The global award-winning audio facility, Wave Studios, is thrilled to announce their expansion with a long-awaited third studio in their New York location. After much success in London and Amsterdam, Wave first opened their boutique studio in Soho in 2018 and firmly established themselves as fierce competitors in the US market.
Since opening, Wave NY has received many accolades, most notably for The New York Times’ “The Truth Is Worth It” campaign, and plans for expansion were inevitable to keep up with the growing demand. According to Aaron Reynolds, ECD/Partner and Sound Designer/Mixer, the new space will also bring increased opportunities for Wave and the company’s clients. “It’s going to be amazing to be able to dedicate this space to new projects and get it working for us,”he says. “There have been times where we have had to share work with the London office due to the nature of our size which, while useful, meant we had to stretch projects across time zones. While we love having our London and Amsterdam studios as additional resources, with the new studio coming online we’ll be able to offer clients more opportunities to keep the work within their own time zone.”
“It also means we’ll be able to work on bigger volume accounts,” adds Vicky, “the likes of which might normally take up multiple rooms at once. The extra accommodation will give us the scope to be a lot more ambitious”.
With this launch came the perfect opportunity to promote one of their rising stars, Isaac Matus, who joined Wave over three years ago as an assistant after graduating from Berklee with a degree in Sound Design and Music Production. Hailing from Colombia, Isaac is a native Spanish speaker whose bilingual skills will be an asset to Wave as they pursue opportunities in the Hispanic markets in the US.
“Ever since I started with Wave, I’ve had this goal of earning a reputation where I become associated with a specific kind of musical sound design, while nurturing my passion for all kinds of sound work,” says Matus.” “I think this is a huge step towards making that happen, and I’m looking forward to being able to apply my diverse sound skill set on all sorts of creative projects and collaborations, with a goal of elevating the work.”
The Wave team couldn’t be more thrilled for Isaac, who has flexed his sound design and mix skills for top brands like Icy Hot, Budweiser, Delta, Nissan, and Airbnb, to name a few. “He’s an amazing talent who has already gone far above our expectations”, says Vicky. “So it feels like a natural fit. We’ve all been really eager to expand our facilities, and Isaac coming through as a brilliant engineer was perfect timing.”
With these new resources, Wave is even more excited to have clients coming back more frequently into the studios. During the height of the pandemic, while many people enjoyed the flexibility of working remotely, the energy and collaboration of the office setting has been missed. That synergy is particularly crucial in sound process and the scale of what you hear in the studio can be a challenge to replicate remotely. “I don’t think that people have necessarily missed going into the office every day”, says Vicky. “But I do think people have missed coming for sessions in the studio. Particularly when it comes to sound, there’s a world of difference between listening to something out of a laptop speaker and hearing your creative vision come to life in the studio. We’ve missed sharing those moments with people.”
While Wave starts to see more foot traffic again, their business continues to grow because the remote work model has broadened their client base for those who aren’t close in physical proximity. “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been seeing so many new clients in different parts of the country and the world,” says Reynolds. “Because we have this new ‘hybrid’ working model, people are still able to work with our talent no matter where they are. What’s great about the new studio is that it gives us the infrastructure to do that on a bigger scale.”
With the growth of the NY studio, thoughts of more expansion in the US market are on the horizon. “We’re taking it one day at a time,” say Vicky and Aaron, “but of course we’re looking at ways we can keep growing in the US. We love working here, so we want to be positive and continue looking at growth.”
For Aaron, the success of Wave comes down to its talent. “This company has always been about growing our team, and growing the business as a result of that,” he reiterates. “Ever since the early days when it was just two studios in London, there was a focus on young talent coming forward. That’s what has also driven Wave forward, and to see it continuing here with Isaac is fantastic.”
Wave Studios Reel
Sound Designers/Mixers – Aaron Reynolds, Chris Afzal, and Isaac Matus; Executive Producer – Vicky Ferraro; Producer – Eleni Giannopoulos
Sound Design/Mix Reel – Isaac Matus
