A brief history of time & 2fly recording studios.


2fly studios came into being in October 2001 set up and run as a one man operation by Alan Smyth and based (originally) in what can only be described as a small concrete ‘shack’ in Stag Works, Sheffield. 







The original 2Fly studios in Stag works Sheffield

2fly studio quickly gained a reputation for producing consistently  powerful and emotional recordings and capturing the true essence of young and fledgling bands.

One such recording that stood out was by the band ‘Rumpus’ and called ‘TheWoods’ this in turn enticed the band Judan Suki to come and record. Judan Suki was fronted by Jon McClure/Ed Cosens and also had a rhythm guitarist called Alex Turner and a drummer Matt Helders.





Alex Turner in 2fly studios in 2004
Alex Turner and Jon McClure in 2fly studios 2004 recording the Machine

The session went particularly well and half way through Alex mentioned his own band who were about to play their second gig and also wanted to record at 2fly. The rest, as they say, is history and all 17 tracks that were recorded in a total of five and a half days with the Arctic Monkeys became the legendary demos (Under the Boardwalk) that swept around the world courtesy of the internet and leading to the one of the biggest media frenzies surrounding a band since the Beatles. Those that know still say they prefer the demos to the finished first album and there are still a couple of moments on that album which were lifted directly from the original recordings. In fact a paper titled 'Arctic monkeys - The Demos versus the Album' has been written on the subject. You can download that paper here.

Around the time the Arctic monkeys first came in to 2fly another Sheffield band, 65daysofstatic, booked four days to record an album which became  'The Fall of math' and is widely accepted as a seminal work. 

65 Days of Static in 2fly studios 2004

65daysofstatic have since recorded two other albums here, 'One for All Time' and this years 'We were exploding Anyway'

Many bands followed the path to 2fly at that particularly exciting time for Sheffield music, The Long Blondes, Reverend and the Makers, Milburn, Little Man Tate all going on to greater things, many other talented artists too have recorded here the wonderful Monkey Swallows the Universe and Smokers Die Younger who both have had high critical acclaim. 

Recent highlights in the studio include the Reverend and the Makers album ‘Mirrors’ (recorded here) receiving fantastic reviews and some of the new bands such as Red Faces and The Time Sellers getting the attention they deserve.


For a full list of artistes please visit

2fly  Artists.

In 2008 Dave Sanderson started working at 2fly bringing his own excellent engineering and production skills to the 2fly palette.

As the workload increased it became apparent that the size limitations of the original building were limiting the sonic capabilities and that new premises were a major priority. As luck would have it the perfect building was to be found bang next door and in November 2008 the studio moved into Harland Works  renovating the two floors with the help of band members from Dead Like Harry (in exchange for an album recording!) but that's another story.....

For a full list of albums/singles recorded please click me

For Press articles about 2fly

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