Bedside manner

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/02/2020 (2093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What looks like a normal, everyday building on the outside, sitting on the corner of Pritchard Avenue and Salter Street, resembles a cedarwood cabin on the inside; one that could be found in luscious green forests with tall mountains stretching mightily above.

Many Winnipeg musicians are familiar with this place. And after 12 years, Bedside Studios has become a home to artists from beyond the Red River region as well.

Donning a cap and sporting a long, grey beard, studio owner Lenny Milne recalls his lifelong interest in music and recording.

“I always dabbled with cassette decks and recorded stuff anyway… So I just got more fascinated with the aspect of doing recordings and then eventually people started catching on to me doing it. So I started doing it for all the friends and carrying on from there,” he said.

Bedside Studios began over 30 years ago when Milne was living in a basement bedroom in a band house on Evanson Street in Wolseley.

“I had a waterbed that was in the control room at the time. It was just my own personal recording place. But that’s where the bed was. It was called Bedside. And then every other version of (the studio) there’s always been a bed close by. Other than being in this building where there’s no bed in this one,” Milne laughed.

The studio moved three times over two decades before settling in its current spot. Seeing an opportunity he couldn’t refuse, Milne hunkered down and built the cedar studio into what it is today: an elite property in Winnipeg’s music landscape.

With the newly-purchased building, Milne could begin with a clean slate, keeping in mind how design and layout would impact the outcomes of tracks.

“There’s not a lot of parallel surfaces. So that’s really good for acoustics and just capturing the space or the movement of actual music opposed to hearing it slapping against the walls and echoing.”

With six Western Canadian Music Awards and three Juno Award nominations, Milne admitted that it’s reassuring to secure a spot in Canada’s history this way.

“It makes you part of Canada,” he said. “On a small level. That was kind of the idea; to try to maybe not be famous in the music industry, but make it in the music industry so I can just do a living at it, and be that sort of fifth or sixth member of every band that you work with, and if someone gets somewhere on a high level then you’re kind of associated with it.”

Milne has worked with local legends like The Perpetrators, Big Dave McLean, Romi Mayes, Petric, and Alberta’s Little Miss Higgins.

When he considers Bedside’s influence in the local music scene, he said it’s his steadfast taste in old-school analog techniques that make him stand out, as well as the studio’s ability to accommodate full live bands on the floor, and the abundance of instruments and gear that are offered.

“But a lot of people have a tendency to come to me based on the fact that I know how to do recordings on analog tape.”

Over time, Bedside has become something like a melting pot for genres. In any given week there could be rap, hip-hop, rock, pop, or country artists coming and going, as well as freelance producers, Milne said. Musicians, like Elle King or Tebey for instance, may use the studio to rehearse during their tours.

As for the future, Milne said one studio is enough for now, but he hasn’t made his bed quite yet.