Drive-In Studio

{{Short description|Recording studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Drive-In Studio

| logo =

| image = Recording The Big Shot Chronicles Sept 1985.jpg

| image_alt =

| image_caption = Shelley LaFreniere, Mitch Easter and Scott Miller recording Game Theory's album The Big Shot Chronicles at Drive-In Studio, September 1985.

| former_name =

| type = Recording studio

| industry = Music

| founded = July 1980

| founder = Mitch Easter

| defunct = 1994

| fate = Closed due to relocation

| hq_location = Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.

| parent =

| website =

}}

Drive-In Studio was a recording studio in rural Winston-Salem, North Carolina,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ytLAAAAYAAJ&q=easter+drive-in+studio+winston-salem |title=Option |date=1988 |publisher=Sonic Options Network |pages=60 |language=en}} founded by Mitch Easter in July 1980.{{Cite web |title=Mitch Easter: Producing R.E.M. and building his studio |url=https://tapeop.com/interviews/21/mitch-easter/ |access-date=2023-03-22 |website=tapeop.com |language=en}} R.E.M.'s debut single, "Radio Free Europe" (1981),{{Cite web |last=Douglas |first=James |date=2021-10-20 |title=Mitch Easter's 40 Year Odyssey of Sound |url=https://triad-city-beat.com/mitch-easters-40-year-odyssey-of-sound/ |access-date=2023-03-22 |website=Triad City Beat |language=en}} and their first extended play, Chronic Town (1982), were recorded at the studio six months apart in 1981.{{Cite book |last=Barker |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GTn__MCfqD0C&dq=drive-in+studio+winston-salem&pg=PT33 |title=33 1/3 Greatest Hits, Volume 2 |date=2007-10-15 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4411-3003-7 |language=en}} The studio was established in what was initially Easter's parents' garage,{{cite journal |last=Amar |first=Erin |date=March 2011 |title=Mitch Easter – Beyond and Back |url=http://www.rockerzine.com/index.php/2011/03/mitch-easter-beyond-and-back-interview-by-erin-amar/ |url-status=live |journal=Rocker Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013040525/http://www.rockerzine.com/index.php/2011/03/mitch-easter-beyond-and-back-interview-by-erin-amar/ |archive-date=2013-10-13}}{{cite news |last=Palmer |first=Robert |date=2 March 1983 |title=The Pop Life: Studio Flourishes in a Carolina Garage |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/02/arts/the-pop-life-004027.html |access-date=17 May 2019}} at 4527 Old Belews Creek Road,{{Cite web |last=Douglas |first=James |date=2021-10-20 |title=Mitch Easter's 40 Year Odyssey of Sound |url=https://triad-city-beat.com/mitch-easters-40-year-odyssey-of-sound/ |access-date=2023-03-26 |website=Triad City Beat |language=en}} and became an important part of the early indie rock scene of North Carolina.{{Cite web |last=CLTure |date=2022-02-10 |title=Fidelitorium is a studio dreamed up and executed very much in the vision of its owner, Mitch Easter |url=https://clture.org/mitch-easter-fidelitorium/ |access-date=2023-03-22 |website=CLTure |language=en-US}}

At the time of R.E.M.'s stint at the studio, "the set-up was really simple," Easter said in 1994. "I had almost nothing in the studio back then, except a tape machine and a console and two compressors and one delay device. We couldn't do any fancy stuff."{{Cite book |last=Hogan |first=Peter |title=The Complete Guide to the Music of R.E.M. |publisher=Omnibus Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-7119-4901-8 |pages=40}}

Easter explained the studio's layout in 2021:

{{Blockquote|text=[The studio] was tiny. The entire space was probably about 225 square feet. It was a two-car garage that had been divided up before my parents got the place. The previous owners split it up and turned it into a one-car garage, and then the other half they made into a children’s bedroom and this sort of utility room. The car area was where the band stood together, the children’s bedroom was the control room, and I think the bass and guitar amps were isolated in the little utility area next to the control room.|source=|author=Rod Brakes|title=Music Radar, June 3, 2021[https://www.musicradar.com/news/Mitch-Easter-REM-RadioFreeEurope "Producer Mitch Easter shares the inside story of R.E.M.’s early recording sessions: 'It was glorious. They rehearsed a lot just because they liked to play together'"], Music Radar, June 3, 2021}}Due to the confined space of the interior, studio sessions often also took place in the home's driveway,{{Cite book |last=Menconi |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2HdDwAAQBAJ&dq=drive-in+studio+winston-salem&pg=PA155 |title=Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk |date=2020-09-22 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-5936-7 |pages=155 |language=en}} under the carport.{{Cite book |last=Stamey |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib5NDwAAQBAJ&dq=drive-in+studio+winston-salem&pg=PT174 |title=A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories |date=2018-04-15 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-1-4773-1624-5 |language=en}}