About Shelter Studio
When our old rehearsal space was repurposed, a new space at Holzerhurd came our way: two rooms inside a civil defense shelter. What initially felt like a compromise soon sparked an idea. Instead of trying to recreate what we had before, why not make use of the unusual layout? One room continued to serve as a rehearsal space for three bands, while gradually taking on a second role as the studio’s live room. The other turned into a control room.
What started out as an idea in spring 2024 has since grown into Shelter Studio: A DIY recording studio built step by step, improving and evolving along the way. Its location inside a civil defense shelter makes it an ideal place for recording. Bands can play at full volume without worrying about the neighbors, while outside noise stays outside.
As a musician myself, playing guitar in PCA as well as in a music project called Pizzeria Holzerhurd, I know the recording process from both sides. The first release recorded entirely at Shelter Studio was with PCA, and since then more bands and projects have found their way into the studio.
When it suits the music, I like to take advantage of the space by recording musicians playing together, capturing the interaction and energy of a shared performance that can be difficult to recreate one instrument at a time. But there’s no fixed formula: every project is different, and the recording process can be shaped around whatever works best for the music.
At its heart, Shelter Studio is about making good recording accessible – a place to take music seriously without taking the process too seriously, with room to experiment and capture what makes each artist or band sound like themselves.
My name is Damian Shepherd. I started playing piano at seven, later switched to guitar, and have been obsessed with music ever since. Over the years, I became increasingly interested in recording and mixing, and in understanding how recordings are made.
My background is in graphic design, and I see a lot of parallels between visual design and music. Both require a solid understanding of the tools and processes involved, but ultimately, artistic decisions come down to taste.
Over the years, I have independently developed my own approach to recording and mixing, both through making my own music and recording other bands. For me, technical knowledge is there to serve the music. In my view, there is rarely one objectively correct way to mix a song. What matters is knowing the possibilities and making the choices that make the song work as a whole. The same applies to equipment: expensive gear can be nice to have, but I don’t believe it is what ultimately makes a good recording or mix. If it sounds good, it is good.