Fire damage at Number 9 Audio Group is shown in Toronto on Monday Dec. 19, 2022. The recording space caught fire on Saturday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
TORONTO – A respected Toronto recording studio linked with an array of prominent Canadian musicians was damaged in a fire over the weekend.
Firefighters were called to Number 9 Audio Group, located in a renovated Victorian home in downtown Toronto, on Saturday evening after reports of the blaze.
Owner George Rondina says the fire damaged much of the studio’s high-end vintage equipment, though it appears to have spared their nine-foot concert grand piano.
He says the cause of the fire is still unclear.
Rondina’s company has been in business for more than 40 years, moving to various locations around the city before settling into the home on Gerrard Street in 2004.
Over the years, the company’s recording spaces have welcomed Barenaked Ladies, who recorded their well-known 1991 independent release “The Yellow Tape” at the studio’s former Jarvis Street location.
The company has also counted Amanda Marshall, k-os and Sean Paul among its clientele and offered services and rented equipment to many others including Usher, the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.
Since moving to its current location, the studio has recorded with the likes of Holly Cole and David Clayton-Thomas and grown its business into voice work and audiobook recordings.
“We’re still kind of in shock,” Rondina said in a phone interview.
“They say it was an electrical fire that started in the control room and it seemed to start around the console because the console is totally melted. Unrecognizable.”
Rondina says while it’s too soon to tell, he hopes to have the studio back in operation next year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2022.
