Propelled by Passion
The Story of Calgary’s OCL Studios
By Andrew King. Photos by Oliver Banyard
T
AMS NEVE 88R CONSOLE IN STUDIO A CONTROL ROOM
o call Dan Owen a “music
fan” would be a grand under-
statement.
Though the high-profile
Calgarian has carved out
a successful career in the
construction business, seemingly every other
facet of his public life pertains to music and,
specifically, the artistic community in his
home city and province.
Owen moved to Calgary from his native
Toronto in the ‘70s and has been a fixture of
its vibrant and ever-evolving music scene
since. In the ‘80s, he drummed in some
prominent touring rock bands and still per-
forms to this day.
He’s been a generous donor to ini-
tiatives like the National Music Centre and
currently sits on the board of directors for
The Prophets of Music, a local not-for-profit
dedicated to “supporting emerging artists in
34 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
the creation of exceptional music.”
Another notably cool facet of his
super-fandom is his vast and impressive
lot of instruments and music memorabilia
– including many pieces pertaining to his
beloved Beatles. The crown jewel of that col-
lection, though, is arguably the facility that
houses most of the others: OCL Studios.
Situated about 30 minutes east of Cal-
gary near the small city of Chestermere, OCL
Studios is one of the only commercial-grade
residential studios in Western Canada, and
while it regularly welcomes major projects
from internationally-known clients, it also
caters to emerging artists from Cowtown
and its surrounding area.
Professional Sound recently caught up
with Owen and OCL’s two in-house engi-
neers, Spencer Cheyne and Josh Gwilliam, to
discuss the past, present, and future of this
unique recording destination.
OCL Studios
273152 TWP 240
Chestermere, AB T0J 1X0
403-921-0429
www.oclstudios.com
“The germ of the idea came back in 2011,”
recalls Owen. “I was in a bar band back in the
‘80s, and we played all over B.C., Alberta, and
Saskatchewan for about four years, but we
never actually made our record.”
At that point, the idea was for Owen to
source some recording equipment and put
it into the “big barn of a house” just outside
of the city he’d purchased a few years earlier
without rhyme or reason.
One of his band mates suggested put-
ting in a call to Chris Potter, a renowned B.C.-
based studio designer and engineer who has
designed and built facilities for the likes of