Below is a list of every place the Red Hot Chili Peppers have ever recorded, be it demo session, album session, mixing, or the odd overdub. We’ve also tried to find out if the building or studio is still standing.
STUDIO 9 SOUND LABS
5504 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: 1983 demos
The band’s initial demo session, in May of 1983, took place at Studio 9 Sound Labs, nestled inside the Hollywood & Western Building. I haven’t been able to locate any information about where in the building the studio was located, nor have I ever seen a photo of the studio when it was still around.
It closed circa 1989. The building still stands today, but its interior has been gutted a number of times.
BIJOU STUDIOS / GRANDMASTER RECORDERS
1518 North Cahuenga Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: 1984 demos / One Hot Minute
Bijou Studios changed their name to Grandmaster Recorders in the late 1980s. The building is still around but is now a bar and restaurant, confusingly with the exact same name.
EL DORADO STUDIOS
1717 North Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA
Sessions: The Red Hot Chili Peppers / The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
El Dorado opened in 1954 on the corner of Hollywood & Vine and just across the road from the Capitol Records building, and the band recorded their debut album and parts of Uplift Mofo there. In 1996 the studio moved to Burbank, but still remains open.
BABY’O RECORDERS
6525 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
Sessions: The Red Hot Chili Peppers
The band’s debut album was mixed at Baby’O Recorders, which was part of the Hollywood Athletic Club complex. According to Jack Sherman a few guitar overdubs were done there as well. It seems to have closed around 1985, but the building remains.
EMI STUDIOS (aka LIBERTY STUDIOS)
6920 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
Sessions: 1984 demos / 1985 demos / 1987 demos
EMI’s internal studios, which the band utilized for several demo sessions over the years, in the Liberty Records building. The building was torn down in the late 80s, though I’m not exactly sure when. By 1991 it was an Arby’s. It’s now a discount shoe warehouse.
DETROIT ON PARADE
7004 Thatcher Street, Detroit, MI.
Sessions: 1985 demos
Detroit on Parade was renamed Dee Track Music at some point after 1985. Navarro Berman, who ran the studio, and was mentioned by Anthony in Scar Tissue and Flea in the Freaky Styley reissue liner notes, passed away in 2015.
UNITED SOUND SYSTEMS
5840 2nd Avenue, Detroit, MI.
Sessions: Freaky Styley
United Sound was George Clinton’s preferred studio in Detroit, Michigan. While it has been threatened with closure a number of times over the years it is thankfully now a protected site.
Anthony name dropped the studio a few years later in “Skinny Sweaty Man:” A very funny young duke hanging under the roof, of a place in time, United Sound…
The main room looks much like it today did when the band recorded there:
GNOME SOUND
Detroit, MI.
Sessions: Freaky Styley (mixing only)
For some reason, “Yertle the Turtle” was mixed by Bruce Nazarian, an old friend of Lindy Goetz’s, separate to the rest of Freaky Styley. In 1986 this studio moved to New York City.
MASTER CONTROL
3401 West Burbank Boulevard, Burbank, CA.
Sessions: 1986 demos / The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
Master Control now goes under the name Soundworks, but is still open in its original location.
CAN-AM STUDIOS
18730 W Oxnard St, Tarzana, CA.
Sessions: The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
Uplift Mofo was mixed here; the studio later became infamously associated with 2Pac and Death Row Records. The studio seems to be privately owned these days.
CAPITOL STUDIOS
1750 North Vine Street, Hollywood, CA.
Sessions: The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
Capitol Studios is located in the basement of the Capitol Records building, and is still going strong today, though it has been renovated a number of times. This promo video for “Good Time Boys” was filmed there in 1989.
TRACK RECORD
5102 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, CA.
Sessions: Taste the Pain
Track Record was bought by Paramount Recording in 2010, but is still open.
THE GREY ROOM
Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: Taste the Pain
The Grey Room was a home studio belonging to musician and producer Richard Landis. It is long gone, but a replica of it was opened in 17 Hertz Studios in the early 1990s.
POST LOGIC
1800 North Vine Street, Hollywood, CA.
Sessions: Mother’s Milk (mixing only)
Parts of Mother’s Milk were mixed in this Hollywood studio, which seems to have closed some time in the 2010s.
ROYAL RECORDERS
7036 Grand Geneva Way, Lake Geneva, WI.
Sessions: Mother’s Milk (mixing only)
Other parts of Mother’s Milk was mixed at this recording studio in Wisconsin, operating out of what is now the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa. The spa has a long and weird history, at one point being owned and run by Playboy. The recording studio closed in 1994, but the spa is still open. It’s not clear why the album was mixed at two different studios halfway across the country from each other.
OCEAN WAY RECORDING / CELLO STUDIOS / EASTWEST STUDIOS
6000 West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA.
Sessions: Mother’s Milk / Love Rollercoaster / One Hot Minute / Californication / By the Way / I’m with You / Unlimited Love (mixing only) / Return of the Dream Canteen (mixing only)
The band’s most-visited recording studio over the years. It has a complicated history; it started life as two studios a block away from each other, United Recording Co. and Western Studio. In 1961 they merged to become United Western Recorders. By the time of the Mother’s Milk basic tracks the whole complex was known as Ocean Way, though I think those sessions were done in the United Recording Co. side of things.
