A brief history of time & 2fly recording studios.
2fly studios came into being in October 2001 set up and run as a one man operation by Alan Smyth and based (originally) in what can only be described as a small concrete ‘shack’ in Stag Works, Sheffield.
2fly studio quickly gained a reputation for producing consistently powerful and emotional recordings and capturing the true essence of young and fledgling bands.
One such recording that stood out was by the band ‘Rumpus’ and called ‘TheWoods’ this in turn enticed the band Judan Suki to come and record. Judan Suki was fronted by Jon McClure/Ed Cosens and also had a rhythm guitarist called Alex Turner and a drummer Matt Helders.
The session went particularly well and half way through Alex mentioned his own band who were about to play their second gig and also wanted to record at 2fly. The rest, as they say, is history and all 17 tracks that were recorded in a total of five and a half days with the Arctic Monkeys became the legendary demos (Under the Boardwalk) that swept around the world courtesy of the internet and leading to the one of the biggest media frenzies surrounding a band since the Beatles. Those that know still say they prefer the demos to the finished first album and there are still a couple of moments on that album which were lifted directly from the original recordings. In fact a paper titled 'Arctic monkeys - The Demos versus the Album' has been written on the subject. You can download that paper here.
Around the time the Arctic monkeys first came in to 2fly another Sheffield band, 65daysofstatic, booked four days to record an album which became 'The Fall of math' and is widely accepted as a seminal work.
