Notes on the new Hi-N-Dry studio at the Somerville Arts Center
By JIM SULLIVAN | September 25, 2007
HI-N-DRY studio was an invention of the late Mark Sandman — in essence a practice area set up to record 24/7, located in the large living room of the Morphine frontman’s Cambridge loft. The name Hi-N-Dry will live on, but the studio itself is beginning its move to a larger space at the Somerville Arts Center, a non-profit venue located in the former Armory building that Middle East co-owners Joseph and Nabil Seder have been renovating for the past year. “The goal is to change the energy,” explains BILLY CONWAY, the Morphine drummer who’s kept Hi-N-Dry open with help from, among others, Morphine saxist DANA COLLEY. The hope, in line with the purpose of the Arts Center, is to “bring music and kids together. It’s an opportunity for a large group of artists to be part of something that’s not only helping their lives but will seed the community with creative thinkers.” Morphine, Conway & Colley’s TWINEMEN, BILL MORRISSEY, PETER C. JOHNSON, ANGELINE, ASA BREBNER, the DOWNBEAT 5, and many others have recorded at Hi-N-Dry — the label the studio runs releases about 20 discs a year. But the real aim is to forge a community — “The purpose, says Conway, “is larger than ‘Hey, buy my record.’ ” . . . WHO SHOT HOLLYWOOD, the teen band from Western Mass, have finished a six-song EP; it’s set for June 2008 . . . Mark Kates’s Fenway Recordings has agreed to manage WILD LIGHT, a band originally from New Hampshire. . . . And, HOORAY FOR EARTH have joined the line-up of bands playing the Obamapalooza festival in New York’s Washington Square Park September 30. It starts at 2; HFE go on at 3:30.
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, Dana Colley, Mark Kates, Billy Conway
