The existing studio structure
was now becoming a minor problem, due to the fact that
sessions were becoming larger.
We only had the one room and needed better
separation so that more complex sessions could be done at one
time. So, we make a decision to build a secondary room within the studio
proper. Milan told me
he had a friend, Les Chasey, who was good at doing these things. He had Les come in to meet me and from what I
remember I contracted him to build the room. Well
it didn't take me long to recognize the talents this guy
had. He could do ANYTHING! By the time the room was complete, I knew
I had to hire him on a permanent basis. Milan
had already begun work on the new recording console, so the
plan was to upgrade Studio A. Les
would definitely be needed for the re-construction of the
control room and whatever other work would come about. There
was a basement in the building that wasn't used for
anything. The bathrooms were there, but the remaining space, which was
quite large was going unused. I should mention that at this
time Russ was working for me also. He had been at Golden
World and Motown after the Berry Gordy buy out. Milan,
Russ and Les had decided they could convert the basement
area into engineering offices and facilities which they needed
badly. I gave the OK and they commenced work. One
morning I'm sitting in my office and Milan comes in from the
basement laughing his ass off. He told me there was a wall
interfering with a design they had for the engineering offices and
decided the wall must go. He then said Les Chasey proceeded to beat the wall
down with his bare hands. That day Milan re-named Les Chasey
'Wild Man', and called him nothing but that from that day on. Well
over time "Wild Man'" would save me thousands of
dollars as a result of his ingenuity and talent. He was one hell of an
employee.
Notes thanks to
Ralph Terrana
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