The Echo Creative is a recording studio in the Alexandria neighbourhood of Sydney, founded by Marcus Catanzaro and Dave Jenkins and beloved by many of Australia’s most prominent bands and artists, including Daniel Johns, Chet Faker, and Flight Facilities.
But Catanzaro and Jenkins were recently handed an eviction notice, giving them a month to move out of the premises, after the property where their studio has serviced the Sydney music community for the past two years was purchased by developers.
“I was in the US on tour and I got an email from one of the people renting in our complex, actually one of the dudes from Flight Facilities, who walked past the front door and found a letter iving us one month’s notice from the appointed solicitor of the Mirvac Development Group,” Catanzaro tells Tone Deaf.
“It basically said — it was extremely short and not detailed whatsoever — that the owners wish us to vacate the property by the 1st September, which is exactly one month, and that failure to will result in legal proceedings.”
Catanzaro admits that legally, The Echo Creative don’t have a leg to stand on. “It’s hard, because we are out of a lease, so the actual eviction isn’t an issue. We’re not at all being stomped on legally. They’ve done everything that they need to do, legally, for a commercial property.”
“But I called the real estate agent straight away, because I worked in building when I was a teenager and I know this type of stuff takes months and months to begin and get approval, so I tried to negotiate at least two months prior to eviction.”
“The real estate agent didn’t even know who we were, to be honest and knew nothing about the situation. And then I left an email for Meriton, but didn’t really hear back.”
“But as we speak, someone from Meriton showed up at the studio this morning and offered a further two to four weeks in the premises, which is great and fixes our immediate situation.”
The immediate situation means Catanzaro and his fellow creatives must completely remove all of their equipment from the studio and leave it in a storage space until they can find an alternative space to set up shop.
“But it’s kind of not what we’re really talking about,” Catanzaro insists. “As I said, there hasn’t been any legal wrongdoing in our particular process. It’s more the fact that this is happening more and more across the city. We’re the third studio to shut down this month that’s a low-cost creative space.”
“This is happening more and more across the city. We’re the third studio to shut down this month that’s a low-cost creative space.”“The one in Potts Point, I don’t know what it’s actually called. Ray Thistlethwayte from Thirsty Merc built it, they were given an eviction notice just this week, I believe. And there’s one that was super community-based, more of an electronic studio space in Edgecliff.”
“That’s where I believe Cut Copy and Van She used to rent, and they were given a notice last month. So to my knowledge, those two are on the cusp of getting knocked down as well.” Catanzaro has also managed to narrow down the issue at the core of the problem.
“I think the biggest problem is that, and this is a generalisation, but generally musicians are in the lower income bracket, financially. There are warehouses available in Alexandria, like around the grounds and that area, there’s a tone of warehouses available, from 200 square metres to 2,000 square metres,” he explains.
“But the amount that they charge because of the development around it is ludicrous. Musicians and artists can’t afford that. So spaces like ours, I mean, I spent nine months trying to find a low-cost space or a space low-cost enough that I could keep the rent down and get musicians in and support the community that supported me.”
“So I think the issue is that musicians and creatives are renting the cheaper of the properties, which generally means they’re rundown and probably on the cusp of development. They’re on the radar of developers anyway.”
“When Paddington was hugely gentrified and the whole Five Ways area and shopping area was built up by council, that’s when Clover Moore appointed the properties on Oxford Street, because there was a tonne of galleries and local artists in the Paddington area.”
“She actually moved them to the corner of Crowd and Oxford, there’s two older office blocks and if you’re an artist, you can apply to the Sydney Council and they do discount rent and in some situations free rent.”
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“Clover Moore has been amazing about supporting things like that. I guess what I’m trying to bring to her attention is that what we do is so specific. Unfortunately, we can’t just be in a big empty warehouse that they may have.”
“We need studios and very specific soundproofing and things like that. Even with Central Park in Broadway, that Ultimo area previously had so many awesome and amazing art galleries so Central Park actually built a community art gallery in the bottom of the development, which I believe is free to use if you’re a local artist.”
“But that concept doesn’t help musicians. Everything they’ve done to date helps a lot of different types of artists, but not musicians.” Catanzaro has taken his plea to the community, launching a petition to ask the developers who bought out the Echo Creative’s home property to provide a grant for a new music space.
Catanzaro and his fellow creatives are hoping NSW Minister for the Arts Troy Grant, Shadow Minister Luke Foley, and the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore will make it mandatory for developers to “provide the means for displaced musicians and artists to have community spaces” in the same way they are legislated to create public parks.
