A former storage room in the attic of a Brisbane coffee roastery is now a launch pad for emerging artists after its transformation into a recording studio. 

The Tunnel, a three metre by nine metre room above the Foster & Black roastery in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley has hosted recording sessions for local bands, including Alison Road, Flamingo Blonde, Reno Ltd, and Platonic Sex. 

Up a tight set of stairs, at the front of the building lies the room with shelves lining both walls and every spare inch of floorspace used to store music equipment. 

The Tunnel’s manager, Isaac Rogers, explains how he started recording for his own band, Melaleuca, after getting permission from the Foster & Black CEO, Noah Mulheran. 

“I kept all the storage here and just moved some coffee machines that were broken,” he explains.

He still doesn’t pay rent, even after starting to record other bands.

Rogers says spaces like these are important for the local scene to give bands an affordable and accessible start to their recording careers.

Most studios charge by the hour for recording, with a full day of recording running into the thousands of dollars. 

Even other affordable recording studios that cater to local musicians quote a day rate of $600 for studio rental and sound engineering on their website. Prices at The Tunnel are far more affordable. 

“$100 if you want a song recorded, $100 if you want a song mixed and that’s it,” Rogers says. 

Local band Alison Road say they could have recorded a whole four-track EP at The Tunnel for the price of one song at another studio. 

“I think it’s pretty standard to pay a thousand dollars per song,” says Zac Carr, the band’s guitarist. 

“I’m so grateful for Isaac because he definitely makes it so much more accessible for us. All of us are students, we're super young, we've got other bands,” adds bassist Karrisa Liu.

As a musician himself, Rogers recognises his unique ability to give cheap sessions to local bands who are often struggling to make ends meet.

“I think relying on the music industry for income at the moment, at a grassroots level, is something you just can't really do,” he says. 

Bridget ‘Brando’ Brandolini, guitarist and singer for Platonic Sex, says Rogers had to be confronted to talk about payment after recording the vocals for their recent album Face To The Flywire at The Tunnel.

“I actually had to be like, ‘We're going to pay you this much, okay?’” Brando remembers. “I think it's reflective of the fact that he's just genuinely super passionate and loves to make music and loves bands.”

The Tunnel is not just about supporting bands with cheap sessions. It’s renowned for creating a more flexible, relaxed atmosphere for bands while recording.

Platonic Sex recorded the vocals for Face To The Flywire at The Tunnel after Brando fell ill and couldn’t sing during their scheduled sessions at a commercial studio. 

They knew they’d be able to rely on The Tunnel after a “really positive experience” recording previous singles there. 

The time pressure of the album and their conflicting schedules meant that Rogers’ role as a de facto owner of the studio was integral. 

“We were going in after work and before things and bits here and there,” they say. 

His exclusive access to the studio lets him curate the vibe of the space in a way that commercial studios cannot. 

“A lot of engineers’ spaces aren't their space – they rent it or they share it, and that's awesome as well but there's just something special about someone being so comfortable in their space,” says Brando. 

This means he can take time, iterating and tweaking each version of a track to make for what Brandolini says is a ‘more natural workflow’. 

Rogers has a reputation for knowing what a production needs, when to make a take perfect and when to leave some rawness, depending on the track. 

The cramped room, lit by fairy lights, with a Turkish carpet and blacked out sash windows, feels like home for so many Australian bands used to recording in basements, bedrooms and other tight spaces. 

Brando says it is reminiscent of the storage unit that Platonic Sex used to share with a number of other Brisbane bands earlier in their career. “It's a very Brisbane community,” they confirm.

Rogers’ unique ability to calm a musician’s nerves as well as providing engineering and creative input means emerging artists can find refuge from the economic and logistic load under the fairy lights. 

“I'd rather everyone be relaxed because that's when the best performances come out is when people aren't freaking out,” he says. 

He has no plans on moving to a more established space in future, instead preferring to keep it local and accessible. 

“The more I think about it, the more I reconcile the fact that if I was renting a space then I've got to charge bands for that space. Then I probably have to think about charging them all for my time,” he says.