I started making music again after a long break about 10 months ago. It started with my taking up vocal coaching to get back in touch with my singing and has quickly progressed to me starting to write songs again. My coach recommended some producers who have helped me to put the songs together in their studios and whilst this has been happening I have progressed from sourcing beats from YouTube and working over them, to learning to make my own using Logic Pro X. I had some music training in the past but didn’t major in it and whilst a lot of what I already knew is coming back to me, I know I still have a lot to learn and re-learn. I am really just starting out on a new and exciting journey.
I started off using YouTube to find ready-made beats I like - the beat I used for Buccaneer is a good example. I found it when browsing through some beats made by Pacific. I still use Pacific as a go-to in case of writer’s block. I just sang over the top of it and the words and melody emerged. It worked so well together I just had to go into a local studio in Cornwall to record the song. It was a really basic way of working using just my iPad and my mobile phone with Voice Record Pro - like a kind of musical sketch pad to take to producers and give them a rough idea of what I was thinking about.
I’ve moved on from that now. I quickly decided I wanted to take more of a role on the music production side of things so I saved up for a new MacBook and Logic Pro X programme because that is what the producers I was working with were using and it looked like the best way to go. I’ve been using Mac products for most things in my life, including my previous life writing books so it was a natural choice.
At the moment I’m like a kid in a sweetshop exploring Logic. Having discovered musical typing and loops I’ve started to get just a taste of my musical future so my answer at the moment has to be my lovely new Macbook and all the treasures within. As a singer, obviously the mic is important and I’ve been using studio mics to record. Neumann mics seem to be pretty standard studio items and one of those is on my Christmas list when it comes to setting up my own studio when I can. I will have to find out which one would be best for me by talking to my vocal coach, producers I work with and my bank manager.
I’m currently working with a Focusrite mic at home and used that to record the vocal guide track for No Way Out to take into the studio to work on with Gregor (Gregor McWilliam is the producer I work with most). I just sang the song directly into the MacBook at home, in my kitchen, which is where I whip up most of my beats with no effects and in a single take. Gregor added some additional tracks to the music with a view to my working it up and going back into the studio a couple of weeks later to do the final version. I liked this first version though and posted it on Soundcloud as a work in progress.
It has to be ValhallaRoom. I don’t have it myself yet, because I’m still happily exploring all the synths and sounds inside Logic but whenever Gregor opens up ValhallaRoom in the studio I know we’re going to get serious with the vocal production. He never overuses it and keeps pretty true to my natural voice, which I like. I save messing about with the EQ functions for when I’m playing around at home because it’s really fun to twist, bend, distort and turn sounds inside out and back to front, especially your own voice.
It’s probably a bit early to answer this question fully because I’m still exploring. I tend to build up naturally from drums/percussion to bass and sometimes that’s virtually all I need when making my own beats to write to. I’m just having a lot of fun with all the new sounds I have at my fingertips at the moment and producing sounds I like by a process of experimentation, trial and (a lot) of error. One Night In November was precisely that, a track I produced myself at my kitchen table one November night after work, which I posted because I liked listening to it. Other tracks have been quite rightly binned. I managed to produce what must have been the most horrible sounding jazz-type piece of electronic garbage ever created one rainy Saturday afternoon in Cornwall. It was spectacularly awful and has been properly deleted now.
Compulsive, I think would be the word. I’m really a top liner, a lyricist with an almost pathological attraction to the melody. I try not to force things and leave my head open to the music and the words just flow and form around it. I love playing with words and, of course, there is a strong sociopolitical element to my work. I’ve also been prolific over the past 12 months or so, having written at least 100 songs and far too many to get recorded at the moment. Having put the basic sketch outline together musically I always work up the vocals in a rehearsal studio for a couple of hours the day before a recording session.
