JOHN STORYK & THE ELECTRIC LADY
“I have a drawing dated February, 1969,” said John Storyk. It’s the earliest memento he can find of arguably his most famous commission; the Jimi-Hendrix-owned Electric Lady Studios in New York. The drawing doesn’t actually show a studio, rather it’s a redesign of the club, Generation, that existed on the Eighth Street premises at the time. Hendrix was a frequent performer and patron of the club, and — perhaps because of his rising bar tabs — decided to buy the lease with his manager, Michael Jefferey.
Storyk knew Generation well. A year earlier — on the day he finished college — he’d driven to Manhattan in search of his own musical fortune. He played sax and keys for a Blues band styled in The Commitments’ likeness. “We’d listen to Blues guys like Junior Wells, James Cotton and Muddy Waters at a club in New York,” he explained. The club was Generation. Thus began a long list of events that would spell Serendipity for the young Mr. Storyk.
While music wasn’t paying the bills, Storyk had to get a day job and ended up in an architecture office, which did not push his creativity to the limit. Searching for something that sounded more fun, and seeing an ad one evening while being asked to wait an extra few minutes on line for an ice cream, he answered that ad, requesting free carpentry labour for an experimental night club, downtown. It was the
