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Frying Pan StudiosBook

A recording studio in a museum at the bottom of the world.

Frying Pan is the essence of Mona. The major product will be music, of course, but made in an environment redolent of passion and daring. There will be many failures and some triumphs. Because we value risk, and humanity, and the glorious desperation of creativity, we will be proud of the work of Frying Pan’s denizens, however it is received.


—David Walsh

The Space

As well as looking great, this is just a shockingly comfortable couch.

The studio features a control room, a live room with an unreal view, isolation booth, dedicated artist green room and a nice patio.

In the control room, an array of high-end vintage and contemporary gear complements the REDD.17.

The studio also features other rare analogue equipment, including the Holy Grail-tier Fairchild 670 (MkII POM) compressor.

Experiment with our massive selection of microphones, amps, instruments, pedals and other goodies.

Create your own multi-camera content with a state-of-the-art lighting rig, five HD cameras and live streaming capabilities. Then put it in black and white, for the mood.

The view from outside, looking back toward the museum. Hell of a spot for a dart / some quiet contemplation.

It’s not a bad place to watch the sun set, either. Chapel, 2011, Wim Delvoye.

As well as looking great, this is just a shockingly comfortable couch.

The studio features a control room, a live room with an unreal view, isolation booth, dedicated artist green room and a nice patio.

Designed in collaboration with Mona architect Nonda Katsalidis and Marshall Day Acoustics, Frying Pan is like no other studio: a space made for creating art while surrounded by it.

We’ve built an environment of warmth, welcome, and comfort, with American oak parquetry floors, custom floor-to-ceiling Tasmanian oak battens, water views across Berriedale Bay towards kunanyi, and as many windows as we could manage without cooking the acoustics.

The Gear

There's lots of it.

Frying Pan studio’s arsenal of gear includes an ex-Abbey Road REDD.17 recording console used by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The White Stripes, plus a large collection of vintage and modern mics, preamps and FX. Producer / legend Chris Townend completes the set.

A note on gear: we can’t guarantee all studio items listed will be available all the time,  due to maintenance needs.

The Cameras

We’ve got film-grade HD cameras in every room—including the control room and isolation booth—plus two mobile cameras, all synced to Pro Tools and controlled directly from the control room or the green room edit suite.

So whether you’re wanting to shoot a session, a film clip, or stream directly to your fans, we’ve got a camera to cover it.

The Team

  • Chris Townend

    Frying Pan’s designer, head producer, engineer and general creative boffin. With a passion for music, sound (they’re different) and art, Chris has been in the industry for several decades, including two at the helm of the almighty / beloved Big Jesus Burger studio in Sydney, where he worked on over five hundred albums for artists as varied as Portishead, D12, Sunn 0))), Silverchair and Augie March.