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Writing and recording an album remotely
poopot
Frets: 9099
Morning chaps.
A couple of folk have asked about the album, how? why? when? where? etc etc
Far be it for me to miss an opportunity for shameless self promotion ill give it a crack. (hopefully the thread wont get buried in parody section 
)
)After hearing someone say "you have got a dirty snake mouth" on a radio show a good few years back I thought great name for a band. so sat on it for 2 decades So we started during the first lockdown on this very forum. I proposed the idea of recording a few covers to a few people as something to do as gigs, rehearsals and moving about was not on the cards. We did covers of Rocks, Wheels and I put a spell on you (the last one for the cover challenge.And then the idea sort of died...
So we started during the first lockdown on this very forum. I proposed the idea of recording a few covers to a few people as something to do as gigs, rehearsals and moving about was not on the cards. We did covers of Rocks, Wheels and I put a spell on you (the last one for the cover challenge.And then the idea sort of died...Move forward to this year and @imc1980 asked me of I would play a solo on a track he was releasing "move the needle" (sound of a gun - Its on all the streaming sites).. so I did...
That led me to ask him the question "are you any good at writing lyrics?" (turns out he's very good at it) so I sent him a demo track I had recorded a few years back (actually sent him two versions) using lyrics a then pal had sent me. Originally I recorded the two tracks as an example of how different music can change the tone of lyrics. Both demos had a melody, albeit with me farting out the vocal. We decided that one was much better than the other and Iain set about writing lyrics to fit the melody Id already ruined with my own voice. The Devils smile was born... We stuck that out almost straight away. While we were waiting on that to release I sent him another track Id recorded which had a guide melody on it (was all the white keys )... again words were written and recorded and Shape of the world was released...
)... again words were written and recorded and Shape of the world was released...Up to this point Id been adding a few bits of keys here and there, but... I cant play piano in the slightest, I have no musical ability for it and its painfully slow for me to do anything with a keyboard other than Drone a root note...
So a question, along the lines of "You any good at pianoism?" was asked of @bezzer and it turns out he can, not only pianoisms but full orchestraisms!!!! Result...
So that became the process moving forward.
I'd write a track, send it to the bezzer symphony orchestra, he'd send it back and I'd pop it over to Iain and let him have free rein with the melody and subject...most of the demos were sent round using WhatsApp!!!!
once everyone had tracked their various instruments the tracks were sent back to me and I mixed the final songs...an entire album made using wetransfer
Ill go into a bit of detail about each song and then pass over to @bezzer and @imc1980 to fill in their bits...
If you need to listen to it first you can order a copy here:
or stream it on whatever platform you stream on.
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https://youtu.be/g_B6_KVQj04
This will initially sound dismissive but ... bear with me as it's not ... the scoring for this (which was most of what I added) was not particularly complex. Essentially the role was to fill out the sound, much as a synth or organ would, so I wasn't exactly required to lay down the full John Williams. But there were a few little tricks I used to make things slightly more involved.
In the main first thing I did was to block out the chords as a rough, stuck cello on left hand violins on right and played the chords @poopot ;;told me he'd recorded. Then changed to the right ones. (On a couple of tracks I used some polytonality but don't tell him 'cos he doesn't like jazz notes).
The goal really was to write parts that maybe don't leap out but, if you remove them, you wonder where everything went. Rather than distracting. I hope I managed that.
Once I had the roughs I looked which notes I felt were "important", the ones I wanted to emphasise and not always the root as generally I wanted more of a "line" for these ... and generally the root and fith would be held with a combo of the basses, celli and violas. It switched a bit depending on the timbre wanted but the idea is the same. This emphasis line I would put on the top in the main with the first violins section playing that with the second violins doubling an octave below or playing a simple harmony line. Then finally if the line felt too static I'd put some emphasis into it, either leading notes or splitting the notes or changing up the method used to play each instrument.
On the BIG songs the brass came in for the choruses and really followed the same process but I was really just hammering the 3rd and 5ths. The root was covered plenty already and a wide spread on the brass just added power to the whole shebang.
