Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Fire Scorches Toast & Jam Studio

By Clive Young. Electrical fire damages gear, instruments and one-of-a-kind console.

Buford, GA (February 7, 2019)—Toast & Jam Studio in the metro Atlanta town of Buford, GA, caught fire Monday, when electrical problems set ablaze the 120-year-old building where the studio and its side business, a coworking space, are located. While no one was hurt, the midday fire and the building’s sprinkler system caused water, smoke and fire damage to audio equipment, instruments, a wall where the building’s electrical panel was located, and a one-of-a-kind Wheatstone recording console originally built for NASA.

Music Community Devastated by California Fires

Co-owned by partners Dominick Maduri, Noah Wright and Matt Wood, Toast & Jam is a full-service studio that moved into the space in March 2017. On a GoFundMe page started by Maduri, he stated that the electrical fire was “inadvertently caused by a power surge that happened as a result of switching electricity providers.” The resulting blaze, which began in a crawlspace, scorched two separate areas of the first floor and required nine fire trucks to put out, but firefighters extinguished the flames before they reached the second floor.

The coworking space, Toast & Jam Community, is expected to reopen in the coming days, although it may take as long as six weeks to get the studio up and running. While the studio’s computer and hard drives were unaffected and most of its guitars survived, damaged contents of the live room included a piano, vintage drum kit, multiple acoustic and electric guitars, and several boutique pedals. Pro audio-wise, all of the live room’s interfaces, preamps, microphones, headphones, IEMs and cables were destroyed.

Pegging the overall cost as “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and concerned that insurance won’t be enough to revive the facility, Maduri started the GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of repairs, legal fees, and replacing equipment and instruments. Wright told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that recording facilities in the region had reached out to offer their studios so that the Toast & Jam team could finish recording projects by regional bands Stay Here and Macon’s Hindsight.

The studio has recorded acts such as Sleeping Policeman, World’s Greatest Dad, JT Woodruff and Noah Gundersen. In addition to audio recording, the facility also offers live video session recording services.

Toast & Jam Studio • www.toastandjamstudio.com

Go Fund Me • www.gofundme.com/toast-and-jam-studio-fire-recovery

Toast & Jam Community • https://www.toastandjamcommunity.com/

Close