Pandemic Busters looks to revitalize local music scene
Producer offers studio time to help bands bust out of ‘COVID jail’
Like pretty much all of us, Don Fury is sick of the pandemic and tired of the toll it’s exacted on the local music scene. But with vaccinations in full swing and light at the end of the tunnel, the longtime area resident who made his bones working with the foundational acts of the New York City hard-core scene is cooking up something special for local acts.
He’s opening his Sixth Avenue studio in Troy to produce local rock bands for free. And Fury has just the name for these two-hour recording sessions: Pandemic Busters.
“There’s three reasons I chose the name ‘Pandemic Buster,’” he explained. “One: we hate the pandemic, we want to give it a beat down, bust it in the nose. Two: the entire scene, venues, bands, bars, studios have all been locked up in COVID jail and now we’re starting to bust out of jail. Third is the session itself; it’s two hours, you got to bust in and bust out like lightning.”
So, how does the Pandemic Buster session work and what can bands expect?
“The sessions are only two hours long. Sound check is about an hour, then about an hour for recording takes and burning CDS,” Fury explained. “It’s a two-hour deal; we’re going to hit it and quit it. Bands can get one or two songs, maybe three if they’re really wellrehearsed.”
These live, analog, two-track recording sessions will be avail- able through the rest of 2021. It’s the type of session he specializes in, first at his Manhat- tan spaces in the late ’70s and early ’80s and later in his Cyclone Sound studio in Coney Island. Along the way, he recorded legendary hard-hitting New York acts like Agnostic
Front, Gorilla Biscuits and Helmet direct to-tape and developed a reputation for capturing a band at its most elemental.
But living in the city grew pricey and by 2007 he was facing a 25-percent increase in rent. Fury had to escape from New York. In looking for a new location, he needed something near people and, having broken into working with international acts, accessible from major transportation hubs. And after being forced out of past studios due to escalating rent and shady commercial interests, Fury wanted to be able to control his own destiny.
He found what he was looking for in Troy, home of hardcore mainstay Brick by Brick
and other bands he’d worked with in the past, and Don Fury Studios opened its doors locally in 2008.
“I didn’t want to go too far from Albany and I found this two-floor, 10,000 square foot buildings with tall ceilings in Troy,” Fury noted. “I wanted ownership, I didn’t want to be in a commercial situation where someone else has their thumb on my life.
“It was a blank slate and took me a year (to construct),” he recalled. “It’s such a beautiful building and I did all the work
— the electric, pipes, the studio itself. It’s a very fun place to work, twice the size of my Coney Island studio and modeled the same. It’s old-school analog, old school ’90s console. The only time I turn a screen on to go digital is to do a mix.”
At Don Fury Studios, he’s worked over the past decade with area bands like Aficionado and the Erotics, as well as a host of groups from Russia, Japan and Australia. The pandemic has effectively shut down the global aspect of his recording, putting Fury’s focus solely on the 518 at this point.
His studio was shut down for most of 2020 due to pandemic restrictions. In the fall, Fury was able to reopen and he’s been back at it. Area rockers Va Va Voodoos came in and banged out three tracks in a couple of hours, and Fury has been privately offering free one-off sessions. With Pandemic Busters, he’s expanding upon the idea. If it takes off, as he hopes, Fury would like to continue to offer these sessions under a different name in the postpandemic world.
Fury’s enthusiastic about the opportunity to offer his abilities and studio time to local artists. It provides him with a chance to give back to the area, as well as allow him to get back to pursuing his musical passion, something he wasn’t able to do for most of the past year.
“Almost all the work I do at my Troy studio is with Capital Region bands, and that’s where I want to give back,” he said. “It’s certainly going to make the summer more fun.
“Working with bands is what
Almost all the work I do at my Troy studio is with Capital Region bands, and that’s where I want to give back. It’s certainly going to make the summer more fun.”
— Don Fury
I do, what I’ve been doing,” Fury stated. “When I sat in my chair (at the studio) finally, it was such a pleasure to hear rock ’n’ roll coming out of the speakers. It’s like this feeling, after the time away, ‘Wow I missed this.’ It feels fresh.”