User:PontiacAurora/Indigo Ranch S

Indigo Ranch Studios was a recording facility located in Malibu, California, that was established in 1974 by audio engineer and musician Richard Kaplan. The studio was notorious for it's recordings in the mid to late 1990's from artists such as Korn and Slipknot as it was the site of multiple recordings from producer Ross Robinson which would go onto popularize the genre later known as Nu Metal.

History
In 1974 Kaplan purchased the original ranch property with additional funds provided by his friend Michael Pinder. The property was originally owned by the Stetson hat company and used as a hunting retreat in the early half of the 1900's before it had fallen into disrepair going into the 1970's. In 1978 Pinder sold his share of the property to Kaplan, who shortly afterwards began utilizing fellow business partner Michael Hoffmann to rent the studio out to recording artists later that year. The studio would often record for multiple high profile acts ranging from Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Motley Crue, and more. The studio would often see regular use as an alternative to various higher priced options around Los Angeles, however things began to decline near the end of the 1980s as a pair of tragedies would hit the property. Kaplan's associate Deane Jensen would commit suicide on the property in 1989, and two years later in 1991; Kaplan's talent scout Michael Hoffmann would suffer a sudden brain aneurysm and would die shortly afterwards. Indigo Ranch would find itself at an absence of talent or business for a span of 3 years while Kaplan began collecting more equipment and began descending into alcoholism.

In 1994, producer Ross Robinson was tasked with producing the debut studio album for then-unknown Nu-Metal band Korn as Epic records had only provided $14,000 for the recording of the album. Robinson was lured in by the reasonable pricing of the studio and the vintage equipment available for recording. Released in October of 1994, the album initially received subpar sales and most of the singles had initially failed to chart terribly well, until late 1995 when multiple songs began finding regular rotation on MTV and the album was later certified Gold in January of 1996.

Albums recorded

 * Cracked Rear View – Hootie & the Blowfish (1994)

Artists who have worked at Indigo Ranch

 * Agent Steel
 * Bob Dylan
 * Cold
 * Fleetwood Mac
 * The Go-Go's
 * Kenny G
 * Korn
 * Lenny Kravitz
 * Limp Bizkit
 * Machinehead
 * Megadeth
 * Motley Crue
 * Neil Diamond
 * Neil Young
 * Nick Cave
 * Olivia Newton-John
 * Sepultura
 * Slipknot
 * Soulfly
 * Toshinobu Kubota
 * Twennynine
 * Vanilla Ice
 * Van Morrison