There’s a moment in every recording process where you lose confidence in it. For some people that even happens before they’ve started, for other it’s after completion but it’s almost certain that at some point there will come that nagging feeling that it’s just, well, shit. You’ll hear something by someone else that sounds great and suddenly (even though it is an acoustic song and you are working on a dance track) you will feel like you are on the wrong path.
Or maybe (as I’ve said before) that’s just me.
But the past few weeks have been like that. I’ve been listening back to the tracks and trying to record guitars and somehow it was just not happening at all. Take after take after bloody take of acoustic guitars until my fingers were just screaming out to stop the torture. And with nothing approaching the feel or vibe I want, it all seemed like wasted effort. And as for vocals, well, I won’t even start.
All that said, today I went up to see Leo Abrahams and hear some of his new stuff. It was like stepping out of total darkness into a scene of interstellar beauty. He’s making music the like of which I haven’t heard before, and it was exciting to listen to. After three or four tracks, the second part of the day’s proceedings, namely where I would play him some of my work in progress, just didn’t seem that appealing. In fact I just wanted to go home. Nonetheless, we plugged in the laptop and I played him a few things… he really liked it and thought it sounded great, including the demo guitars which I had recorded on a cheap Zoom stereo recorder with the aim of replacing them later with a much more “expensive” sound.
Suddenly there was a confidence and a direction – what I need to do is let go into the sound of that amazing Lowden and start stripping away some of the drum machine and synth layers to simplify the whole thing. It made perfect sense as I was playing it to Leo, and he gave a few more wise words regarding this. He’s such a phenomenal musician and person. The plan at the moment is for him to mix the album when it’s finished, which is really exciting… and I will give him completely free rein to do whatever he likes, due to a total trust and belief in his abilities to make good musical decisions.
Buoyed by the whole experience I sat recording the acoustic into the Zoom with belief rather than doubt that the sound would work in the mixing stage. I didn’t get much further, but the focus has been tightened back to the original plan – make it all about that guitar and the amazing lyrics that Maurice has written. I went on a right old “mute-fest”, turning off loads of parts that I had previously (and painstakingly) programmed or recorded, emptying the tracks right out and working from the ground up – “what do I need here?” being the question I asked myself.
I’m excited again, itching to get on with it.