Andrew Noblitt is the founder of Electric Roy Studios in downtown Franklin. A native of Franklin and longtime musician, he created a warm, inviting space on the second floor of the historic former First Baptist Church.
SUBMITTED PHOTO | PETE MCKINNEY
Inside a historic downtown Franklin church, local musicians can find a sanctuary for their art.
The reverberations of the organ and the voices of choir singers once reverberated in the space. Now, the steady thump of drums, melodic guitars and dozens of other instruments occupy what has become Electric Roy Studios.
The deep-rooted history and unique architecture of the church offered an ideal place for founder Andrew Noblitt to make music in his hometown.
“Being a half-mile from where I grew up, and owning a recording studio there, is really cool,” he said. “Franklin has really improved recently, and getting to come back to a place that has really cultivated an atmosphere for music and art, it’s nice to be in a space where that’s wanted.”
Noblitt created Electric Roy Studios to provide a warm and inviting space for artists to create new music, while repurposing a unique space in downtown Franklin. Housed on the upper floor of the former First Baptist Church, the studio offers recording, mixing and mastering services.
Walking up to the top floor of the former church building, visitors to Electric Roy are welcomed with vivid paintings from local artists, illuminated by the natural light coming from massive windows.
The studio’s main space contains drums, an upright piano and stacks of amplifiers, arranged around a soft woven rug. A Flying V guitar hangs on the wall.
Separate rooms for recording vocals and working the mixing board have been built around the space.
“Musicians come up and say how neat it is, how much they like how it feels. It’s a whole vibe,” Noblitt said.
Noblitt, a Franklin native and Greenwood resident, has been part of the central Indiana music scene for years. He’s a member of Among the Compromised, a local grunge, soul and pop band, and has collaborated with a number of area musicians.
To feed his need to create music, he built his own home recording studio in his Greenwood home. One of the aspects that attracted him to the house when he bought it nine years ago was a detached two-car garage that was soundproof.
At one point, he ran electric lines from the garage to the main house, where he had set up his control room. A video feed allowed him to see the musicians in the garage recording.
“It was really primitive at the beginning, but when I grew into it, I found out I really liked doing recording,” he said.
The situation was working, but Noblitt thought there might be a better location for the studio than at his own home. When he and his wife moved back to Franklin in 2020, he started looking for a suitable space in town.
A number of commercial venues were available to rent, but Noblitt did not think any would work for the studio.
“Having a studio is loud, and everyone would complain,” he said.
But as he was searching, Noblitt came across the availability of the former church building. First Baptist Church, which was organized as a congregation in 1832, had met at the building at the corner of Home and Jefferson streets from 1885 until 2018.
The developer who purchased it from the congregation has offered space to rent for different businesses.
As Noblitt toured the church, he was enthralled with the room on the second floor.
“Knowing this was a 100-year-old church, underneath there had to be hardwood,” he said. “I saw tall ceilings, weird angles in the room — they’re not equal in any way, and definitely want that, and hardwood. So we jumped on it before anyone else.”
He went to work making adjustments and additions. Walls were installed to create separate recording and mixing spaces. The floors were all covered in carpet, which can dampen sound in a recording setting, so he tore that out to get to the hardwood underneath.
The space did not have electricity, so new panels and drops had to be installed to handle the various equipment that would be used.
Much of the features in the studio Noblitt had already built for he previous space, so he just transferred everything into the church.
Noblitt, who works as a craftsman with Ace Handyman, is skilled at woodworking. So the studio has panels and dispersions accented with wood, as well as artwork
“It looked like my space. It just had that vibe,” he said.
The new Electric Roy Studios opened in March 2021. Over the past year, the studio has hosted many local artists looking to record tracks, including the high-energy rock trio the Bellow Cranes and keyboardist/producer Brian “B’Squared” Barbour.
One thing Noblitt hears over and over is how the atmosphere of the space adds to the creative element.
”If you’re working with musicians, half of what you can record is how they feel that day,” he said. “If they walk in and are in a bad mood, you might get some angry music. But for the most part, everyone has come in and felt that they can make some music in here.”