There's some points where this is obvious so I'll highlight a couple.
Breathe - pretty much as described above but I found the Chinese opera samples I had fit so well I had to use them ... regardless of how hard that would then make it for @IMC1980 to then write a melody.
Letting Go - The main line through the verses uses leading notes and bow direction changes to break the lines and uses staccato and maracto to drive the emphasis.
Book of Lies - This was the big "John Barry" one for me, I was trying to evoke that bond theme style on the intro. In the chorus this was really driven home with the brass section. The piano was a much simpler idea really, just the base chords with minor embelishment.
Come in From The Cold - The was "Bond track two" which is why I love them being together on the album. Same idea as Book of Lies in the main but this time the brass was so in your face it was ridiculou ... but intentional as it both drive and brightens the chorus. Or I hope it does.
Embrace the Moments Later - Almost forgot was I was supposed to be doing orchestral on this one as it's mostly really bright nasty synth lines and a broken piano (Pin Piano from Ghostwriter) ... all really quite unsettling sounds that aren't quite in tune. The lines are echoing the power chords used in the choruses but used through the verses as thematic devices and I build them through out ... just piano in the first, piano and legato strings in the second and bloody everything from then on.
The Final Show - went a bit more "all out on this one" with percussion and all sorts biggest addition here was also from Ghostwriter and is a distorted choir. It's never in tune ... but it's also never not in tune. To be honest I thought it would be rejected ... but it added for me an uneasiness.
Reach Out (and the accompanying acoustic version) - this was probably my favourite of the songs from my point of view, the piano part is devestatingly simple but I was really pleased with it. The string line again is very, very simple but added a lot of air and width, I don't think I stretched beyond root, third and fifth on this one. Well until the acoustic version where I completely re-recorded everything to add more movement and interest, mirroring the vocal melodies. Mirroring of themes is something I do a lot ... taking big melodies and putting somewhere else in the song to glue it together. If you REALLY listen you can hear I've done it across tracks too. Bet Stu didn't notice he he.
Other bits yeah ... did some 8 string at one point and played some banjo and resonator on Hope.
That's not very helpful ... but hopefully gives you some idea or what I was doing. For the samples I used EastWest Hollywood Strings Platinum ... and they are worth every penny. The piano was the EastWest Bosendorfer ... I can't use anything else as I'm a Tori Amos fanatic. The keyboard was the M-Audio Ocygen61. Cheap as chips but excellent value for money.
Oh ... and there's a rhodes (I think) on Find A Way. A fat ol' organ at any rate ... and that fat ol' organ was playing a rhodes sample from EastWest again.
Loving your work, chaps!
For all of the songs on the record, I would listen to the instrumentals on headphones and work out the melody, singing garbled half words as I pieced it together.
Once I was happy with the melody I would do a first draft of some lyrics, then play the instrumental on a Bluetooth speaker and sing along to it. I would record the singing and music on my phone's voice recorder and then listen back to it, change things if needed and record on my phone again. Most things only took a bit of tweaking, but there were a few songs that went through several revisions before I was happy.
When the voice recorder demo was done I would track the vocals properly using an SE Electronics 4400a into an Audient ID22. After recording each set of vocals I would send a demo over Whatsapp, clean the tracks up (remove the breaths, bounce to a single clip etc.) bounce them as dry WAVs and send them to Stu over WeTransfer for mixing.
That's it really! There were different approaches to harmonies for some of the songs, I mainly did the main vocal, a double of that and then in the verses spot harmonies to accentuate words or phrases. The choruses and sometimes pre-choruses would have the main and double, sometimes a triple, a lower octave following the main melody and whatever harmony part was used.
Talking about how I did vocals is not as interesting as a blow by account of how music was created, so I will not run through each song and talk about how I did what. I tried to push myself melodically with every song and being able to focus on just vocals meant that I didn't get caught up with the chords that are being used and my own preconceptions about how I should be singing over them.
Happy to answer any specific questions anyone has about the vocals though!
Good work guys. Sounds really well produced too. Some fantastic sounds on there. You should all be proud
Another single out on the 28th that’s already getting airplay as well!