In terms of financial returns, independent recording studios are a poor investment. Instead, they are “peculiar kinds of factories, being involved as they are with ‘emotional labour’ and with creating products that often have a pronounced role in constituting or representing ‘culture’” Nobody who wants to make money would even think of opening a recording studio but those of us who value art, creativity and the sheer elation of music-making would think differently. Emotional and cultural capital is the driver. According to Eliot Bates in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production “studios may constitute hubs of local music scenes” so that “the purpose of studios goes beyond economic considerations….” Functioning as “charged nodes within broader production networks ..”.

La Chunky continues to be a charged node for the development of independent artists - for example The Tenementals.

This one day conference at St Andrews University Laidlaw Music Centre hosted a small number of talks and workshops about how music can be part of community building and also enhance a sense of place and belonging amongst participants in music making. My talk focused on La Chunky Recording Studio and its place as a community hub for musicians in Glasgow. The response to the talk from conference participants was positive evidenced by the range of questions from the floor. I feel very strongly about community music having started out in the 1990s as a music development worker with young people in Castlemilk, Glasgow, an area of deprivation. My contribution outlined how a sound studio can be embedded within a community and act as a safe space for musical creativity and a catalyst to extend that creativity.