MAKING SOUNDS

Paul Mateki, a Texas singer-songwriter, cut two songs at Riverside Recording recently. The tunes will go on a compilation CD soon to be released.

While youthful acrobats yell and somersault in the gym elsewhere in the building, Paul Mateki stands alone in a tiny carpeted room in the basement singing a song he hopes will make him a star.

Though Mateki has had songs on the country and pop charts in Europe, no one would recognize him here. Here off the beaten musical path, Riverside Recording Studios was not built for celebrities -- though maybe for celebrities-to-be.

The studio at 45 N. Main St. was for years a "hobby studio" in the words of new partner John Mills. Now he, previous owner Dean Winstead, engineer Tim Cagle and silent partner Bill Hopkins have pooled their talents with the intention of taking the business to the next level.

"This is a real effort to get established in the music business, from recording to publishing," Mills says.

A former newspaper advertising salesman, Mills most recently has been producing instructional audio safety tapes for the Ryder Corp. Buying into a studio was one way of making the tapes at lower cost, he says.

Cagle has 25 years in the music business, including 12 years performing in Branson. Winstead, who's in the construction business, is a longtime Cape Girardeau musician dating back to the late 1960s and ran the studio himself for five years.

They have spent a year upgrading and remodeling the recording facility, which Mills calls "the most unique ever built in Cape Girardeau." The 32-track recording studio combines the best features of both digital and analog technology.

"When you step in the door you know you're not in a garage-type studio," Mills says.

Indeed, the rooms are done up in greens, tans, burgundy and black highlighted by natural birch. The drum booth is underground and has thrones for both electronic and acoustic sets.

One of the studio's most attractive features is the price of recording: $30 to 35 an hour compared to $125 to 150 an hour at a Nashville studio.

Their immediate goal is to cultivate and record local talent. Would-be stars need demos, and many local performers -- especially the gospel groups that abound within a 200-mile radius -- need cassettes of their music to sell at gigs.

"You can get one copy or we'll send the master out and get 1,000 copies," Mills said.

The studio employs local free-lance musicians as sidemen. Cape's Chris Bell played keyboards and Dale Wagner of Fredericktown played pedal steel and bass on Mateki's sessions.

Mills and company also want to create a record label and expand into the publishing end of the business. The label so far is unnamed.

For now, Mills is in charge of procuring talent, Winstead handles administration and the books and Cagle is the primary engineer. The three men rebuilt the studio themselves and soon will install a rebuilt Henry F. Miller grand piano.

"We're bringing it up to a level of attracting people like Paul Mateki," Mills said.

Mateki, who lives in Arlington, Texas, has been performing since he learned the guitar at 12. He grew up playing songs by the Grass Roots and Guess Who.

He recorded his first original song back in 1975, and since then has played rock, disco and Top 40 and country music in bands and solo, mostly in Texas.

He might be better known in Europe than in his hometown. "It's been tough over here," he says.

Large record labels are not as dominant in Europe as in the United States, which gives artists who record for independent labels a chance to get on the radio.

"Independents have 85 percent of the market in Europe," Mateki says. "You don't have to be a big star."

His 1989 solo cassette, "Paul Mateki," included the song "Long Distance Lovin'," which made the charts in Europe after being put on a compilation CD.

That's how a songwriter who has one or two good songs has to get them out there. "You pay to have the song put on the CD and they'll distribute it," he says.

His "Quick Train," produced by Little Texas' Jeff Hoskins, also did well in Europe.

Mateki records for the independent Pharaoh Records in Nashville. He recently was nominated in the Artistic Trailblazer category by Airplay International, which keeps track of top 100 international radio airplay..

Mateki met Mills through a Texas business that makes duplicate tapes. Mills was looking for a song for his trucking industry tape. The two stayed in touch until Mills invited him to the new Riverside Recording Studios.

On the day he was recording "Like It Ought to Be" and "Hey, Mr. Jukebox" at Riverside, his agent called to tell him Mercury Records is showing an interest in signing him to a contract.

"This is the closest I've ever come," he said.