Producer/engineer Misha Kachkachishvili has a pretty cool office. As studio owner and lead engineer of Esplanade Studios in New Orleans, Kachkachishvili has created one of the most inspiring locations to record found anywhere on earth. In the latest edition of Behind The Board, he talked about how it came together, his path to becoming a studio professional, and where the magic of a great record comes from.
Kachkachishvili got a jump start on a life in the studio, starting music school at just 5 years old. Later he became a defacto producer and honed his ears and his chops by helping friends make music in any genre you can throw at him.
"I ended up producing Irish records that I didn't know much about, so it was kind of a learning curve." he rememberd. "What I learned is how to make any record regardless of genre."
As his career progressed, he was often working with Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and found himself looking for a place to record them. After hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he found the abandoned building that now houses Esplanade. Kachkachishvili was blown away by the vibe and the acoustics of the big room, and Esplanade Studios was born. The world-class studio is known for it's spacious control room and glorious live room.
"The control room that used to be a choir loft. this is a 1,700 square-foot control room." he told us. "Originally I was going to partition a little differently, but because of the stained glass, I decided to keep it big and open. So that makes the space [and] the control room unique to me."
With such an awe-inspiring space to create in, you might think Kachkachishvili relies on Esplanade's hallowed walls to provide the creative energy for the records he makes. Not so...
"Everybody thinks the studio is the solution for everything. No, the magic doesn't hapen here," he said. "The magic happens on the writing side of it. Just writing the great song and delivering the song, delivering the emotion, the message. That is the most important thing. Our job is to amplify that and just make sure whatever the artist brings to us, we do justice to it."
Find out more about Kachkachishvili's path and Esplanade's history in the latest edition of Behind The Board above.