Monkey Brains Records opens its doors in Londesborough

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

There’s a new business in Londesborough that has its sights set on doing things the old-fashioned way. That’s right, Monkey Brains Records is planning on being Huron County’s latest manufacturer of vinyl records/independent music producer. 

 

While the project is still in the process of getting off the ground, proprietor Alphonse Meloche has big plans for the future of his simian-themed studio. “It’s probably a 10-year plan - just taking it slow,” he explained. “I’d like to do it as a whole package - recording and production. Mastering, I’ll send it off to somebody else - mastering is a whole different ball game. But we could do bed tracks, and all that stuff right here... I want to be able to record people in this area. With roots music. Whatever they have.”

 

Meloche sees a lot of advantages to running a rural recording studio, and he’s betting that there are a lot of artists out there who will feel the same way. “My costs are going to be substantially lower than going to a great big studio. But I have all the tools, and the experience, and the equipment that these big studios have.” In addition to almost 52 years of experience as a guitar player, Meloche has worked in many other facets of the music industry. He has experience as a teacher, a music producer, an album designer, a sound engineer; he’s even been a piano repairman! “I quit doing all that to work more on making this a studio,” he said. 

 

At this point, Monkey Brains Records will not be pressing records on site, but they’ve been working with a company that does. “If you want albums, I can have all the music that you have made into an album... I took a look at presses, and the newest, latest model is $250,000, which I don’t see as achievable right now. Take it one step at a time - we gotta get people in here. That's the step that I’m in right now.”

 

Perhaps it was being born during the golden age of album art that led to Meloche’s lifelong affinity for vinyl. He certainly isn’t alone in his love of records - there have oft been declarations through the years that vinyl has been made obsolete, usurped by the cassette, CD, or mp3, but through it all, the record has not only survived, but thrived. Vinyl still remains the preferred format by music fans all over the world, including Meloche. “When you get an album, when you make vinyl - you own it. It’s yours. You never have to go to The Cloud, or nothing. You just go over there, pick out an album, put it on the turntable, and play it.”