Vacation Island Recording's owner, Matt Boynton cut his teeth recording alongside master engineers and producers Dave Sardy, Greg Gordon, John Goodmanson, John Agnello, Terry Manning, and Steve Rosenthal among others at the legendary Magic Shop recording studio in New York City. Given his quick ability to understand the artist and sensitive ear, he was entrusted with major projects from an array of artists for the studio (Sonic Youth, Oasis, Blonde Redhead, Deathcab for Cutie, Norah Jones, Duran Duran, Cindy Lauper, The Thrills-- The list goes on.), as well as the task of audio restoration of previously released works (The Rolling Stones, Cameo/Parkway catalog, Sam Cooke, Jelly Roll Morton, Alan Lomax Archives and John Phillips Archives). Boynton's abilities continued to grow, and in 2005 he decided to break away from the Magic Shop and work independently. Out of this decision, Vacation Island Recording was eventually born.

Vacation Island was not always the grand set-up you see today however. It started meagerly as a small mixing studio in a storefront apartment in which Boynton also resided. There he was able to make music he believed in by tracking records at the pricier studios around town (including Magic Shop, etc), and then mixing them "on the cheap" at his home studio. Although the creative juices were gushing in this environment, eventually Boynton realized that the home studio set up was not all that it was cracked up to be. He needed to build a studio. After two years of carefully researching acoustics and helpful advice from fellow professionals (as well as a fistful of friends), Vacation Island Recording was built by Boynton in 2007. Since the studio's opening he has worked with innovative artists of all genres, most notably Bat for Lashes, MGMT, Beirut, The Lemonheads, Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers, Amazing Baby, IUD, Gang Gang Dance, Telepathe, Arbouretum, Black Dice, and many more.