Industrial Music in Van Nuys

It’s easy to overlook while driving up Haskell Avenue, but inside a nondescript industrial park in Van Nuys, Ran Pink and Rami Jaffee make beautiful music together at Fonogenic Studios. The all-purpose, one-stop recording facility is located within a 69,500-square-foot industrial site at 7710 Haskell Ave. The light manufacturing building is owned by nail polish manufacturer Orly International, which was founded by Pink’s father, Chief Executive Jeff Pink. Ran Pink, oldest of three children (who all work at the company), serves as Orly’s new content creator. Meanwhile, Grammy Award-winning artist Jaffee has enjoyed a storied career as a musician. For nearly 15 years, Jaffee served as touring keyboardist for Foo Fighters, the post-Nirvana hard-rock band of Dave Grohl, before becoming an official band member last year. Prior to his Foo-dom, Jaffee co-founded the Wallflowers, the 1990s-era rock group fronted by Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan. Jaffee also logged much studio session time, including on Johnny Cash’s seminal late-career recordings in the early 2000s with Def Jam Recordings co-founder Rick Rubin. Foo Fighters have sold nearly 15 million albums globally while the Wallflowers’ highest-charting album, 1996’s “Bringing Down the Horse,” sold 4 million. The evidence of all this, along with other Jaffee career milestones, line the walls of Fonogenic’s long, narrow corridor bifurcating multiple recording booths and green rooms from a huge, indoor performance venue with stage (nicknamed “the Live Room” or “Living Room” for its funky furniture and shelves lined with colorful tchotchkes) where Jaffee and his musician friends often perform for both recording sessions and live entertainment. In recent years, such luminaries as the Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger (who wrote “Light My Fire” and “Touch Me”) and Foo Fighters lead guitarist Chris Shiflett with rockabilly side band Dead Peasants have blazed the stage alongside Jaffee on piano at Fonogenic parties. Pink and Jaffee run Fonogenic as a commercial studio, where studio manager Jeff Thompson hires sound engineers as required by each project. “We rent in all shapes and forms and we try accommodate whatever the client is looking for,” Pink said. Don Was, Eddie Kramer, Alan Parsons and Tony Visconti are among the established producers who have recorded tracks at Fonogenic while artists Kris Kristofferson, Macy Gray and Foo Fighters have recorded and rehearsed there. Fonogenic is also where Krieger and drummer John Densmore, remaining members of ’60s rock band the Doors, recently rehearsed for a tribute concert to the group once famously fronted by Jim Morrison. It’s also where ’90s alternative hard rockers Stone Temple Pilots, who lost front man Scott Weiland in 2015, auditioned for a new lead singer. On a smaller level, indie bands Saga Strings and Cheap recently booked time at Fonogenic. The latter group recorded their upcoming single “All Out War” and filmed the song’s video, which Pink directed. “Fonogenic Studios is the dream realized and has been for over a decade,” Jaffee said. “Ran and I have produced countless records together as a team and worked separately on many projects, including him mixing some records and me overdubbing keyboards on others.” Music is not the only form of content utilizing the Valley facility. Slate Digital rented the Live Room to test their new VRS8 recording interface while Positive Grid, the guitar amp and effects processor company, recently shot promo videos for its new line of guitar and bass amps. Although Van Nuys is not on most Hollywood tours, many blockbuster albums have been recorded in the San Fernando Valley city, including Nirvana’s 1991 LP “Nevermind” (30 million units sold worldwide), which years later inspired former Nirvana drummer Grohl to film a 2013 documentary about the legendary and just-reopened Sound City Studios at 15456 Cabrito Road in Van Nuys, where Cash, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Rick Springfield, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica recorded hit albums. “Van Nuys has always been a creative place for me in the past, working at Sound City,” Jaffee said. “Especially the warehouse district, where traffic is relatively non-existent and one can stay focused on the work without getting distracted by being in the middle of Hollywood.”