Location | Malibu, California, U.S. |
---|---|
Owner | Rick Rubin |
Type | recording studio |
Acreage | 1.73 acres (0.70 ha) [1] |
Construction | |
Built | 1958 |
Renovated | 1976 [2] |
Website | |
shangrilamalibu |
Shangri-La is a recording studio in Malibu, California, currently owned by record producer Rick Rubin. Originally a ranch property with a bungalow owned by actress Margo, it was leased by The Band in the 1970s and converted to a recording studio by Rob Fraboni to the precise specifications of Bob Dylan [3] and The Band. Interviews of The Band featured in Martin Scorsese's documentary The Last Waltz were filmed at Shangri-La. The property was purchased by Rick Rubin in 2011. Rubin and Shangri-La were the subject of a four-part documentary series, Shangri-La , which aired on Showtime in 2019.
In 1958, Mexican-American actress Margo bought a 1.73-acre property in the hills above Zuma Beach. A ranch house was built and the site was named Shangri-La Ranch. Margo starred in the film adaptation of James Hilton's 1933 classic novel Lost Horizon , from where the fabled paradise "Shangri-La" originated. The property was an upscale bordello for the 1950s Hollywood elite and a filming site for the TV show Mister Ed in the 1960s. [4] [2] [5]
In 1974, the ranch property was leased by Canadian-American roots rock band The Band. The master bedroom was converted to a recording studio by record producer and audio engineer Rob Fraboni and in-house technician Ed Anderson according to the precise specifications of Bob Dylan and The Band. [4] [2] [5] The Band built it while taking time off after concluding the Bob Dylan and the Band 1974 Tour. Drummer Levon Helm later described Shangri-La as "a clubhouse and studio where we and our friends could record albums and cross-pollinate one another's music." They kept the name "Shangri-La" because to them, "Malibu felt like a paradise after years of gray Catskill winters" in upstate New York. The house came with a Naugahyde bar and bedrooms with mirrored walls, from Shangri-La's time as a bordello. [5]
Shangri-La was a functioning studio by the end of 1974, with Larry Samuels working as studio manager. [6] The Band's Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, and Rick Danko were living in houses near Shangri-La and were becoming involved in other outside projects. Levon Helm lived between Woodstock, New York, and Los Angeles, and used a bedroom at Shangri-La when he was in Malibu. Richard Manuel lived at Shangri-La for a year, living in a bungalow down toward Zuma Beach that was converted from the stable of Bamboo Harvester from Mister Ed. Manuel was heavily drinking Grand Marnier liqueur while living at Shangri-La. [5]
In 1976, Rob Fraboni teamed up with partners and purchased the house for $195,000, turning it into a semicommercial studio. Shangri-La was a state-of-the-art 24-track studio, equipped with the latest synthesizers. [7]
Interviews of The Band featured in Martin Scorsese's documentary The Last Waltz (1976) were filmed at Shangri-La. [8]
The 24-track console allowed The Band keyboardist Garth Hudson to record multiple layers of keyboards on several tracks on their sixth studio album, Northern Lights – Southern Cross . [9] Several albums were recorded under Fraboni's management, including Renée Geyer's So Lucky (1981), Bonnie Raitt's Green Light (1982), and Eric Clapton's No Reason to Cry (1976).
Clapton spent nearly three months at Shangri-La, hanging out and recording with The Band, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Pete Townshend, Joe Cocker, Billy Preston, Ronnie Wood, and Georgie Fame. Bob Dylan lived outside in a tent in the garden during Clapton's time at Shangri-La. Clapton formed a close friendship with Richard Manuel while at Shangri-La. [7] Garth Hudson recorded overdubs at Shangri-La for Van Morrison's 10th studio album, Wavelength (1978). [10]
In 1985, Rob Fraboni left Shangri-La to serve as vice president of Island Records. The studio's usage decreased dramatically after Fraboni's exit. [2]
In the late 1990s, Blaine "Beej" Chaney of the Minneapolis new wave punk band The Suburbs purchased the property for $2,125,000. [2] [11] Over the next few years, he invested an additional $2 million into the studio, and with the help of producers Jim Niper and Pete Strobl, loaded it with the premium vintage audio equipment that is still in use today, including the centerpiece API 32 BUS console. [12] [13] Immediately following these renovations, Chaney invited Mark Knopfler to record there, where he went on to make his acclaimed album, Shangri-La . [14] Also in 2003, they worked with Ethan Johns and Angelo Petraglia to record the debut album by Kings of Leon, Youth and Young Manhood .
