Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton in his new private recording studio. Credit: Christina Smart
In a nondescript building nestled on a tree-lined street in Georgetown, Eric Hilton drops a groove. No, the musician-producer is not making the masses move at some exclusive sold-out show. At this moment, he has an audience of one (yours truly) and the song Hilton plays, “Burkina Faso,” is an African funk track from his eighth studio album, MidnightRagas, released June 20.
The track, something he “came up with at home”, he says, contains a bass line that, currently, is battling it out with the sidewalk construction outside. (The bass line is winning. At least it’s far more entertaining.)
But while the ideations of songs typically happen while Hilton is at home tinkering on Garage Band, the songs are fully fleshed out in what is now Hilton’s private recording studio, located in that nondescript building in the ritzy D.C. neighborhood. (The space is not available for rent.)
Having a permanent space was always a goal of the DMV native. As a founding member of Thievery Corporation (along with Rob Garza), Hilton found himself having to move from one recording space to another more times than he cares to remember, growing out of each location as the band expanded their ever-evolving musical lineup.
“As I did my solo thing, I wanted my own kind of forever space,” Hilton tells City Paper. “With Thievery, we moved studios three times, I think. That’s a lot of gear.”
The permanent location is an ideal setting for creativity, bathed in the June sun and surrounded by greenery, something Hilton has always sought in his creative spaces. Even when Thievery Corporation were making a name for themselves after their creation in the mid-’90s, their studio in the back of 18th Street Lounge offered some semblance of nature. “It overlooked this really horrible alley … but you could see the sky,” says Hilton. “I always thought if you’re looking at the sky and the music doesn’t compliment blue sky, you have a problem.”
Hilton purchased the Georgetown space two years ago and, after nine months of renovations, turned it into his musical sanctuary. Aside from the actual recording studio, the space features a separate room that serves as a vocal booth but vocalists also have the option of sitting on a couch in the room where the magic happens. There’s also an underused main lounge area (Hilton jokes that it looks like a hangout spot, “but we never hang here”), which he plans to modify to incorporate the space into the recording process.
“My goal is to acoustically treat this room so you can do more live stuff,” says Hilton. “Cello, drums, things like that.” Or even a baby grand, which he says “would be nice.”
The studio space, however, contains the main recording console along with multiple keyboards. Hilton explains the origins of each keyboard as if he were going through a family album.
“This is the Beach House secret weapon,” Hilton says, pointing to a nearby keyboard and referencing the Baltimore dream-pop band. “It’s a $300 Yamaha. They credit finding one of these … and they just used it to death.” Another keyboard has quite the musical lineage. “This one I didn’t know until later—I bought it off Reverb—it came from J.B. Dunckel from Air.”
Though Midnight Ragas is another solo outing for Hilton, going solo doesn’t mean going it alone. The 12 tracks on the album include guest appearances by previous Thievery Corporation collaborators Natalia Clavier and Puma Ptah along with D.C.’s the Infinite Daisy Chains. The result ranges from dreamy soundscapes via “Life (In the Deep End)” and “Leave It All,” featuring Ptah to the buoyant grooves of “Madame Asha” and “All I Want,” also featuring Ptah.
The collaborations with Clavier and Ptah raises the question: Will there be another Thievery Corporation album any time soon? Their last release was 2020’s Symphonik; since then Hilton’s relationship with Garza has entered a Will they or won’t they? phase. “We’re like brothers,” says Hilton, sitting next to a conference table stacked with album covers of Thievery’s third release, The Richest Man in Babylon, that are awaiting his autograph. “And brothers knock heads a lot.”
“Rob loves to tour incessantly,” Hilton says. “I like to tour sparingly. I like being in the studio and tinkering and making music. He likes making music but he doesn’t really like to be stuck in the studio for too long. So, we’re very different in that way.”
Next year, there would be a very good reason for these musical brothers to put any idiosyncrasies aside and reunite: 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of their first release, Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi. (They were unable to properly celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary due to the pandemic.) With this and a potential new album, it would make sense for Hilton to hit the road with Garza—although he would still do so sparingly. “For something big, like a new record, I would definitely go to the bigger markets,” says Hilton. “And other markets that I could make.”
But in the meantime, Hilton is thrilled to finally have a permanent musical home—and to not have to lug equipment from studio to studio ever again. “I wanted my own kind of forever space,” he says. “Something I could really tuck into and say, ‘I’m not moving again.’”
