Fantasy Studios prepares to close its doors

A premier recording facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, Fantasy Studios, is set to close its doors in September.

The Berkeley-based studio, where the likes of John Fogerty, Green Day, Santana, En Vogue and many more recorded, revealed the news in an email sent on July 27, according to a Berkeleyside report.

The email read: “We are sad to inform you that the Berkeley building at 2600 Tenth Street in which we operate is being sold, and that Fantasy Recording Studios will be closing effective September 15th, 2018.

We wish to thank you for your patronage and for the privilege of working with you on the incredible projects you have completed at Fantasy. We are grateful and proud that your works of art will represent us forever.

Our wonderful staff engineers and producers have freelance relationships with other studios and production spaces, and would love to continue serving you going forward.”

While a number of huge albums were recorded at Fantasy, including Green Day’s “Dookie” and Santana’s “Supernatural”, it was equally as active in the film industry during its five decades of operation on the West Coast. Oscar-winning films such as the “The English Patient,” “Amadeus,” “Apocalypse Now” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” were mixed at the facility.

Fantasy dates back to 1949 with Max and Sol Weiss’ Fantasy Records, a label that initially focused on jazz but also branched out into other spoken word genres.

Many took to social media to express their disappointment after receiving the news: