Music History 101 with Cherokee Studios

The BeeGees recording at Cherokee Studios (from the Sgt. Pepper Scrapbook blog)

To really understand what the Rock-n-Platinum showcase at the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios is paying homage to, it's important to know what Cherokee Studios was all about. Before they closed their doors in 2007, Cherokee Studios was truly one of the most well-known and sought-after recording studios in the city. Luckily, for the non music history trivia buffs among us, Cherokee Studios is about to launch a comprehensive Scrap Book, that outlines all the amusing, interesting, and cool music moments that took place at 751 N. Cherokee back in the day. The scrap book will focus primarily on the hey day of the studio while it was managed by the Robb Brothers, from the 70s through till present. Check back later this month when the Scrap Book launches officially.

For now, here are a few quick and interesting factoids:

Close Encounters with the Fifth Beatle

Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees and the many other stars of the movie worked long hours with George Martin (aka the Fifth Beatle) in Los Angeles at Cherokee Studios and in New York at

The Record Plant. Out of these sessions of long hours spent recording and mixing came the finished soundtrack for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was released in July

1978.

More Beatle-tidbits

During the summer of 1979, several other Beatles spent s

ome time at Cherokee Studios. John and Yoko visited Ringo while he was recording "A Dose of Rock n Roll" and "Cookin'." Paul and Linda McCartney stopped by to record "Pure Gold" for Ringo's album. George also wrote a tune called "I'll Still Love You" for Starr's album.

Michael Jackson, from the J5 to Thriller

Cherokee Studios kind of was a part of the Michael Jackson story at different times. The Jackson 5's former manager Shelley Berger actually met the guys for the first time at Cherokee Studios, as quoted by a recent Rolling Stone article.

"I'll never forget when Berry called me up and said we just signed this new act, the Jackson 5, five brothers," recalls their former manager, Shelley Berger. "He said, 'I want you to manage them, so come down to the studio and meet them.' It was 10 or 11 o'clock at night. I went to Cherokee recording studio, on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, and I was introduced to these five young men. It was the first time I saw Michael Jackson and I thought, 'Oh my lord.' My favorite entertainer at the time was Sammy Davis Jr., and I thought, 'This is the new Sammy Davis.' " (from David Browne's tribute story on 6/25/09)

Later on, Michael Jackson recorded parts of The Thriller and Off the Wall albums at Cherokee Studios.

From "The Man Who Fell to Earth"

The Many Faces of Bowie

According to one of the Brother Robb, Cherokee Studios connection with Bowie is one of the most interesting. The Thin White Duke himself just showed up one day, strolled into Studio One, struck a chord on the piano, and said "Cherokee, this will do nicely." Bowie went on to record several sessions for the Man Who Fell to Earth soundtrack.

David Bowie at Cherokee Studios (from CrackedActor)

Industry Interview: Bruce Robb, Founder of Cherokee Studios

Pictured above: Bruce Robb behind one of Cherokee Studio's famous Trident A Range consoles

We sat down with Bruce Robb, Founder and longtime owner of the former Cherokee Recording Studios, the site where the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios will now reside. This piece of Rock-n-Roll history right smack in the middle of Hollywood was one of the grooviest places to be if you were a rock star back throughout the last three decades. It went on to continue a long legacy of remarkable recording, opening its doors to everyone from Chaka Khan to David Bowie, Ice Cube to Christina Aguilera. Bruce Robb gives us his personal take on the legacy that Cherokee Studios left us, and exciting future of things to come.

BR on founding of Cherokee Studios:

We (me and my brothers Dee and Joe) believed that our approach to a recording studio was unique and different enough that there was an opportunity in the industry for us. At the time we started Cherokee, the emphasis was so much on the technical recording process and not enough on the art and the music. Studios were being run from a corporate mentality… “sign in, sign out” and then here’s all the rules. Artists don’t tend to respond well to all that confinement.

What people used to say about Cherokee was that we had this incredible “vibe” and that it was creatively inspiring. But what they didn’t notice was that yes we had the relaxed vibe, but we also had one of the largest technical staffs of any studio. We had 7 full time techs working back in the day, but they were not in your face. We intentionally kept it that way so that the focus was on the music. In spite of how we may have looked with our colored lights, incense and laid back setting, we had the best techs and designers working on new gear and tweaking out everything we had around the clock.

Bruce Robb playing Hammond B3 as member of 'The Robbs' in the mid-60s

We weren’t studio owners from a managerial sense – we were artists who became producers and engineers years before we even built the first Cherokee ranch. We actually got in to the technical side in order to defend our own music. There was a time when “rock-n-roll” was not welcome in recording studios and the engineers would intentionally sabotage the recordings. We were forced to learn how everything worked. So, by the time we had Cherokee Studios, we were in the rooms all the time. We knew what was working and what wasn’t firsthand. We were our own biggest customers. When we took over what became “Cherokee,” it was a Westlake designed studio. The rooms were beautifully constructed, but acoustically dead. We called our old friend and acoustic genius – George Augspurger – who we had known since our days at the ranch. Working with George, we acoustically redesigned the studios and control rooms. That is when it became “Cherokee Studios.”

