The Cave Recording Studios started as LJ Jagai’s home studio in his mother’s basement in Barrhaven. 11 years later, the studio has since changed location and branding, evolving into the state-of-the-art recording facility Cave 3.0.
The Cave is a cornerstone of Ottawa’s hip hop, R&B and rap music scenes, providing a dynamic space for artists to record music. It has hosted almost 1,000 clients in the music industry, ranging from major labels to independent artists. The studio also provides support for artists post-production, helping them secure grants and promote their brands through press releases.
The studio was the recipient of the FACES Award for best recording studio in 2021. Jagai said he brings high levels of personalization and professionalism to Cave 3.0, which contains state-of the-art facilities such as an acoustically-tuned control room that caters to artists and audio engineers.
“Every space in the studio has been maximized and set up to produce music, including the restroom which can be converted to a reverb chamber, and a lobby with enough room to record an entire orchestra or choir,” he said.
“It’s super accommodating because when you think of a studio, you can’t just think of the sounds you’re creating. It’s the overall experience,” she said. “It was super sick how they have a separate isolation room for mixing and isolating vocals now along with the window in the recording booth to communicate your ideas with the sound engineer.”
Ottawa rapper Dee-Tee, who has been recording music with The Cave since its basement days, said he enjoys working in the state-of-the-art facility. He said he is currently working on his debut album with LJ’s brother, Sarju Jagai.
“You can really get into the moment working out of such a professional studio. I have worked with [Sarju], who is fantastic and really cares about the process,” he said.
LJ said The Cave also plans to collaborate with the Music Industry Arts program at Algonquin College by mentoring and hiring students studying to become audio engineers.
“We want to be more deeply involved with the community, to make sure that students know that they can have a real, tangible future in the music industry in so many ways,” he said. “It is a very lucrative business, and we want to show students how to apply their education out here. We do this for the kids.”
Cave 3.0 provides a safe, creative space for young, marginalized artists to make music without being intimidated by the industry, LJ added.
“Cave played a huge role in giving talented kids like Ottawa rappers TwoTiime and FTG Metro access to a studio so that they were able to produce high quality music,” he said. “I think that’s a beautiful thing to see a market develop from our contribution to the industry, to the culture.”
To see the evolution of Ottawa’s own Cave Recording Studios is a proud moment not only for LJ, but the engineers and artists involved.
“To see our progress from our first studio out of my mom’s basement to Cave 3.0 and to witness the progress of our artists is incredible,” LJ said. “We’re making stars out of people and are shaping the future of the Ottawa music industry.”
Featured image by Emmanuella Onyeme.
