A new studio which has been built by the "bare hands" of a local band has opened today to offer creatives a recording and rehearsal space following the closure of Brunswick Mill in Manchester.
A post-punk band from Greater Manchester called IST IST announced last month that it was building a new community studio in Oldham.
The group decided to build the space in the wake of the shock closure of the much-loved and legendary rehearsal space in Ancoats.
Brunswick Mill had been used as a creative space for generations of musicians and artists and appeared in music videos and TV shows in homage to its cultural legacy in the city.
A £58m redevelopment plan will now see the building transformed into a block of 150 flats while Brunswick Mill Studios, the studio company that operated in the Ancoats mill, has relocated and set up a new home in Salford Crescent.
IST IST, who had used the mill for five years themselves, quit their day jobs to build the new space and, using their "own bare hands", transformed 4,000 square feet of the third flood of Nile Mill A in Oldham into a new studio.
They've called it KVR Studios, named after the band's label, and is made up of nine rehearsal rooms plus a blackout studio room for photoshoots and videos.
It also has lockable storage areas for equipment.
Officially opening today, Tuesday, April 25, in line with the band's LP called Protagonists, the band hopes the studio will be a safe place for bands and artists who have been forced out of their creative spaces due to "gentrification" in the city centre.
Photographs released by the band give a glimpse into how the studio is shaping up ahead of its official launch.
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Creatives can rent the rooms in four-hour blocks every month and will benefit from 24-hour access to the facilities.
IST IST's bassist Andy Keating said: "This is the second time we've been in this situation as I'm sure a lot of other bands have been.
"Instead of becoming a tenant elsewhere and potentially having to share a room with other bands which brings its own logistical headaches, we decided to establish KVR Studios, named after our label, Kind Violence Records."
He said he also hopes it will be "somewhere where bands and artists want to hang out and for it to be an aspirational place to rehearse, write and create".
Protagonists will be the band's third album since they formed in 2014 and has had the touch of legends recording and mixing it, including Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound (The National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol).
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