BR on Cherokee’s run:

We thought we could be successful, but we did not expect it to do what it did. We never imagined the studio taking on this legendary status. We already had a small clientele from our ranch – artists like Rick Nelson and Steely Dan. So, we hoped to continue to grow that. We had no idea that we would inherit the previous studio (MGM) clients like Frank Sinatra. And, Bowie literally just showed up one day in a limo, walked in to Studio One, played a chord on the piano and said, “Cherokee… this will do nicely.” Rod Stewart was much the same way. I guess he heard about us over at Record Plant and decided to come see it in person. My brother Dee and Rod hit it off and Dee engineered several records for him. Rod ended up doing something like a dozen gold and platinum records with us.

Cherokee Studios conference room

BR on selected Cherokee stories:

There were a couple of decades when owning the studio was like owning the best nightclub in the world. You could go there literally any hour of the day – any hour – and something exciting and creative was going on. If you couldn’t sleep at night, you could just head to Cherokee and find KISS in one room, the Cars in another and Duran Duran in another. We didn’t have the closed doors, private lounge policy. One group would need a guitar lick and would just go grab a famous player from another band to come in and play. It was so creatively open at that time. (I really miss that.) Some really great relationships were forged at Cherokee because of the shared lounge and open atmosphere. For example, this is where David Bowie met Frank Sinatra. And I remember one day coming in to the lounge to find Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme sitting at one of our big restaurant booths with Motley Crue. Steve was teaching them the proper technique to light a cigar.

Long time Cherokee Studios client, Joan Jett of The Runaways pictured above with Bruce Robb

BR on what he has been doing since Cherokee’s closure:

Before Cherokee officially closed, I had already been preparing for the transition. We had a great run. I had the best experience of my life – maybe of many lifetimes... But I was also ready to migrate away from running a large commercial recording facility. Things have changed so much in the last two decades. Ironically, the way we landed at MGM was because we had been locked out of our little ranch studio by the Sheriff’s department in Chatsworth on the grounds that we were “running an illegal home studio.” And, now thirty years later, things had come full circle and I was ready to fold back down to a great one room private facility, much like I had at the ranch.

Cherokee Studios will continue in to the future, but now it will be more of a hub for my other creative endeavors. I have several offshoot companies that I formed with my partner Tiffany Downey in the last few years. We have a production company (Bruce Robb Productions), a boutique indie record label with publishing entity (Quarter 2 Three Records & Quarter 2 Three Publishing), a studio design firm with George Augspurger (A&R Studio Design + Construction), and I’m about to announce a new audio equipment company that I’m very excited about that will offer a line of high-end class A analog recording products that are being built by hand here in the U.S. And, we are hoping to announce the location of that great one room studio by Cherokee very soon.

In addition to my own projects, I continue to stay busy producing, engineering, recording and even playing. Yes, I still play B3 as much as I can. It is always just about the music with me.


BR on the preservation of the history of the Cherokee landmark:

I find it very sad when culture landmarks disappear like The Derby, Chasen’s, The Tropicana (the infamous rock hotel on Santa Monica Blvd. where every famous musician lived when they came to L.A.) and The Weiner Factory – now that one may not qualify as a landmark, but I can tell you that my friend Steve Cropper cried when I told him it was gone. The prospect of Cherokee becoming a fruit basket store or one of the many different scenarios that were being proposed was a little depressing. I couldn’t be happier with the choice to take the property in a direction that pays homage to the historic relevance of the site. This truly is a Hollywood landmark. In addition to the musical heritage from Cherokee, MGM and Don Costa Studios (Frank Sinatra’s producer), this building began as one of the earliest studio’s soundstages – Republic Pictures in the 1920’s. Now instead of becoming a gourmet grocery store with a little plaque on the wall, it will hopefully spawn another generation and more of art and music as the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios. If you are one of the lucky ones who end up living here, how can you not be inspired by the association with Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Michael Jackson… are you kidding?


BR on how the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios project was conceived:

Our facility was a difficult building to sell as a studio – we were too big for most artists looking for their own room and the commercial studio business had been in a contraction for a decade by the time we went on the market. One day my girlfriend Tiffany drove me over to a couple of sites where live/work lofts were being developed and the idea was born there. We didn’t know anything about zoning, setbacks and all that stuff, but we just started pacing things off and penciling sketches based on our lot size and figured we could fit about 12 units (ironically, that ended up being the real number). We presented the idea to my brothers and the concept of live/work lofts designed for musicians got everyone really excited. At that point we told our broker to bring us developers only. Our second developer meeting was with REthink – the rest is history. Steve and Greg came in with the green approach, which took the project to a whole new level.


