Some recording studios are so legendary that their very names evoke music royalty. Think Abbey Road and The Beatles. Muscle Shoals and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Motown and Marvin Gaye. Sun Studio and Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash.
Cut a record!
SLO-Fi Recording Studio is open for business and ready to help you with your recording project. The business’s under-construction website is at pufferfish-wolverine-mfrw.squarespace.com. Contact proprietors Patrick Hayes or Mike Cross directly at slofirecording@gmail.com for inquiries.
For nearly 30 years, SLO Town had its own sonic alchemist in Kip Stork’s Avalon Digital Recording Studio tucked away in a nondescript building on Parker Street. But a little while ago, Stork—who does sound at The Siren and elsewhere—decided to retire, and the studio he created in 1997 was at risk of being destroyed, the infrastructure gutted and space made into some other business. Two local musicians, Patrick Hayes (Pennyjar, Dead Voltes) and Mike Cross (Longstraw), stepped in to save and rebrand the space as SLO-Fi Recording Studio.
“We took the space over in September and then slowly began bringing in gear and bits and pieces,” Hayes explained. “One of the first bands that recorded with us was Ultraviolets. I don’t think we even had all the microphones that we really needed to do everything.”
Now a few months into their new endeavor, they’re still adding equipment, but they’re turning out recordings.
“We just finished up this Jovian Queen record that we’re in the tail end of mixing and putting the final spin on,” Hayes continued. “Hopefully that’s going to be out pretty soon. We have other people signing up, but I never know when something’s going to be a real full-on project or when it’s going to be like, ‘Ah, these demos are OK.’”
They hope SLO-Fi becomes a studio for any and everyone.
‘We want to create art and help people create art. It’s not really a financial fact. That’s not why we did it. Otherwise, we would have done something else, you know?’
—Mike Cross, SLO-Fi Recording Studio co-founder
“I’m aiming at the younger crowd for sure. There’s just an insane amount of young kids playing music, really exciting stuff,” Hayes said. “We’re trying to keep this a vibrant and active space. We don’t want to get to the point that it’s too expensive for people to record. I want teenagers and Cal Poly students to know that they don’t have to compromise. They can come into a studio and play music and have it recorded. It’s not an impossible task. It’s within reach.”
SLO-Fi is project-oriented rather than by the hour.
“We’ve tried to stay away from the hour,” Hayes admitted. “We have hourly rates and weekend rates and things like that, but we’re trying to do project-based rates where we can sort out what it will take to finish the whole thing. I’ve had so many times I’ve gone into a studio, and I have the goal of three or four songs or whatever, but I’m just fighting with the clock the whole damn time, so we’re trying to get people more in the mode of actually being able to create and do the thing.”
As Hayes noted, both he and his business partner have day jobs, so they’re not dependent on making a living off SLO-Fi.
“Mike works for Sunrun, and I run Dr. Cain’s Comics, so that frees us up to not have to have all of our livelihood tied into it,” Hayes explained, “but this is a big building that is not cheap to keep functioning.”
“I think we just want people in here using the space,” Cross jumped in. “That’s the main thing. We want to create art and help people create art. It’s not really a financial fact. That’s not why we did it. Otherwise, we would have done something else, you know? We heard Kip was retiring from this and nobody was going to take it, so we saw that opportunity just grabbed it. I’m really glad we did.”
The studio also has three rehearsal spaces that have a couple of bands in each, which also subsidizes the monthly rent.
“Losing that was going to be the real bummer,” Cross added. “Those are hard to get around here. We’re really happy to keep people in there at a reasonable rate, which makes them happy. And when you walk in here and you have The Hot 45s in here and Jovian Queen and a few other bands just walking through all at the same time, making a bunch of noise, it’s really cool.”
When Stork started Avalon in 1997, digital recording was the cutting edge. Analog had become old hat, and people wanted the most up-to-date equipment, which Stork provided. Today, many musicians pine for the old days of tape machines and tube amps.
“We’ll be doing a hybrid for sure,” Hayes said. “I would love to get a tape machine in here at some point. I had the fortune of recording at Dial Back Sound in Mississippi a few years back, and all the basic tracks went to tape. I do think there’s a little bit of marketing voodoo around all that, but there’s definitely something to be said for tape compression and getting initial tracks to tape, but it all ends up on a computer eventually anyway, so I don’t think there’s any need to be precious about it.”
The most important thing SLO-Fi is retaining from Avalon is the amazing configuration Stork created in the space itself. The large control room and its spacious couch create room for the whole band to sit and listen to a mix. The main recording space is also roomy and has three closets for guitar amps. There’s an isolation room for drums and another for vocals, and all have window sight lines so the musicians can take cues from one another. It’s ingeniously designed.
“Kip did a killer job,” Hayes agreed. “Some things aren’t going anywhere, like these speakers mounted in the wall. And the couch? It’s so big we couldn’t figure out how to get it out if we wanted to.”
“Yeah, the couch and the speakers was basically [all we kept],” Cross added. “And obviously the awesome build.”
It’s an amazing space, and losing it would have been a tragedy.
“I want to make records,” Hayes said. “I’ve been making records in this town for forever. I want to keep doing it. And it’s incredibly easy to do, but it’s incredibly hard to finish. A lot of people have records that they’re just not finishing.
“And I think the biggest thing that we offer people is the ability to actually complete your project. I am a producer of things, you know? Make the project, get it done. That’s our big goal.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in March 5-12, 2026.
Hells yeah