Sound Records Gets Ballagroove-y

On an industrial estate in the south of the Isle of Man, a small, nondescript unit (from the outside, anyway) houses a whole world of creativity. For the past decade, Gyp Buggane has run Ballagroove Recording Studio out of it, helping Manxies of all musical stripes ー and others from further afield ー realise their dreams of laying down their own tunes in a professional setting. Recording, production and engineering are long-held passions of Gyp’s, and became ones which he managed to turn into a vocation ten years ago when he quit the ‘rat race’ to give the project a go. Jack and Ed popped down to Ballagroove recently to speak with the man himself and find out how it has been.

Gyp tells us music has always been around in his life: both his grandfathers were heavily involved ー even recording the likes of brass bands on tape machines and building up their collections ー while his Dad played in numerous groups. Gyp inherited a love of both the creation and documentation of music through them, including the formative late 20th Century childhood pursuits of taping songs off the radio and making mixtapes for mates. There was a long, enjoyable stint in Rushen Silver Band, where Gyp says he learnt music ‘properly’ or ‘formally’, whilst simultaneously devouring the likes of Joy Division and their post-punk brethren, and making glorious rackets in various groups.

His first forays into a studio came at Castle Rushen High School, where he and some of his mates helped put one together in the school’s music department. Away from school, the following years saw progression through bands, gigs and recording equipment, as four-track machines became eight-tracks and Gyp recorded both his own material and that of his mates’ groups. The Ballagroove record label came along in adulthood as he set up a home studio and put on events and DJ nights with friends, running it all in his spare time while working a ‘regular’ job. By his early forties, though, that job was no longer fulfilling: Gyp decided it was time to take the plunge and pursue something he truly loved, wanting to see if he could make a living out of it. The news at the time that he and his partner’s first child was on the way provided any extra motivation he needed to make sure the venture did work! Ten years later, when asked to compare what the studio has become to his original vision, Gyp had this to say:

“There’s an idea that I really like: you fire your arrow, then wherever it lands you draw your target around it… Just do what you want to do and then pursue it, keep at it and eventually it’ll work.”

Gyp’s first tape recorder

Ballagroove has shelves of music books for visitors to browse

Gyp admits that when he started out he envisaged he would, by this stage, have ‘broken through’ and be working exclusively for a band like Thee Oh Sees. Though that hasn’t happened, he doesn’t care ー  he loves what he has ended up doing with the studio. Growing older and family commitments have also meant he has found greater satisfaction in somewhat gentler or more low-key pursuits.

That doesn’t mean Gyp isn’t still open to oddness and experimentation, though:

“Most of the music I love has been made in some sort of experimental way… there’s a weirdness about it. Whether it’s about suspending yourself from the ceiling and swinging yourself around the studio, or using glasses full of water to make notes instead of using a guitar, or using weird electronics. I’ve got weird electronics if I need to call upon them.”

That ethos ー giving things a go to see what happens ー along with the available gear and some gentle cajoling, also helps to draw things out of people in the studio, sometimes helping them do or create things they didn’t even know they were capable of:

“People may have a song which needs something, and I’ll go, ‘see that thing over there, try that’. I’ll ask if they can do a guitar solo, they’ll say ‘no, I’m not a lead guitarist’, and I’ll go, ‘yes you can’, plug them in, put a fuzz pedal on, put it through a massive stack… and hopefully inspire them to try something they wouldn’t have tried otherwise.”

That initial desire to only record psych bands at Ballagroove has long since melted away, and the studio has opened its doors to people and bands from a wide range of styles and genres over the years. Projects have varied from spoken word pieces and hip-hop artists to choirs, harpists, brass and big bands; and restoring, transferring and digitising old recordings (including Manx language ones).

It was through this diversity that Gyp realised what it was that he truly loved about the job: the creative and recording process in itself, regardless of what was actually being recorded, and helping someone who’s passionate about their music to achieve their goals. He also freely admits this has helped him become much more mellow about styles of music he may have previously not liked or thought there was no value in, and encouraged him to find something good in everything regardless of genre.

The diversity also keeps Gyp on his toes in terms of the different little challenges each individual project throws up. This is something he’s very grateful for:

“I don’t want this ever to just become a job, when I’m coming in and going, ‘Ah, Christ, not another record that sounds like that’, because then you get lazy, then you think there’s a winning formula, or that you can just come in and press a few buttons and get a great mix.”

Having said all that, seeing work that you have done and music you have helped create garner critical acclaim is obviously a very satisfying thing. This year, Ballagroove productions have been pressed onto vinyl and gained international recognition through commercial releases. Mad Daddy’s debut album has been receiving rave reviews from the likes of John Robb’s Louder Than War, and tracks have featured on the radio shows of both Iggy Pop and Rodney Bingenheimer. Another success has been the release of Baad Acid’s very fine ‘Aboo / Sound’ EP, which has been selling well and once again illustrates the quality and diversity of talent we have on the Isle of Man. Such achievements and recognition are wonderful for Gyp and the musicians involved, but as we’ve seen already in this article, that only makes up part of the satisfaction he gets from pursuing a career in a field he loves. In the end, it all comes down to a very simple credo, as Gyp rather succinctly put it during our chat:

“Ultimately, this is about having a satisfying, fulfilling life and feeding a family”

If you can manage that, particularly in this day and age and under the current very trying circumstances, then you’re doing alright.

Written by Ed Oldham