Seattle’s most well known rave venue of the 21st century, Studio Seven, is closing by the end of this month. We had a chance to chat with the owner and two of the most influential promoters in the venue’s history, Antik (Electric Nights Seattle, Impossible Records) and Jason “Marble” (Marble Productions), to discuss the end of this chapter and the start of a new one.
DMNW: How did it all start, and what were the early days like?
Studio Seven: It was founded by Tracy, the original owner, he started building band rooms there in 2000. There were like 22 band rooms. The main show room was meant as a pre-production, pre-video room, that type of stuff for touring bands, DJ’s, anybody that needed pre-production for something. Then the bands that rehearsed there started wanting to do shows in the showroom so we started doing shows and it started evolving from there with the shows. December of 2002 was officially the opening of the venue part of it. We got our first [liquor] license in May of 2003 … It started out with shows for all ages being signed with Steinberg Thrasher and Paradox and then as it moved on bands rehearsed their shows and everything … our first really big show we did there was Ice-T of Body Count … We had lots of hardcore bands that played there in the early days that were promoted by Steinberg Thrasher.
Electric Nights Seattle has been your weekly for 2 years or more now, correct? What is the future of this event series now that your home venue is closing its doors?
Electric Nights: We have a new home. Its going to be Thursdays at Aston Manor, 18 plus … It is gigantic news for us and they [Aston Manor] will be providing a whole bunch of headliners for us so we are going to be doing big, big shows there. Definitely super excited about the prospects of everything …the events are going to be put on by Aston, by Marble, of course, and also by Antik, which is myself and my business partner … Electric Nights is the main driving force …
Electric Nights has been a fixture in the Seattle 18+ scene for awhile now | Photo Credit: Jive Photography
How long have you been a promoter and what was your first experience at Studio Seven?
Marble: Well Marble Productions started in 1999, so 19 years that we have been doing events. My first experience at Studio Seven, the first event we did over there, was Jingle Bomb IV in 2005-ish. We were one of the first. My company and Webbwerx, were some of the first ones doing electronic events in there … Webbwerx was Travis Webb’s company at the time.
Where did the name Studio Seven come from?
Studio Seven: Well back in the early days, way before there were any thoughts of having a venue, we had a production company called 7 Entertainment and when [the] rehearsal rooms were opening we were trying to come up with a name and Studio Seven is what it was, and seven is the favorite number of the founder, so it became Studio Seven!
Studio Seven has always had a unique location and crowd, have you ever sensed bad vibes at an event there?
Electric Nights: Not at our events, without a doubt. Our events are always positive and fun … and you know obviously not everyone’s experience is the same y’know. From a business perspective we have had a really good time … the owners there have welcomed us with open arms for years. I think I did my first show there 10+ years ago … just been doing it ever since basically.
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