernard and his father realised they had a viable business and decided to commercialise the studios, placing soundproofing, top quality air-condition units and music equipment.
Currently they have three rooms and a fourth is to be added shortly. They are open 24 hours a day. Some musicians can turn up late at night and stay till the early morning. All types of music and musicians turn up, established performers, Sinhala to Tamil and rock to jazz. While there is no smoking or eating in the studios and shoes must be removed. The rooms range from Rs.300 to Rs.400 an hour.
Bernard has now branched out into music equipment rentals for studio use and at gigs, musicians can hire entire sound systems to a microphone cable.
Bernard uses the studios himself with his band Circus Cult regularly, who write their own rock music. Due to member’s work and family commitments he has started a new band called Ringmasters Jam. The members of the band constantly change except Bernard, drummer Kasun and guitarist Zayaan and are recruited from musicians who use the studios. Suited to this fluidity the band are not restricted to one style or genre.
Cult Studios is located in Kohuwala, Dehiwela and Circus Entertainment provides all manner of music equipment for rent, for budding superstars and seasoned professionals. For more information log onto facebook.com/CultStudios/
