Andy Thompson

Mastering the sweet sounds of music and voices in the Northumberland hills

For those of us who savour country living, one of the biggest blessings is to do the work we love without the stress of commuting to the big city. And so it was for me this summer, when I was called upon by Simon & Schuster to record the audible version of my memoir, Heart On My Sleeve. As luck would have it, my daughter Bekky had just recorded a voice track for a film she was working on at a studio about five minutes from our Warkworth home. She couldn’t say enough about the cool producer she’d worked with and his wonderfully unusual studio. “It’s in this fabulous, big old rustic barn,” she enthused after her session. “You’d love it! Only trouble is, this guy is incredibly busy. So if you want to book some time there, better be quick about it.” This was one recommendation I knew I could trust. I pitched the Northumberland Music Studio to the folks at Simon & Schuster, and a few days later they said I was good to go and record there. I was elated. The three-day experience was an absolute joy, thanks to the studio’s maestro, Andy Thompson.

Andy Thompson was born in the UK, but his family emigrated to Canada when he was three. Raised in Scarborough, he’s made his home in Northumberland for the past 45 years in a big old farmhouse halfway between Campbellford and Warkworth. His mum bought the place when she retired, and Andy, eager to escape Toronto, happily moved in. The idea for creating a recording studio in the circa 1910 barn soon followed. He’d had a small recording studio in the city throughout the 70s, establishing a pretty impressive client list, doing numerous commercial projects, including work for the Ministry of Transport and TVO. He also did a soundtrack for a film called The Seal Song.

“I moved out here and first set up an electronic music studio in the house, and then we decided to build a full-scale studio in the barn in 1981.” It opened for business four years later. The barn, built by a master craftsman whose initials are stamped into every post, is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. It simply oozes character, and with the laid-back Andy helming all the creative efforts transpiring there, it really feels like a safe place: This guy knows what he’s doing.

Andy’s musical passions started bubbling up at a very young age. “When I was in Grade Two, a priest from St. Michael’s Choir School came to our school and asked if there were any students they thought might have some aptitude for music. And you had to have good grades too,” Andy recounts. “There were three students from my school that were chosen to go to the choir school, if they wanted to. But my parents were the only ones that thought it was a good idea to have me, at eight years old, take two buses, a streetcar, and a subway to school every day!”

And so the wee push from his parents threw Andy into an intense programme of musical studies at St. Michael’s, learning theory and harmony, performing with the choir – often at Massey Hall – and taking up piano.

“In Grade Eleven, I won the Most Promising Piano Student award, and I also won the science award, because I was a hovercraft nut and I designed and built a gas-powered hovercraft,” Andy smiles. But music proved to be the stronger calling.

The following year, his piano teacher asked him what kind of music he was into. “At that point, it was The Nice – Keith Emerson’s first band,” explains Andy. “It was a power trio, with organ, guitar and drums and they did a version of Leonard Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story and I had learned it myself so I played it for my piano teacher. She suggested I play it at my recital, so I did. And the entire front row of adjudicators got up and walked out!”

But Andy just kept on playing. “I had long hair at that point, and I guess I was a bit of a rebel. I just didn’t care.” While he was still in the choir school, he met a fellow who had the very first Moog synthesizer in Canada. They became good friends, and Andy learned how to use the synthesizer. “And based on that, I got a call from Warner Brothers. They had this artist that was releasing a record and they wanted a synthesizer trumpet line on it, so I went down to Sound Canada and did my synthesizer thing.”

And thus, Andy’s professional music career was launched. He toured with the Warner Brothers artist, a lucrative gig that eventually funded his own originals band. Andy’s band then went on the road, playing six nights a week, 50 weeks a year, from 1972 to the end of 1978.

But the next year – 1979 – things changed, and that was when Andy made his move to the country. He never looked back, establishing his state-of-the-art recording studio in a most unlikely setting. Over the years, the work he’s done in that big old barn has been incredibly diverse; from recording countless artists, orchestrating all sorts of commercial tracks and voice-overs, to producing audiobooks. What gives him the most joy?

“Two things really,” he says. “Producing artists that I really like. That’s one thing that’s always been really important to me, because I’ve had some in here that … well, you know,” he laughs. “But I’m working with one right now who’s a real sweetheart of a guy, and I’m having a blast. I love doing orchestration too. That’s really fun. And I did 13 or 14 of The Arrogant Worms CDs. They’re a musical comedy group and I arranged some orchestral pieces for them.”

In a day and age when the vast majority of musicians are struggling to keep their heads above water, Andy has mastered the precarious business of walking the line between art and commerce, creating a rewarding lifestyle for himself in the process. What’s the appeal of being in this neck of the woods?

“Well, I’ve gotten to meet some really great people,” Andy reflects. “I just love the countryside here. Just the fact that it’s all the Northumberland hills, right? It’s just really beautiful landscape. And it’s in the country, but it’s close enough to amenities. And then when Westben came along, that became very special.”

Andy has a brilliant relationship with Westben, Northumberland’s unparalleled mecca for the performing arts, and he cites Westben’s co-founder and director Brian Finley as one of his best friends.

“I’d never intended to do live sound,” he admits, speaking of his work at Westben. “It was never in my wheelhouse. But for some reason, I am called to do that a lot. The Westben thing is great because it really challenges me; I get to meet amazing people and learn how to deal with different personalities and completely different forms of music.”

One thing that’s evident about Andy is that he’s got a lot of heart and truly cherishes the close bonds he’s made over the years. One relationship in particular that had a profound effect on him was his close friendship with the late broadcast journalist Roy Bonisteel, of CBC’s Man Alive fame, who was born just outside of Trenton.

“When he did Man Alive, Roy was travelling all over the world, and when he decided to retire, he moved back to this area and bought the church that he went to as a child. It was falling down, so he fixed it all up and opened it as a community centre. Someone introduced me to him and then eventually I just started bringing him in to do all my voice-overs. And then I got to do his audiobook. I worked so closely with Roy and he gave me a lot of credibility.”

Today, Roy’s old wood stove adds a charming touch of coziness to the big barn’s comfy front room, a constant reminder that for Andy, this is a business that’s all about people. Has he ever been tempted to move back to the big city after these four-and-a-half decades?

“Oh, if anything, the opposite – moving more into the bush,” laughs Andy. “That’s always been my thing – to try and get as far away as possible. Why? Well, I like privacy, for one, and I like being able to do things on my own.”

Obviously having spent a life in music has kept Andy in tune with all that makes for great recording sessions. And perhaps it’s that simple country living that’s made him so down to earth: a winning combination in a technically brilliant producer who understands both passion and artistry.