Going from Live Band to Studio/Commercial

My group of 5 years is in a little bit of a rut. We've had personnel changes (firing the original drummer about 2 years ago, the singer 1 year ago) and have been successfully doing live instrumental shows with a new round of music the last year.

However, it looks like our bonds with the current drummer have pretty much disipated- we wanted to record an album with him and he couldnt get himself together for the studio. The guitarist and I (the brains and work behind this operation the last 5 years) basically just care about getting high quality recordings done these days- with some regular live shows, but not so much the original deal of gaining recognition in the scene and all that (eg, we've kind of moved on from the fun and partying that can accompany it!).

It's been a good run- we've won awards, done 100+ shows, opened for major acts, recorded 2 previous albums, built good reputations and relationships with a lot of musicians.

The idea I am toying with these days is continuing to work with the guitarist and turning the "band" into something more like a collective- bringing in various people we've loved working with in the past for studio projects (and possibly live too, but not the typical "band" deal).

With the current not-studio drummer out of the picture, we can bring in one of my best friends (Giann Rubio who did half the tracks on the last Aghora album, next to Sean Reinert) as a studio guy to get the job done, and done really well.

Has anyone switched over to studio projects as opposed to the live band? I've been comtemplating this and possbily looking into other commercial applications (movie soundtracks- lots of films being made in NM right now). How to you move forward?