After living in Philadelphia for the last year and a half, Michael Stephens decided to move back to Shreveport. He is the man behind local favorite Pizza Party Studios, and is also a musician that has played in many different Shreveport bands, including The Peekers, The Lackadaisies, The Beggin for Its, and The Bellys. I met with him and his new partners Bo Harris and Brett Roberts on National Pizza Day to discuss the future of the studio.
Over the years, Pizza Party has been located in various places around Shreveport. One of the first locations was at The Collective, now Media Star Entertainment. After Stephens moved back from Little Rock, the studio moved to the attic of The Boot. This is where some of The Lackadaisies release, “Act Your Age,” was recorded as well as Hwy Lions, “Travelin’ On.” The studio then moved next door to Bear’s on Fairfield. Many great albums were recorded there, such as Daniel Smally’s, “Get on My Side,” Ghost Foot’s “Bad Blood,” and GG Earth’s “Evil Freedom,” to name a few. Now that Stephens is back in town they are going to operate out of Brett’s house downtown.
Bo Harris has joined Stephens to help out with recording. He has a background in audio engineering, and sounds like a good fit for the studio.
“I went to BPCC for their audio engineering program,” said Harris, “And then [I] went to The Recording Conservatory of Austin. I also interned at Music Land Studios in Austin for a year before moving back to Shreveport.”
He only met Michael about a month ago through mutual friend Roberts. Roberts is also involved with the studio, helping with management and booking bands.
The plan for the new studio is to have Harris focus on digital production while Stephens works on analog. Before moving, Stephens sold a lot of his recording gear, and he is looking forward to getting some new equipment.
“I’m trying to get a good 8 track tape player,” he said. “The one I’m looking at uses half inch tape. Once I get a couple things, it will be pretty much the same setup as I had before I moved.”
This studio will be the perfect place for up and coming bands to record that don’t have a huge budget. It is also a good place for already established bands to work on their up and coming releases. They fit in a good niche in between home studios and the bigger studios in town that charge a considerably higher rate.
This is the kind of project that Shreveport needs in order to put out records on a consistent basis.
The guys also showed interest in doing Pizza Party sessions where they would record bands on tour, and put the audio and video online. This idea would be perfect for when they plan to open in mid-March, because a lot of SXSW bands will be coming through town.
If you are interested in recording with Pizza Party Studios, message them at Pizza Party Studios on Facebook, or email them at pizzapartystudio at gmail.com.