Founding by Doug White

Watchmen Studios was founded by musician and producer Doug White in 1989, after he returned home to Western New York from The Art Institute of Atlanta with an associate degree in Audio Engineering and Music Management.

Doug White working at the studio in 2008

The studio originated in White's parent's basement, where he and his band mates at the time built a small facility to do their own recording. White's band's name was the Watchmen, a reference to the Alan Moore comics. Because only his band was recording at the time, the studio itself inherited the name. A few years later the business went commercial as Watchmen Studios and the name stuck.

The Watchmen disbanded with some members going on to form Snapcase, while White stayed on with recording, building up a base of clients. In 1995 he moved the studio permanently into a commercial building in Lockport,^[1] creating a small eight room studio.

Releases

The band Lemuria recorded all their albums as of 2008 in the studio,^[2] including 2007's Get Better.^[3]

Doug White was given two awards from the RIAA for 1,000,000 copies sold for the single "Cupid's Chokehold" by the band Gym Class Heroes. The other award presented to White was for 500,000 copies sold of the Gym Class Hero's album As Cruel as School Children (2006). White also produced the debut album ...For the Kids for the Gym Class Heroes.

As of 2013, over 4000 bands and artists have recorded at the location. These include small regional acts and larger names such as Gym Class Heroes, Psyopus, The Bunny The Bear, Brutal Truth, as well as working with labels such as Relapse Records, Victory Records, Metal Blade Records, and Century Media Records. White notes: "Working with many different types of budgets has been the key for Watchmen Studios, big or small, turning out consistent product for many years."

Associated bands

Tearwave was Doug White's next band, and they've been associated with the label since their founding. They were signed to Projekt Records, which is owned by Sam Rosenthal. Tearwave released two albums under Projekt Records, the first (in 2007) was self-titled and the second release (2008) was titled A Different Shade of Beauty. Tearwave was disbanded in 2009.^[4]

In an interview with The Apparatus, Doug talks about Tearwave:

Tearwave is an old school shoegaze band in the vein of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Lush. We are signed to the legendary goth label Projekt. Shoegaze has always been a passion of mine. The sad ambient textures and flowing female vocals were always something I loved to listen to. So I put Tearwave together last year and it all happened really quickly for us. We got very lucky.^[1]

After Tearwave disintegrated Doug White assembled Makaras Pen, also signed to Projekt Records. In 2010 they released a self-titled debut album, followed in 2011 by A Petal Among Bricks. With a consistent shoegaze and dream pop sound, the band continues to record music and create music videos.

Studio gallery

The following photographs of the inside of the studio were taken in 2008.