The Sweatbox Studio at 5th and San Jacinto

For years I worked out of Sweatbox Studio on 5th street in downtown Austin.

I started learning engineering there under the supervision of Mike Vasquez, the owner. I learned a lot from Mike V as well as from the other engineers and producers that made records there including Tim Kerr, Mike Mariconda, Paul Stautinger, and later on guest producers such as Mark Deutrom (Melvins,Neurosis), Trey Spruance (Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs), and Jim Diamond (The White Stripes, The Dirt Bombs).

For years we were recording lots of local demos and cd's, as well as National and International clients. A lot of bands from Estrus Records, Trance Records, Recess Records, In The Red, Bloodshot... and then we got shut down by Mother Nature.

Another perspective would be that we were given the opportunity to start fresh, without the benefits of fire insurance or the like.

The building we were located in was old for Austin standards, I think it was built in the 1900's. It had housed military recruitment offices, community colleges, various textile and auto merchants, while the end of its reign was 20 years or so of rock-n-roll bands, Community Radio, dance projects, artists, shut-ins, our studio, and riff raff.

Sweatbox Studio went down in a blaze of glory during the first week of January 2006.   Actually it was wounded in a first attempted blaze of glory ( thanks to Leroy Lucas), and then one month later a second fire finished the job.

The irony is that while Leroy started the first fire, it only wounded our room and we suffered light smoke damage. We were able to move the remaining equipment out during the day (the power was off after that fire), and we had managed to get about 80% of our equipment from the building. Had he not set that first fire (by falling asleep in a room full of old newspapers with a lit cigarette in hand) we would have not moved our gear out at all. The second fire in early February 2006, started by the a/c unit in the dance club next door, took out our studio like a bomb. No roof, everything was melted. It was so difficult to deal with losing what we did lose, knowing that it was there in front of us but that we could not get it out, or even if we could it was burnt and wet from the firemens water. There were no sprinklers in the building... I know we had a fire extinguisher but there weren't any in the halls. There were boxes for them but they had been looted long ago. That old building was awesome. The bathroom was the smelliest in all of downtown, which is saying a lot because it actually smelled worse than even the smelliest downtown bar alley. One reason for this, is because it was one of the only public restrooms in the area. No locking door in the front, no guard. No complaints about loud noise, so many musicians made that corner of 5th and San Jacinto their home...