It takes about one minute to walk from the Palms’ casino floor to its recording studio. Yet, tourists and locals never know that just a few walls separate them from the secretive Studio at the Palms, where Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews and a steady stream of stars write new music, day and night.

The Studio is such a hidden place that, over the course of a few years, even Michael Jackson recorded two sessions at the hectic Palms, for weeks at a stretch, clandestinely.

[...] Many musicians now record on home studios, or they stick with their hometown studios in New York, L.A. and Nashville. But since opening in 2005, the Studio has snared Timbaland, LL Cool J, Gym Class Heroes, Journey, Death Cab for Cutie, Regina Spektor, Gavin Rossdale, Mary J. Blige, Will.I.Am, Elton John, Britney Spears, Tony Bennett, Diddy, Chevelle, Ciara, Ludacris, the Killers, and on and on.

As a bonus, musicians get to sleep in their choice of elaborate Fantasy Tower suites, bedazzled with personal pools, a bowling lane and a basketball court. They travel covert halls and elevators, never encountering screaming fans or friendly interruptions.

“These guys are here to work,” Palms owner George Maloof says. “They like it, because their friends are not here and they can focus.”

[...] Unlike other studio cities, delicacies are always at hand on the 24-hour Strip.

“We can get them a steak from N9NE Steakhouse” day or night, says Thrall (who previously earned a stellar reputation for managing New York’s legendary studios The Hit Factory, Avatar and The Power Station).

Many stars are surprisingly easy to serve. Panic at the Disco subsisted on grilled-cheese sandwiches — all the time.

[...] Some musicians are so unbothered by the cost (a relatively inexpensive $1,850 a day), they’re under the mistaken impression it’s free.

Six years ago, the Palms’ Maloof brothers got the idea of building the 8,000-square-foot facility (designed by studio architect Francis Manzella) from Larry Rudolph, Britney Spears’ manager at the time.

Stars were already flooding Vegas and the Palms. Why not rent them studio space?

Its success has been a pleasant surprise beyond expectations. But in a town of chest-thumping self-promotion, the Studio continues to offer stars privacy they crave while creating. Even Maloof has visited recording musicians only four or five times after they’ve asked to meet him.

“I don’t want to be the owner-groupie that goes up there and is all over them when they’re trying to do their work,” Maloof says.

“I leave them alone.”

To a working musician, those are four magic words.

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Panic! recorded some of Pretty. Odd. at the Palms Studios.

1. Brendon in Studio with Fall Out Boy
2. Tracking Stars At The VMAs: How It All Went Down
3. Gallery Update
4. In the Studio: Panic! at the Disco
5. Panic! At the Disco Scrap Tunes, Start Fresh for Studio

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