Old Chapel Studios in Leeds is a favourite of Kaiser Chiefs but the wider community are welcome

But it is about so much more than a recording space for professional musicians, say those involved. Since its foundations in 1982 – originally as Parkside Studios in Armley - it has become a resource used by people of all ages and backgrounds to get creative.

“It is very different. It is not your standard rehearsal recording studio, where you book a room and you turn up and you just get on with what you're doing and leave. That is not what we do here,” says Katie Hayes, who took over as CEO in 2021. “It's over 30 years we've been in this building. It was set up to support musicians – there wasn't a place back in the 80s, everyone was in houses and basements and pub function rooms just trying to rehearse”.

She adds: “We are here to support anybody to access music, no matter who you are, your background or financial situations. We don't care about any of that. Do you want to have a go at something, do you want to come in? Then our door is always open, seven days a week. Let's give something a go.”

Old Chapel has been at its home on Czar Street in Holbeck for 31 years, providing a “one stop shop” for rehearsals, writing, recording, repairs and advice. However, its mission is also to support amateur bands, disabled musicians and people who use music as therapy for their mental health.

Mark Hubbard was a customer of Parkside studios in Armley when they took over the Old Chapel in 1992. In 1994, he took it on while working for the job centre and still performing in bands such as Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. In 2007, he set up Leeds Music Trust as the charity and Old Chapel Music became a community interest company, allowing it to support musicians of all kinds.

Despite these efforts to bridge gaps in music provision, it experienced desperate times itself at the start of last year, when after increased costs they set up a crowdfunding appeal to stay afloat. They needed £9,000 and made just over £10,000, which got them back on track.

Now, Katie and the team want to press on with reaching out to the community at time when money is tight.

Katie says: “It's a choice of do I turn the lights on, put the heating on, put food on the table or treat myself? Music has become a luxury item. How appalling is that? It's a luxury item. If you've got money, you can enjoy it. I think it's so wrong. It should be free, it should be funded. And we struggle so much because the funders don't recognise the importance and the impact.”

Julie McGrath, a mental health support worker at the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, has been working with the studio since 2015. Patients have had the opportunity to join jam sessions or writing music as a positive way to occupy their minds.

"A lot of people just came out their shells,” she says. It provided a way of communicating about their illness “rather than talking to a doctor or a nurse, just getting it out there in a rap song is so beneficial”.

Michael McManus, known as Manni, is the drummer of Leeds band The Loose Cut. He first started going to the studio as a teeanger, having only reheared in his bedroom.

“Straightaway, we were getting advice and tips and little tricks and whatever from from Mark,” who would also put them forward for gigs, says Manni.

Later, he was getting paid work at Old Chapel and also helped to run the music therapy sessions.

“A lot of people don't seem to realise, until they've done it, the power it actually has. Talking to people is always a great way to let stuff out so you're bottling everything up, but playing music about what you're feeling or getting in a room with people and sharing that atmospheric sound that you all create together, that also is such a powerful thing.”

Manni has also started his own business, the Drum Room, at Old Chapel. Julie, in fact, is one of his drumming students.

One client is a grandmother, he says, who “just wants to learn Miley Cyrus and stuff, so that’s what we do.”

Andy Armitage and guitarist Nick Lonsdale from the band Jumbo Chords started using the studios in 1989 to 1990 when it was still Parkside Studios after leaving school and playing in a band called the inept.

"It was great as young musicians to have an affordable place to rehearse and find ourselves as a band,” says Andy.

“In the mid-90s we put together a band called the Colours, and rehearsed at Old Chapel and without the rehearsal space we would have missed out on playing with some great bands like Manic Street Preachers and Ocean Colour Scene.”

Jumbo Chords have been back there over the last couple of years, making use of the “great sound” and affordable space.

Katie is actually the only staff member who does not play music herself – but had experience in mental health and wellbeing from the third sector which Old Chapel needed.

She says: “There's so many people that walk through the door and it's ‘just John’ and it's ‘just Andy’ but when you have that conversation, they were in some amazing bands, travelling the world in the 80s. The stories people have got and what was seen and who they worked with is just phenomenal. But you wouldn't know it because they're not big-headed.”

They have, she says, a wealth of “expertise, knowledge and people wanting to help”.

Or, as Andy puts it: “We’d encourage all young musicians to get themselves down to Old Chapel and work on your music. Playing in a band is just like playing five-a-side with your mates, but louder, and less healthy.”