Rock ‘n’ roll clinic will give musicians practice and recording space

Published 9:00 pm Monday, April 9, 2007

The questions started not long after the sign appeared above a dark doorway on Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett.

Rock-n-Roll Clinic, the sign reads, and features a blond hoochie mama squeezed into a nurse’s classic white uniform and calf-high boots.

What is it, passers-by want to know, and when will it be open? For months, the doors remained locked to the public. Press your forehead to the double glass doors and all that’s visible is a narrow stairwell plastered with iconic band posters leading down somewhere dark.

The man behind it is finally ready to talk, and the venture known as the Rock-n-Roll Clinic is nearly ready to launch. But unless you want to finesse a guitar like Eddie Van Halen or work the drums like John Bonham, you probably won’t be getting a look inside.

This is a musicians referral business, a place for a drummer to find a band and a band to find a drummer. It’s a place to perform and record music. It’s a place to buy instruments and music memorabilia. It’s a place for talent to meet with record company scouts.

It’s also a school of sorts for musicians. Budding talent will be able to find lessons here and maybe – maybe – jam in small-group sessions with big-name artists in town performing at the Everett Events Center across the street. The clinic founder is still massaging the details.

His name is Matt Lyons, and he has been dreaming about this place since he was a teenager performing in a hard rock band.

A record company signed his group, Storm, but fame and fortune eluded him.

He walked away after a disagreement with the lead guitarist and started promoting other groups and rock festivals instead.

It became a career, and after a lifetime of it Lyons is well acquainted with the shortcomings of the business. Musicians, he said, have few places to record and fewer to practice.

“There is no place for musicians to go unless they go to a bar,” he said. That can be a problem if you’re an underage musician. Even though bars around here are now smokeless, “You still have to deal with people in your face who are drunk,” he said.

Bands struggle to pay for high-quality recording studios, and musicians need a place besides Denny’s to mingle with other artists, he said. He hopes the clinic will solve these problems.

At age 47, he finally has the connections and the capital to make the rock clinic happen. He refinanced his house twice and leased a 4,000-square-foot space at the bottom of an old brick building on Hewitt. For the past six months, he has poured tens of thousands of dollars of his own money into renovating the space, which had previously served as a catchall for garbage, he said.

“There were rats,” Lyons said. “Seriously, it was bad.”

A peek inside the clinic recently revealed no rats, but the beginning of something that could be great. The place has a nightclub feel. It’s cavernous and dim with black painted ceilings and renderings of music icons such as Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison peering down from the wall.

A 32-foot-long stage with a drum riser and leopard print carpet is already built. Lyons procured some wooden church pews for seating, and there’ll be couches too. Behind the stage is a green room, a sliver of space for musicians waiting to go onstage.

The jewel of the space will be a digital and analog recording studio, a soundproof room with a special air-cushioned floor that will puff up like a souffle to block the sound of trains rumbling through Everett. It’s still under construction.

The clinic’s Web site, www.rocknrollclinic.com, is under construction, too, but Lyons says it will be a place where members can post their MP3s and videos, network, and buy instruments.

Already bands are practicing here. Bad Kitty, an all-woman hard rock group Lyons has promoted since the members were teenagers, is using the space to practice. Kellie Rinkler, a vocalist for Bad Kitty, said the group has struggled for years to find decent practice space.

“We played in our parents’ basements until they got sick of the noise,” she said. “This is beyond anything I could ever dream for.”

The Station House Blues Band, a five-member group made up of local police personnel, jammed at the clinic recently and is considering using the recording studio when it’s complete.

Affordable time in the recording studio is hard to come by, said band member and detective Wally Friesen. Other local artists have recorded out of storage units. The Station House Blues Band found one recording studio with reasonable rates nearby – a kid recording in his parents’ garage.

“It seems like a good concept,” said Steve Lefebre, a member of the group and a detective for the Everett Police Department. “It’s going to be a great venue not only to practice but to line up more gigs and associate with other musicians.”

Still, this is a tenuous venture. Lyons started with $500,000 and a five-year financial plan, and the renovations are taking longer and costing more than he expected. Lyons said he’s not doing this for the money, but he does need to pay the bills. He wants musicians to pay dues, about $20 a month. That would give them access to the Web site and clinic special events. Renting recording or practice time would cost extra.

“I believe in it,” Lyons said. “It’s crazy, but I believe it will work.”

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.