Australian filmmaker Cody Greenwood spoke about her love for Montserrat, the iconic AIR Studios, and the island’s vibrant musical heritage in a recent radio interview.
On the November 4 episode of Nightlife on ABC Radio Sydney, she described Montserrat as a “remote paradise,” and said it was for that reason it has attracted so many interesting visitors.
In 2021, Greenwood released her feature-length documentary, ‘Under the Volcano’, which looks back at the days of the late 70s and 80s music industry and its connection to the island.
In her radio interview, she spoke about her own experiences on Montserrat, the musical legacy of AIR Studios owner Sir George Martin and the bands and artists that recorded music there.
She explained that her family connection to the island came from her mother who was an artist and moved to Montserrat in the 1970s.
“You set foot on the island, and not only is it beautiful, but the people there are some of the most incredible, kind people on the planet,” Greenwood said.
“So she’s just, she fell in love with Montserrat and has passed the bug on to me as well.”
Greenwood said that when she was younger she visited the island with her family every year which made it “very special”.
Documentary process
Greenwood began working on the documentary in 2019 with Australian director Gracie Otto, and said the process included collecting vast amounts of old footage and photographs.
She also had the opportunity to travel the world and speak to big names in the music industry such as Sting, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Buffet and others.
Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic saw interviews with Elton John and Paul McCartney cancelled, she told listeners.
“But [McCartney] sent us a beautiful note saying how much he loved the film, and gave us all of his home video footage for next to nothing because he wasn’t able to be in it,” she said.
Greenwood said it was “pretty incredible” to be working alongside those music greats.
“But I often used to sit there and think, we’re asking them to remember something that they did in the 80s, and we couldn’t remember what happened to us last week,” she laughed.
AIR Studios
Greenwood told listeners that recording studios prior to the creation of the Associated Independent Recordings (AIR) Studios, were primarily owned by record companies themselves.
Record producer Sir George Martin envisioned a recording studio where artists could create freely, without obligations to any record label.
“He was a mad visionary,” Greenwood said, explaining that he had an idea to set up a recording studio in the centre of Oxford Circus.
That studio, while successful, was “quite chaotic”, she said, adding that Sir George wanted to take artists away from that and give them a chance to collaborate with each other.
It was when he was in Montserrat at the end of the 1970s that he decided there was value in having a recording studio that was away from paparazzi and the modern world.
A success story
Greenwood explained that AIR Studios was set up on Montserrat without access to the modern infrastructure found elsewhere in the world.
She said Sir George employed a lot of local people to support in the creation of the world-class recording studios.
“There’s great stories of them unloading these very expensive mixing consoles onto the island and them rolling them onto big steel drums to get them into the studio,” she said.
“But they just had no infrastructure whatsoever to set up what became a state of the art facility. So it’s quite extraordinary.”
Greenwood told ABC Radio Sydney listeners that major albums went on to be forged in the studios.
These included Tug of War by Paul McCartney, Ghost Machine and Synchronicity by The Police, Too Low for Zero by Elton John, and Brothers in Arms by the Dire Straits.
A personal experience
“I think being in that isolation was very different, depending on what kind of band you were,” Greenwood said.
“I mean, there was a classic case of a band like Duran Duran, that was so used to being followed around by girls waving signs of them everywhere, and they got down and they didn’t like it at all.”
Meanwhile, Paul McCartney and Ringo Star, who had just lost their friend and Beatles bandmate John Lennon were able to find peace in Montserrat while they were mourning.
“[They were] just able to spend a lot of time in solitude and again, in a place where there wasn’t people bugging them,” she said.
She added that it was a place to heal, adding, “I think that’s a very special part of the island.”
Sting also could not be kept away, Greenwood said, and he recorded two albums with The Police as well as his solo album Nothing Like the Sun.
Montserrat of today
Greenwood said singer and songwriter Midge Ure, who featured in the film, said that it felt like Montserrat was in a time warp back then.
“It feels like it’s in a bit of a time warp when you go to it now, which I think is what makes it such a special place to visit,” she told listeners.
She added: “I’ve never met such kind hearted, beautiful people as the people in Montserrat, so if you’re looking for the ultimate escape and somewhere different.
“It’s adventurous, it’s black sand, mountainous jungle, and the food is beautiful. It’s really a special place, and I don’t know anywhere else like it on the planet. I love it.”
Under the Volcano is available on all major streaming platforms.
