Stage One Studio

Andy Classen is a German musician, sound engineer and record producer.

He began his career in 1980 as a guitarist for the German thrash metal band Holy Moses, fronted by his ex-wife Sabina Classen. In 1989 the band bought a house in the village of Borgentreich-Bühne in the vicinity of Warburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1990 they founded a record label named 'West Virginia Records' and opened the Stage-One-Studio in their new house (so named because "Bühne" is German for "stage").

He remained lead guitarist in Holy Moses till 1994. Creative differences that had arisen during the production of the Holy Moses album No Matter What's the Cause (1994) with bassist Dan Lilker and Ryker's drummer Meff lead to Andy Classen leaving the band. Ultimately he and Sabina divorced, and West Virginia Records was dissolved.

Holy Moses was inactive till 2001 when it was revived by Sabina Classen, with Andy Classen acting as occasional songwriter and producer. In 2005 Holy Moses recorded the album Strength Power Will Passion the first without Andy Classen's involvement.

Andy Classen became producer and engineer in Stage-One-Studio in 1990. Among his first productions were the albums When War Begins... by the German thrashcore band Warpath and Mc Gillroy the Housefly by the German psychedelic death metal band Incubator, both of which were critically acclaimed, with the latter still having a cult following in the death metal underground. He also became influential in the German hardcore punk scene, being the producer for bands like Ryker's and Brightside.

In 1994 he took over the studio completely and produced for other labels like Nuclear Blast, Century Media Records, Gun Records, Metal Blade Records, AFM Records, Massacre Records, Season of Mist, Armageddon Music etc.

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