It's also been a place where songs have been written, friendships formed and ideas shared.
This house and I have been through a lot together.
The practical upshot of this impending upheaval has meant a flurry of recording for both Future Loss and My Attorney. There's nothing like the prospect of change on the horizon to galvanise one into a slew of overdubs.
My Attorney continued their schizophrenic approach to finishing albums, by tracking guitars to Dinosaurs - a song that will feature on LP4 - during the same week as recording rhythm parts for Spanner In The Werx, Young Professionals, In A Breathed Moment, and Explosion In The Wanker Factory, songs which should appear on LP5.
They will reconvene in mid-September for a weekend of further recording. Until then, they enter into a period of indeterminate hiatus.
Future Loss, meanwhile, will continue work on their fourth record from Colerabbey Studios, Portrush.
The rehearsal/studio space of Room 17 at the Off Quays is also being vacated. Always inhospitable, whatever the weather, this little room has actually been the most productive environment out of any of the places I have worked. More songs were written, records tracked and practices for gigs carried out here than either the Church or the Roots & Wings building.
Perhaps because it was so uncomfortable a place to be in, it encouraged a strong work ethic.
As for Twelve Whitby, its memory will live on in the grooves of many records - from the slapback reverb of the bathroom on vocal takes, to the wind chimes that hung by the study window, or the swishing of the trees outside... the unique characteristics of the place remain intrinsically ingrained on the last five years of my work.
