take a trip down memory lane with us
Pressure Cooker Studios turns 13 this month. That means we’ve hit the milestone of becoming a teenager! We are so grateful to our team and collaborators for supporting us on the journey of growing up.
We’re feeling a little nostalgic as we embrace the start of our awkward adolescence and have been reminiscing on our humble beginnings from a basement studio in Woodstock to where we are now, in our Sacred Space in Cape Town’s bustling CBD.
Have a read through this blog as our CEO James Matthes takes you through a little history of our studios and find out more about what was going on in the minds of our team when they were 13.
Pressure Cooker Studios was founded 13 years ago, from the basement of my home when I was fresh out of college. From the get go I knew we wanted to work with respectful collaborators, clients who respect our craft and understand how Music and Audio can elevate their work.
Within 2 years, still in my basement studio, we managed to secure three feature films and a Disney XD series.
After this we upgraded to our first ‘real’ studios in Cape Town Central Business District. We spent 5 years at these studios and during this time we grew our team and continued to work in both the narrative and commercial industries.
Soon we needed more space and invested in the entire floor of a building within walking distance from our studios. This proved convenient while project managing the studio build and still running the business, as I spent a lot of time literally running between the two.
I wanted to ensure we had state-of-the-art studios unlike any facilities in South Africa, and I brought in Martin Pilchner from Pilchner Schoustal International to design our headquarters in 2017.
By 2019, with an even bigger team, we moved to our new studios, or what we like to call them ‘our Sacred Space’.
It wasn’t long after nestling into our sacred space that we were forced to work remotely due to Covid-19. As challenging as this was, we definitely grew stronger in this time and cemented our very people-focussed culture even further. We even handled the entire Music and Audio process for Triggerfish’s animated feature film, Seal Team during lockdown.
We have now grown to a team of 17 passionate creatives. We not only focus on creating world-class work for the commercial, narrative and gaming industries, but also on nurturing talent to create a thriving industry in South Africa that can compete with, and even exceed International standards.
Over the last 13 years we have had the opportunity to collaborate with numerous brands and companies such as Sunrise Animation, Showmax, Netflix, Disney XD, Heineken, Spotify, Epic Games, LionsGate, Nintendo, PlayStation, Ogilvy, King James and more. Bringing their brave ideas to life.
OUR TEAM REFLECT BACK ON BEING THIRTEEN
Here’s to 13 years of Pressure Cooker Studios, creativehub of audio pioneers and composers in Cape Town.
