The Pop Machine Recording Studio has become a hit with local and national musicians. Eric Klee Johnson and his twin brother, Marc, co-own the northside studio located in the Broad Ripple/Glendale area with local entertainment attorney Terry Monday.

Monday has worked in the entertainment law area for over two decades, managing and providing legal representation to several Indiana rock bands in addition to promoting concerts. An expert in copyright law, song publishing and music administration, he is a senior partner in the law firm of Monday, Rodeheffer, Jones, & Albright that he founded in 1991. He graduated from Indiana University's School of Law.

Eric and Marc began their musical careers in Indianapolis where they studied music, wrote songs and played in bands. Their first musical group Exquisite Fashion became one of the most popular groups in the Midwest college music scene from 1986 to 1990 and released a CD in 1989. Two of their musical mentors in those early days were Mark Moran from The Late Show band, who taught them the basics of record production and rehearsing techniques and local guitar virtuoso John Dinwiddie.

Marc described their musical background. "We started playing professionally in 1986. Eric played bass and I played the guitar and sang. We toured around the county for seven years playing 250 dates annually," he reminisced. The Johnsons are from Indianapolis and graduated from North Central High School.

They made their first record when they were 19 years old with New York producers. Eric recalls, "To my ears, the record was not an accurate representation of our band's sound and I committed myself to learn the art of recording and vowed to never work with an outside producer again." They began recording demo tapes in their home after purchasing a Fostex four-track recorder. Local entertainment attorney Terry Monday became their business partner in 1987.

"We were playing at Pap's Pub in 1987 at 54th and Keystone. Terry was there and approached us to play at a party. After that, he got us a gig at a corporate Christmas party for Steak 'N Shake employees," Mark recalled. Their musical partnership and friendship has flourished through the years and continues today.

In 1993, Eric and Marc started REV Recording in the basement of a house in Broad Ripple on Primrose Avenue. Their musical venture at that time was the acid rock band 15 Minutes, which drew critical acclaim and became a big live concert draw on the east coast and southern United States. The band's tenure occurred from 1990-1995 as Eric recorded, engineered and co-produced their three albums. "Those records were recorded in an incredibly small room, but they captured the band's sound and identity," he noted. Midwest bands and musicians began calling Eric, asking him to produce their work.

As the Johnsons continued their musical journey, they traveled around the country visiting famous recording studios in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans and New York to determine what equipment would work best for them. They also recorded in some A-list venues, like Henson Studio in Los Angeles and Sun Studio in Memphis.

The recording equipment they have purchased over the years can be seen in their studio that Monday designed. It also includes his vintage collection of Fender, Gibson, Gretsch and Guild guitars. While these instruments are enclosed behind glass, other instruments available to rehearse and play include a Hofer Bass, a Gretsch Broadkaster Bass, a 1970s Gold Les Paul, a 1980s Fender Stratocaster and a limited edition Taylor acoustic/electric guitar featured at the 2003 National Association of Music Merchants that was held in Anaheim, California. AKG, Blue, Cole and Neumann microphones in addition to Fender, Hiwatt, Marshall, amplifiers are also available for musicians to use.

In 1996, Eric, Marc and Kelly Milligan formed the psychedelic pop trio Wonderdrug. Their debut recording, "Hi!" was released in 1999 and is available on the independent music label Indie 500 records. Wonderdrug received airplay on Bloomington's WTTS 92.3 FM radio station. Wonderdrug continued as a band until 2005. Since 2007, the Johnsons have played in the band The Kold War which recently performed at The Music Mill. Marc's musical influences are John Lennon and Cheap Trick. Eric's musical influences include The Who, The Beatles and U2.

According to their website, www.thepopmachine.com, several distinct features of the recording studio include a 20' x 16'x 13.5' live room with hardwood maple floors lined with mahogany, poplar and cherry accents creating a rich, reflective and musical voice. A classic Soundcraft Series 1600 recording console built in London, England in 1984 was purchased from country singer Amy Grant's Nashville Studios. Its storied history has produced gold and platinum albums by Tom Petty, U2, Dave Stewart, Aerosmith, Traveling Wilburys, The Band and Grant herself. The vintage console features the classic "British-Sound," best represented by The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who.

The Pop Machine was built from 1996 to 2000 and was designed by musicians for musicians. The studio's separately poured "floating" foundations ensure superb isolation between rooms with a tracking room as equally proficient at recording percussion, drums, brass and guitars as it is at recording the subtleties of voices, strings and woodwinds.

Eric and Marc are not only accomplished musicians, but also successful record producers. Their clients include John Waite, Stereo Deluxe, Jon McLaughlin, Jurassic 5, Supergrass and 1999 winner Kenny Breck and his band, the Subwoofers. Other national and international acts they have recorded include The Rosebuds (North Carolina), The Mary Onettes (Sweden) and New York City-based artists Jessie Baylin and Earl Greyhound in addition to Margot & the Nuclear So & So's, Ra Ra Riot, (Syracuse, New York), Spinto Band (Wilmington, Delaware), The Virgin Millionaires and Xerosum, whose music can be heard on local radio station X103.

In becoming sought-after producers, "Our objective is to be a sounding board as a non-member of the band," Marc said. "We get engaged with the artists we work with in song arranging, tracking, overdubbing and mixing in helping them define their sound and trying to preserve the highest audio quality with the best equipment," Eric emphasized.

They work with New York City-based engineer Andy Vandette who completes the mastering of The Pop Machine's recordings. Vandette's work is world-renowned as his musical clients include David Bowie and Rush.

Describing the Indianapolis music scene, Marc said, "There are a lot of talented bands, but it probably needs something to unify the scene - great music scenes start around great bands. There are less people to see live bands today. In Broad Ripple in the 1980s (and 1990s), there were three live music venues. There were also live venues on the east and west side where now exist mostly cover bands," he noted.

A recent Sunday afternoon recording session witnessed Eric working with Indiana-based trio The Post Script with their tentatively titled release, "A Season's Change," due out in early 2009. Guitarist/vocalist Matt Corken, bassist/vocalist Blain Crawford and drummer Abe Shanehsaz have played together over a year and donate 10 percent of their proceeds from shows to environmentally-based charities. More information about them is available at their website, www.postscriptband.com

The Pop Machine has combined the best of analog and digital recording equipment. Utilizing Internet technology with organic audio recording in dubbing the concept of "E-cording," their studio can create a webcast of a live recording session where listeners can upload MP3 files of an artist's songs as they are recorded and mixed. They can also hear an artist's "work in progress" as they write songs. The Pop Machine will also make these recordings available in a downloadable format. The musical blueprint that Eric and Mark have created can literally take a recording studio project into a listener's home via this new technology. "The concept was created in 2000, but web (computer) speed was not fast enough at the time," Eric noted.

Eric and Marc Johnson's musical odyssey that began with entertainment attorney Terry Monday in 1987 continues with national and international bands inspired to record at The Pop Machine.