He then texted me Thursday to say he would drop off a CD and I waited in a mixture of fear and anticipation as I wondered what it would sound like.

Well, as I blog this I am listening to the track “Turn Your Eyes”, and I can truly say I am pleased with what we have done.

It’s all about getting it into the hands of somebody now, and at least one somebody is saying he’ll be giving them away like hotcakes  so watch this space.

As a sidenote, the cold type whatever it was that wanted to land on me on our first day of recording, seems to have now taken hold. – Not impressed, but thankful that it was kept at bay so we could do what we had to do.

Night!

My good intentions were delayed by my body demanding a power nap – one minute I was looking at the laptop, next minute I was waking up

It was a looooooooooong day yesterday, but it was really cool, touching, and humbling to see how both Bishop and my brother put in hours of work, and are preparing to put in even more when they begin mixing the tracks – Oh Yeah, we have done all five!

I also need to shout out to Doug who was in the studio till 2am  Wednesday night/Thursday morning laying down the bass.

Sidenote: The rest of this post is a day out due to sleep deprivation and having to get back home and straight into some meetings yesterday (Fri 17th) 

So how did it all end?

My brother didn’t get any sleep, I had half an hour, – our combinded total of sleep can’t have been more than 10 hours – Bishop and G began mixing the tracks at around 8am, and we jumped into the car at around 10.30am in order to get back for planned appointments. – Needless to say, the stereo was blaring on the way back, and I am thankful to God that we got back safely!

Some mixing still needs to be done, so a trip back up to Wales may happen later today – I love my brother!

Hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about some of my showreel experience, look out for some samples of the tracks once they are mixed!

Bye-Bye Wales

I didn’t think we’d be able to do all the tracks and suggested we drop one of them. But, my brother – who at around 3am Thursday morning went to bed for the first time since waking up Tuesday morning- was adamant that we should stick to the plan.

His determination (pigheadedness) has reaped rewards. All the tracks are now done vocal wise, two have almost full instrumentation, and according to some friends who dropped by – it’s all sounding very nice.

I must say that these past 2/3 days have been challenging, sometimes frustrating, and confirmed that I definitely prefer live gigs to studio work, but I am feeling very rewarded by the experience. I am also excited to see what may happen next as I step out once again into the world of music, session singing and explore seriously my song writing.

It’s amazing what a chain of events a simple question can lead to.

Recording vocals can be hard work, and there is really no getting around the fact that it generally takes up a considerable amount of time. Yet, it is very rewarding when you hear what you have done. There is an art to studio work which some singers can find easier to master than others, and the same is true of  singing live.

Of course you have to able to sing in both situations but that’s where the similarity can end.  If you make a mistake in a live performance, often nobody, but the most musical of people will notice. In a good live performance, those performing and the audience can see and hear each other and feed off of the energy in the room. This dynamic is often great for adding to the real emotion that one gets in a live performance, and can be hard to create in the rather more sterile setting of a studio.

In the studio you can hear every sound you make, every missed pitch, every slide to a note, every breath you take. – I proved this point in a big way as we listened back to a vocal I had just done and found ourselves hearing an unmistakable loud gulp I had taken in between two notes.

There can also be a sense of pressure in the studio. Generally it is just you and the engineer and possibly a producer, and when you as the singer stand in the vocal booth, you can feel as  if you are under a microscope. Whenever I have done studio work I have felt so conscious of wanting to get it right as quickly as possibly. This can lead to not feeling relaxed, and probably making more mistakes than is necessary. One of the ways in which to try to combat this  is to really know your songs well, put in the time to practice before you get there, and don’t bank on getting those golden ‘one-take wonders’. Even seasoned singers will often have to do more than 2 takes.

It should also be said that it isn’t a great idea to be recording vocals at 3am in the morning! But when needs must – we still have 3 tracks to do and as I type it is after 7 in the evening and we haven’t begun to vocal the 3rd track yet as drums and guitar are being recorded on the tracks from yesterday. Well, at least I have manged to write the 2nd verse for the 3rd track, and even come up with an outro which I tried to record on two phones in order to capture all the harmonies – can you picture it?!

So why make this mad trip?

Ans: A simple request for some singing sessions, followed by the question “do you have a showreel?”*, began a chain of events which started as a plan to do a simple recording at my brother’s and has become an ‘out of orbit’ plan to record 5 tracks of varying styles, with lead and backing vocals, drums, bass, keys, guitar and whatever else is inspired along the way, ready to take home early – first thing early – Friday morning!!!! – Whatever happened to pressing record on a tape recorder and if you had a mic you felt stush

Before heading for bed, we had a look at the studio, it’s looking good.  Bishop’s guitars are looking impressive on the walls, the desk looks ‘da business’ without being pretentious, and the vocal booth looks inviting. – I haven’t recorded vocals for a long time, so I hope I settle into my new home really quickly. ‘One take wonders all the way!’…

Tiredness began to set in, so instead of going to sleep, I started trying to figure out a 2nd verse for one of the songs. Needless to say, I fell asleep somewhere along the line, until awoken by birds chirping crazily outside my window at 5.34am.I couldn’t believe the sound of them. So loud and so many, definitely haven’t heard that in a long time and most definitely haven’t heard that in the city.  After my initial wonder, I really wanted them to pipe down! Umm, maybe they had a 2nd verse LOL.

Well it’s now 7.32am and I am well and truly up, so I have to get on with that 2nd verse and get ready for this day. – No hours to waste! I also have to hope and pray, this blocked nose feeling is going to go away!

I’ll update on progress tonight, and look out for some samples of the finished work come Friday…

*Here’s a link to some information about creating a showreel and why it is important. – It is geared towards composers for TV/Film, but the essential principles are the same. Showreel