In 2006, musician and producer Eric Lynn was invited to become Shangri-La's house engineer and studio manager. Chaney oversaw continued interest in the studio with a number of notable albums being recorded at Shangri-La, including Weezer's self-titled 2008 album, and Metallica's Death Magnetic . [2] Following his divorce from Sarah Macmillan, a Cargill family heiress, Chaney took a more hands-off role in the studio. In 2009, he invited his friend and fellow musician and producer, Jake Coyle, to manage the day-to-day operations at Shangri-La, allowing Eric Lynn to focus entirely on running recording sessions day to day. [15] [16] Coyle facilitated increased interest and stability at Shangri-La during a tumultuous time for recording studios around LA, many of which permanently closed between 2009 and 2011. [17] Shangri-La was now officially experiencing a renaissance with Rick Rubin continuing to rent the property for the majority of his projects including the Gossip's Music For Men, Adele's 21, Kid Rock's Born Free, and The Red Hot Chili Pepper's I'm With You .
In 2011, the studio and property were listed by Chaney for $4.1 million. [18] [19] [20] [21] Within weeks the price tag was cut drastically to $3,195,000. [11] Rick Rubin purchased Shangri-La for $2 million in August 2011. [22] [11] Numerous artists have since recorded at Shangri-La under Rubin's ownership, including Adele, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and Kanye West. [2]
Shangri-La survived the 2018 Woolsey Fire, but Rubin's two nearby homes were lost to the fire. [23]
Shangri-La consists of four bedrooms, three bathrooms and two primary recording studios. [19] [24] The main studio has an API console and Neumann U 87 microphones. The other recording space, a building called "The Chapel", also uses U 87 microphones and has a console from Muscle Shoals Sound Studio which was formerly in Rubin's The Mansion studio in Laurel Canyon. [24] The property also includes Bob Dylan's former tour bus, which is parked permanently and has been repurposed as a recording space. [25]
The studio and its owner Rick Rubin were the subject of the four-part documentary television series Shangri-La , which aired on Showtime in 2019. A "work-in-progress" cut of the docuseries was screened at the 2019 SXSW Festival. The first two episodes were directed by Morgan Neville, while the last two were directed by Jeff Malmberg. [26] [27] [28] [29]
Many artists have recorded at Shangri-La, including:
The Band was a Canadian-American rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1967. It consisted of Canadians Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, and American Levon Helm. The Band combined elements of Americana, folk, rock, jazz, country, influencing musicians such as George Harrison, Elton John, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton and Wilco.
No Reason to Cry is the fourth solo studio album by Eric Clapton, released by RSO Records on 27 August 1976. The album was recorded in Malibu and Los Angeles between December 1975 to May 1976. The record went silver in the U.K.
Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson was a Canadian musician of Indigenous ancestry. He was lead guitarist for Bob Dylan in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s, guitarist and songwriter with The Band from their inception until 1978, and a solo artist.
Shangri-La Dee Da is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Stone Temple Pilots. It was released on June 19, 2001, through Atlantic Records. Recording took place throughout the winter and spring of 2001 in a Malibu villa. It was the band's fifth and final album to be produced by Brendan O'Brien and their last before breaking up in 2003.
The Last Waltz was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert appearance", and the concert had The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including their previous employers Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, as well as Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young. The musical director for the concert was The Band's original record producer, John Simon.
Before the Flood is a live album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and The Band, released on June 20, 1974, on Asylum Records in the United States and Island Records in the United Kingdom. It was Dylan's first live album, although live recordings of earlier performances would later be released. It is the 15th album by Dylan and the seventh by the Band, and documents their joint 1974 American tour. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, reached No. 8 on the popular album chart in the UK, and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Planet Waves is the fourteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 17, 1974, by Asylum Records in the United States and Island Records in the United Kingdom.
