Abbey Road Studios, the world’s most famous recording facility, has appointed Nile Rodgers to the newly created position of chief creative advisor.
Taking up the role with immediate effect, Rodgers will be responsible for nurturing new talent, as well as acting as the studio’s global ambassador and assisting with its ongoing developments in audio and recording technology.
The 65-year-old disco legend, who is currently recording a new Chic album at Abbey Road, will also use the former home of the Beatles as his main creative base in the U.K.
“From the first time I heard the Beatles’ ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand,’ I dreamt of Abbey Road,” said Rodgers in a statement announcing the appointment, which comes in the same week that Chic’s “Le Freak” was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
The past two years have additionally seen the hit songwriter and producer inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and awarded the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Embassy in New York.
Looking back on a career that has contained “some of the highest highs an artist, writer and producer can experience,” he went on to say that becoming the studio’s “first and only” chief creative advisor “is something I consider a great responsibility” and thanked the team at Abbey Road, as well as Sir Paul McCartney for sending his congratulations.
“With an incomparable career and reputation, there is no other artist or producer who has the legacy, influence and relevance to be awarded this role at Abbey Road Studios,” said the facility’s head of marketing, Mark Robertson. He called the partnership a coming together of “two of the icons of modern music history” and said, “the whole house dances with joy when he is in residence.”
Rodgers has been working on Chic’s first new album in 25 years, appropriately called It’s About Time. In recent months, he’s been joined by a host of star names at Abbey Road, including Nao, Anderson .Paak, Bruno Mars, Disclosure and British soul singers Jorja Smith and Ray BLK, although it’s not been confirmed if those sessions were for a Chic album or other recording projects.
“We are extremely excited to formalize our relationship with Nile Rodgers in this new role as he shares the history and brilliance of Abbey Road with artists across the globe,” welcomed Abbey Road Studios’ managing director Isabel Garvey.
She cited recent upgrades to the facility, including the opening of two new studio spaces, the Gatehouse and the Front Room, which are aimed at smaller and mid-sized acts, as ways in which Abbey Road has become more accessible since being acquired by Universal Music in 2012.
The London studio has also made significant investments in training and technology, launching Abbey Road Red — Europe’s only music tech specific incubator program — in 2015, as well as its own training program, Abbey Road Institute. Adding Rodger’s “experience and creative vision” to the mix would help Abbey Road push its “audio tech innovation even further,” said Garvey.