After Unter Null’s studio burned to the ground earlier this year, Alfa Matrix has another band that has had to share the same bad experience. On December 1st the studio of the Greek electro act Virgins O.R Pigeons housed at band member Pierrot’s house got destroyed by a fire. The newly built house the studio which was actually the whole 1st floor of the house was completely destroyed.
Pierrot: “When I drove to our house, got out of my car and saw what had happened, my heart stopped and my body froze. There were 2 fire trucks parked just outside the house with 2 firemen outside and another 2 inside the house still trying to put out the fire. Flames were still burning 7 hours after the fire department had the fire truck dispatched. I just kept watching my house being burnt to the ground, having no roof, no inner floors, windows still bursting from heat and on top of the house a huge black cloud of smoke. It is one of the things you see in the news and say “I hope this never happens to me” and you actually think it won’t… But it did! The feeling of having no control over it, while watching your hard work and dreams slipping away from you, is just a bit TOO MUCH!”
{youtube}2G1wdzEUxKo{/youtube}
The fire has delayed the new Virgins O.R Pigeons album “Gotta Get Mad” as much of the recorded material – the album was practically finished – was destroyed as well. A fire expert came to the conclusion that the fire started from the chimney around 1:45 am. He also estimated that the chimney was slowly burning from inside each time the fireplace had been used claiming it was inevitable this would happen sooner or later. As it happens the wrong type of insulation and a single pipe instead of a double had been used for building the chimney. Pierrot: “How fucking stupid can one person be?!? He was paid for the right materials but bought the wrong ones because it was cheaper for him and would earn him another 100€!!?”
As a result the studio was totally destroyed says Pierrot: “Where my studio once was, now all I can see is ashes, melted plastic, blackened metallic surfaces, a sofa frame and nothing else. A pair of Klein & Hummel speakers, a MacPro, a series of Neumann microphones, some quite expensive synths and my life’s work in gigabytes are just a sample of what is gone. I don’t feel like getting into details because it’s still fresh and every day I find myself remembering more and more things that have been lost, but you get the picture… The “funny” part is that since the house andstudio were still new, nothing was insured yet. Hahaha…”
The only thing that matters to the musician now is that everyone is alive: “No one had spent the night in the house since we were still moving furniture and clothes in and I was the only one who was staying at that house, literally working day and night for the completion of my band’s new album. If I hadn’t been away that night for some writing exams, most probably something more tragic would have happened in that fire.”