BR on his involvement with the lofts:

Once REthink came in to the picture, it really became their development. We have remained involved with our brand and the aspects that relate to any of the use of the space for music related purposes. Through our company A&R Studio Design + Construction, George Augspurger and I have consulted on construction techniques for increased isolation and acoustic treatments for the units being prepped as potential music production spaces. The future buyers will be offered the opportunity to work with George and I to complete these spaces that have been given preliminary treatment in order to reach the appropriate level for their needs and acoustic tastes. For these musical buyers, George and I will take the room to final tuning and even assist with selection of equipment if desired.

Industry Interview: Nic Adler of The Roxy Theatre

It's no secret that Hollywood serves as the world's musical and cultural touchstone when it comes to who's "hot" on the scene. The biggest names in entertainment, everyone from Bob Marley to T-Rex, have made their way through LA at one point or another, and chances are they have paid a visit to or played a set at The Roxy Theatre. This iconic live performance venue in the heart of Hollywood has seen its fair share of shenanigans in the 35 years it's been around, and continues to reinvent itself for each new generation of music lovers.


State your name and occupation for the beautiful people of Los Angeles please (here is your chance to shout out your biz, so do it. Do it.)

Nic Adler, Owner of The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood. More importantly, I’m a LA native, I love this city, and I’ve been fortunate enough to take over the family business. I’m a member of the Sunset Strip Business Association (SSBA), and also heavily involved with the Sunset Strip Music Festival which is in its second year now, and scheduled for September 10-12, 2009.


If you could resurrect any musical LA landmark(s) what you would it be? (i.e. Coconut Grove, Madame Wongs, Hong Kong Café, Aron’s Records)?

More than any landmark I’d like to see the (Sunset) Strip as a whole achieve the same relevance and importance it had back in the day, that is really the goal of the SSBA and events like the Sunset Strip Music Festival. Neighborhood events like these remind people that LA is the music capital of the world, promotes the legacy of the strip and the importance of the past.

In the 70s, bands like Bob Marley, and The Clash weren’t playing venues like the Staples Center they were playing either huge stadiums or smaller clubs like the Roxy, the Whisky a Go Go, the Troubadour, and maybe the Palace. Back then, clubs didn’t look at neighboring venues as “competition” instead they were thriving by working together. My goal today is for the Strip to be reinstated as the breeding ground for legends just like it was back then. It would be a coup for us who are a part of the Strip, and I think that we are starting to see that actually happen.


The Palladium has recently gone under the knife. The Tower Records on Sunset has closed their doors for good (1971-2009). In New York, CBGB’s lost its battle with the city. Both Kurt Cobain and Neil Young have been quoted as saying, ‘It’s better to burn out than fade away.’ Thoughts..?

I was turning on to Sunset from Doheny one morning when I saw a guy standing on the street corner holding a sign that read ‘TOWER RECORDS CLOSING *SALE* 40% OFF.’ Losing that landmark (Tower Records), we lost a "leg on the table," so to speak. I thought to myself, ‘How many other landmarks are going to disappear if we don’t do something about it?’ That was a huge wake up call for me, and that was when I got heavily involved with the Sunset Strip Business Association three years ago.

In recent years, home grown music communities have been sprouting up in neighborhoods like Silverlake, for example, and it has also helped that radio stations have gotten more involved. We are also starting to see music venues work together like they did back in the day, still highly competitive but in a good way. Our current relationships with neighborhood venues like the Viper room and the Key Club, are making the Strip so much stronger because we are all striving for the same thing. We are resurrecting a 3-4 block radius and with that re-introducing people to one of the most famous locations in the world, the Sunset Strip. I want multiple music communities in LA, because I think LA can handle it. We have to keep moving forward. When you start to lose that sense of community, you die a slow death.

The Lofts @ Cherokee Studios are hoping to keep the legacy alive for a whole new generation of music lovers. Where do you see your business 5/10/20 years down the road?

Cherokee Studios was an important part of LA's musical legacy, so I think that what the Lofts @ Cherokee Studios is trying to accomplish is important. It’s hard to care about something when it’s not relevant to today's audience and that is exactly why you have to come up with new ways to reinvent yourself. For us at the Roxy, our online presence is not only important but imperative and we view it as the future of things to come.

The Roxy has been around for 35 years which means generations of music goers have had an “experience” at our club. These days, parents come in with their children to see a new band and tell us about the wild times they had here back in the day. There is nothing better than feeling like we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. Hearing these type of stories really inspires me and reminds me to never take for granted the legacy we have created here.



With the dawn of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, we have been given a great opportunity to interact directly with our patrons every single day through one-on-one viral conversation. The reason we feel it so important for our venue to have such a solid presence online is so that we continue to stay relevant by fulfilling the specific requests of our current patrons. Because of our online efforts, we are currently ranked the number one music venue on Twitter and this sort of thing is what is going to keep us around for another 35 years.

For complete concert + event listings and more information about The Roxy Theatre, check out their website!