In 1999, the studios split up again. The Western side was sold and became Cello Studios, the other side remained Ocean Way until about 2017 or so. Cello Studios closed in 2005, and was almost demolished, but it was saved at the last minute and now goes by the name EastWest. The band seem to use Studio Two there most frequently, but Unlimited Love and Dream Canteen were mixed in Studio Five.
(I said it was complicated!)
IMAGE STUDIOS
1020 North Sycamore Avenue, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: Mother’s Milk
It’s hard to find any concrete info, but Image Studios seems to have closed around 2005. Most likely everything on Mother’s Milk after the basic tracks was recorded here; guitar overdubs, vocals, and so on.
A&M STUDIOS
1416 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: 1990 demos
Closed in 1999, but reopened by the Jim Henson Company and still open today.
THE MANSION
2451 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: Blood Sugar Sex Magik / The Greatest Hits Sessions / Stadium Arcadium
The latest information available is that the Mansion now belongs to director Mark Romanek, and is his private home. He might have sold it since that article was released, but either way it is no longer a recording studio. Fun fact: it also appeared in an episode of the aptly titled TV series Californication.
THE SITE
11 Via del Sol, Nicasio, CA
Sessions: One Hot Minute
The band tried to begin sessions for One Hot Minute here, a very remote location where Pearl Jam recorded Vs (and many other bands recorded many other album). But the sessions were a non-starter and it’s not clear if anything was ever actually put down on tape. As of January 2024, it was for sale.
SOUND CITY
15452 Cabrito Road, Van Nuys, CA.
Sessions: One Hot Minute / Love Rollercoaster
Sound City, featured in a documentary by Dave Grohl, is still open (One Hot Minute is mentioned in the doc itself). However, Grohl now owns a lot of the famed equipment from the studio’s heyday, and has moved it over to his own Studio 606.
THE SOUND FACTORY
6357 Selma Avenue, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: One Hot Minute / The Getaway
EL TEATRO
626 South Oxnard Boulevard, Oxnard, CA.
Sessions: 1998 demos
No longer owned by Daniel Lanois or Mark Howard, but still a functioning studio, and available to hire today.
VILLAGE RECORDERS
1616 Butler Avenue, West Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: Californication (mixing only)
Village Recorders (or The Village) is still open.
They have a great photo of Vice President Harris standing next to a 4x Platinum award for Californication on their website.
THE CHATEAU MARMONT HOTEL
8221 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: By the Way
One of the real outliers on this list. Not strictly a recording studio, no, but it’s where Anthony recorded the bulk of his vocals for By the Way and where a bunch of John’s overdubs were done. Try to get Room 78 when you make a booking.
UNKNOWN NYC STUDIO
Unknown, New York, NY.
Sessions: By the Way
According to an August 2002 article in Pulse, the vocals for "Don’t Forget Me” and “Can’t Stop” were recorded in a New York studio only a few days before the album had to be handed in. It’s not known which studio that was.
AKADEMIE MATHEMATIQUE OF PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH
Unknown, Los Angeles CA.
Sessions: Greatest Hits Sessions / Stadium Arcadium
This is Rick’s personal studio in Hollywood, where a lot of his other work, such as Johnny Cash and Slipknot, has also been recorded. I haven’t been able to figure out an address. This is just a guess, but I think it was only used for Anthony’s vocals at the two sessions.
THE CENTER FOR THE CULTIVATION OF THE INVISIBLE
Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: Stadium Arcadium / Unlimited Love / Return of the Dream Canteen
Another name for John’s house in Los Angeles, where he did his guitar and vocal overdubs. Many of his solo albums have been recorded there too. No reference to it is made in the liner notes for Unlimited Love or Dream Canteen, but John recorded months of overdubs for both of those albums, so they were probably done at his house.
LITTLE KICKER SOUND
Los Angeles or Malibu, CA.
Sessions: Stadium Arcadium
Flea’s studio in his home which he — as far as I know — no longer lives in. I’m not sure what parts of SA would have been recorded there that wouldn’t have been done at the regular sessions or at John’s house, but they’re listed in the Stadium Arcadium liner notes, so something must have been.
SHANGRI-LA STUDIOS
30065 Morning View Drive, Malibu, CA.
Sessions: I’m with You / Unlimited Love / Return of the Dream Canteen
Rick Rubin bought Shangri-La shortly after the I’m With You sessions and continues to use it today. There’s a whole documentary about it.
THE BOAT
3660 Tracy Street, Los Angeles, CA.
Sessions: 2012 demos / 2014 demos
Flea no longer owns the Boat, which is not actually a boat but just a building that looks like one. I can’t find any information about its current state.
SUPERLEGAL
Brooklyn, NY.
Sessions: Unlimited Love / Return of the Dream Canteen
Mauro Refosco’s percussion overdubs were recorded at Superlegal, the studio he owns in Brooklyn.