It doesn’t matter what Metro Vancouver recording artist you’re talking to these days, there’s always one name that comes up in conversation: Ryan Worsley.
From Mathew V and Derrival — both of whom played concerts in the Tri-Cities this summer — to bigger acts such as Dear Rouge and Said the Whale, Worsley is the one they point to for making their pop, rock or indie beats sound sweet.
The Terry Fox secondary grad had hoped to gain his reputation this way, by starting small then eventually expanding to suit the needs of his growing client list.
Now, he’s got singles on the radio and the Internet and has a roster that includes competition finalists and winners for the company he founded 12 years ago, Echoplant.
“It was a very intentional thing to be a producer,” started Worsley during an interview last week with his wife, Alana, the operations manager; head engineer Matt Di Pomponio, a Dr. Charles Best secondary grad; and intern Jake Schuster.
Worsley’s rise as the go-to producer, engineer and songwriter began after he dropped out of his classical music studies at Douglas College in New Westminster, after two years.
He got by with music gigs, playing the guitar at events and shows, but around 2007 he and Alana opened their first recording studio in a converted garage — a space of about 700 sq. ft. — at the back of their home; they named it Studio A.
For eight years, Worsley built up the business — teaching himself the tricks of the trade — and performed and socialized with other musicians including Drew McTaggart, who in 2012 would form the electronic rock band Dear Rouge.
That year, before Dear Rouge won the Peak Performance Project, Worsley said he would hang out with other Peak musicians to drum up business for Echoplant.
The networking paid off with many artists heading over to cut tracks at Studio A.
In 2013, Worsley had a part in producing Dear Rouge’s breakout hit, I Heard I Had, which charted at number 3 in alternative rock and won the 2015 SOCAN Songwriting Prize, a contest that honours the best songs by emerging musicians.
That success prompted the band to sign to the Canadian branch of Universal Music Group, with Worsley taking the lead recording reins on their debut album in 2015, Black to Gold, of which three more tracks cracked the Top 15 and earned them a Juno.
It was around this time Echoplant was “totally busting at the seems,” Alana Worsley recalled, and the couple found a former recording studio, called Vogville, on Tyner Street in Port Coquitlam, owned by music producer Jonathan Fluevog (the son of the famous Vancouver shoe designer).
The Worsleys leased it for a year before Fluevog offered to sell it to them, complete with his 1914 stained glass church window he bought in New York City.
Last month, the Tyner Street studio, which they call Studio B, saw the end of a year-long reno project, half of which was paid for through a Creative BC grant.
“We finally got the room looking how we wanted it,” Alana Worsley said, noting they did much of the heavy construction and acoustic additions themselves.
“For me, the biggest part of what we do is based around work flow. We want to welcome people to this creative production space,” Ryan Worsley explained.
Filling about 2,000 sq. ft. over two storeys, Studio B is comprised of three rooms on the ground level — the “dry room” with warm lighting and funky acoustic treatments to break up the sound; the “wet room” with a cathedral ceiling and the stained glass window; and the engineer’s room, controlling the sound. And upstairs is the lounge area, a small kitchen and shower (for late-night sessions).
Musicians are in both of Echoplant’s studios every day, Alana Worsley said, with eight staff serving the clients; Ryan Worsley also has a manager who pitches work and handles the bigger contracts for recording, mixing and song writing.
“We are one of the busiest studios in Metro Vancouver,” said Alana Worsley, who is also an on-call music teacher in School District 43. “We are booked every day, all day and night. We want to be known as ‘The Studio.’”
Now, Echoplant is also turning its eye to post-production film work to tap into the booming industry in British Columbia. It has recruited Matthew Thomas, a musician, sound designer and editor as well as a member of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada to bring audio design and mixing into the studios; podcasting for individual and corporate clients is another service they offer.
Meanwhile, Worsley has his eye on the next big single and bringing music to radio and digital platforms. “I want to make music with the most killer sound every day.”