The Basement Tapes is the sixteenth album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed by the Band, and were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, in the lapse between the release of Blonde on Blonde and the subsequent recording and release of John Wesley Harding, during sessions that began at Dylan's house in Woodstock, New York, then moved to the basement of Big Pink. While most of these had appeared on bootleg albums, The Basement Tapes marked their first official release. The remaining eight songs, all previously unavailable, feature the Band without Dylan and were recorded between 1967 and 1975.
"Out of Tears" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones featured on their 1994 album, Voodoo Lounge. It was released as the album's third single. The song was moderately successful, reaching the top 40 in several countries, including Canada, where it peaked at No. 3 on the RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart for six consecutive weeks.
Shot Through the Heart is the fifth album by American singer/songwriter Jennifer Warnes, released on Arista Records in 1979. It peaked at #13 on the Billboard Country albums chart and #94 on the main Billboard albums chart.
"Stage Fright" is the title track of the Band's third album, Stage Fright. It features Rick Danko on lead vocals and was written by Robbie Robertson. According to author Barney Hoskyns, Robertson originally intended it to be sung by Richard Manuel but it became clear that the song was better suited to Danko's "nervous, tremulous voice."
Stingray is the sixth studio album by Joe Cocker, released in 1976. It follows Cocker's pattern of recording mainly cover versions containing just one original song, "Born Thru Indifference". Bob Dylan remained a favourite artist for Cocker to cover with two Dylan songs on this release. Dylan's version of "The Man In Me" appeared on New Morning but "Catfish" would not be released until 1991 on the first volume of The Bootleg Series.
Robert Alan Fraboni is an American, California-born record producer and audio engineer, well known for his work with Bob Dylan, The Band, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Tim Hardin, The Beach Boys, Joe Cocker, and Bonnie Raitt, and as Vice President at Island Records where he oversaw the remastering of the entire Bob Marley catalog. He produced the soundtrack on Martin Scorsese's groundbreaking concert movie, The Last Waltz, which included an all-star cast of famous rock and roll performers. He built and designed the legendary Shangri-La studios in Malibu to the specification of Bob Dylan and The Band. Referred to as a "genius" by Keith Richards in his bestselling autobiography Life.
"Santa-Fe" is a song that was recorded by Bob Dylan and the Band in the summer or fall of 1967 in West Saugerties, New York. It was recorded during the sessions that would in 1975 be released on The Basement Tapes but was not included on that album. These sessions took place in three phases throughout the year, at a trio of houses, and "Santa-Fe" was likely put on tape in the second of these, at a home of some of the Band members, known as Big Pink. The composition, which has been characterized as a "nonsense" song, was copyrighted in 1973 with lyrics that differ noticeably from those on the recording itself.
Taylor Dawes Goldsmith is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He serves as the lead singer, guitarist, and chief songwriter of American folk rock band Dawes.
"Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)" is a song by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, written by the band's frontman, Billy Corgan. It was announced on the band's Twitter account on September 13, 2018. The song was released as the second single from the band's tenth album, Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., the same day. The track was recorded with Rick Rubin in early 2018 and is the second track from the reforming three-quarters of the band's original lineup.
Africa Speaks is the twenty-fifth studio album by American rock band Santana, released on June 7, 2019, by Concord Records and Suretone Records.
Shangri-La is a four-part television documentary miniseries, directed by Morgan Neville and Jeff Malmberg, that aired on Showtime from July 12 to August 2, 2019. The series concerns the Shangri-La recording studio in Malibu, California and its owner, record producer and Def Jam Records co-founder Rick Rubin. A "work-in-progress" cut of the docuseries was screened at the 2019 SXSW Festival.
The New Abnormal is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Strokes, released on April 10, 2020, through Cult and RCA Records. It was their first full-length album since Comedown Machine (2013), marking the longest gap between studio albums by the band. The album was produced by Rick Rubin and recorded at his Shangri-La studio in Malibu, California, with additional recording taking place at studios in Los Angeles County and Hawaii. The Strokes began performing songs from the album for the first time throughout 2019 before revealing the album's track list and cover art in early 2020. "At the Door", "Bad Decisions", and "Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus" were released as singles prior to the album's release, with "The Adults Are Talking" being released to radio months later.
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