Edina, MN (July 12, 2018)—For years, stars beat a path to 4100 West 76th Street in Edina, Minnesota to record at Flyte Tyme Studios, the home base of mega-production team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Artists kept coming when the facility changed hands in 2003, but now the music is ending. Today known as Runway Studios, the recording site will be demolished later this year to make way for affordable housing.
Jam and Lewis used the studio for 15 years before moving to Los Angeles in the early 2000s; during that era, the facility was used to record more than a hundred gold and platinum albums with artists like Janet Jackson (“Scream,” the duet with her brother Michael, came to life there), Mariah Carey, Sting, Boyz II Men and others. Today, the 18,000-square-foot facility is owned by Richard McCalley and Matt Hanson.
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The studios’ calling card has always been Studio A, built around a 1,000-square-foot tracking room with 13-foot ceilings and diffused walls, abutted by a 250-square-foot isolation room for recording acoustic instruments. Today, the control room is centered around a 24-input Universal Audio Apollo 8P system with a custom center section.
Runway Studios is expected to close in late October and the site will begin redevelopment in Spring, 2019. Until then, the studio remains open for business; an Etta James tribute project has been recording onsite this month.
Likewise, Prince’s former backup band, the New Power Generation, recently used the rehearsal room to prep for shows. Studios A and C remain up and running, and Studios B and D still have functioning mic lines, cue systems and monitors for use as needed for overdubs and mixing.
McCalley told Minneapolis’ Fox9 news that he and Hanson will try to remove and sell or preserve as many studio fixtures as they can before the coming closure.
Runway Studios • https://www.runwaystudiosmpls.com