Studio time really is money for me as I’m unsigned but I think it’s a good habit to get into regardless, to be studio ready to record before laying down a vocal take. It helps me to identify any snags in the song and I’m still learning/developing as a vocalist so it’s even more important to be confident that I can sing the song properly before I get down to the business of recording it. Whilst I thrive when it comes to tuning and melody I have to work on phrasing and timing a bit harder to make the words scan and flow well with the music so rehearsal time is vital.
It all started with one to one coaching as a singer/vocalist. I chose well. I chose the best coach I could find and he’s incredible. I would not have started on this journey without him. He has introduced me to several of the producers I work with although I found Matt Conybeare, at Cube Studios when I went back to Cornwall one weekend and having put the raw version of Buccaneer together simply couldn’t wait to get back to London to record it. I have learned a lot through working with the different producers who have helped me so far and look forward to continuing to work with them.
I enrolled in a local adult education college one evening a week to learn about making beats with Logic because I wanted to be able to contribute more to the production side of things. The teaching was quite advanced and we seemed to be bending a lot of notes and going far deeper into the insides of the programme than I initially felt ready for so I also bought an online course, which I started but then things began to click into place in my head/ears so I dropped the online course and just started playing around. I completed the Adult Ed programme introductory session and decided to leave it there for the time being, but may go back later to do the more advanced session. It’s certainly a steep learning curve but a lot of fun and I’m enjoying just exploring at the moment.
It’s not a YouTube tutorial, but I would recommend the Udemy course Music Production in Logic Pro X - The Complete Course! It was quite reasonably priced because it was on special offer when I bought it after seeing an advert for it on Facebook. I have checked out a couple of YouTube tutorials, but the explanations weren’t as simple and clear as the ones the Udemy course provides. Like all adult learning though, a lot depends on your own preferred learning style. I like show and try with an even pace of teaching so that I can absorb each step and feel confident about it before moving onto the next level. The Udemy course provides that.
Maybe that time is a magician. What feels like a failure at one point in life can actually be a springboard to something much better later on. There’s no rush. Not always. At the same time, don’t squander it or at least not all of it. There needs to be a balance. Maybe that reflects my split existence across Cornwall, which can have a slow and measured pace to the point that nothing gets done at all and London, which is busy and purposeful but at times too hectic to get things done properly.
Those inner voices that say...Who do you think you are? Who is going to listen to you? Your voice isn’t strong enough/you’re not the right age/shape/colour/gender/class to do this. You haven’t been trained enough and so on...
I have to tell myself they’re talking rubbish and if I don’t my vocal coach certainly will. The fact that I’ve already recorded some songs that although not my best work (which is definitely to come) show promise nevertheless spurs me on. I know I can do better and I’m loving the journey too.
When it comes to killer techniques my advice would be hire a hit man every time. Get the job done right with as little mess and bother as possible (sorry, wordplay gets me into trouble sometimes)! When it comes to making music, teamwork is crucial. Find people you can work well with and take the time to do it. Never rush to put out anything until you are happy with it and take it on the chin if something doesn’t work. Shelve it and move on to something that does.
As a singer, stay strong and fit. Singing is physical. Get out of breath at least once a day; running up lots of stairs in my day job, which is in a hospital really helps. Oh, and practice! Every day. Don’t think, analyse or criticise.
As a writer, read, learn, experience, absorb, feel emotional, empathise, live, laugh, cry, watch, see, reflect, Do think, analyse and criticise - a lot!
Google and YouTube are essential when it comes to adding audio storylines. This is where I come in. The producers are sometimes quite surprised by some of my ideas. The first time I went into the studio I suggested we sample a vixen screaming. I wanted an urban fox sound to convey some of the raw emotion I was trying to evoke in the song My Boy. Then I demanded blades, sirens and the voice of the emergency responder when the call is made. It all adds to the story.
I found the car revs and crashes for Buccaneer on YouTube. I think the studio owner must have been wondering what the engineer and I were up to! Then I wanted birds that sounded like beeping robots for Lost, to convey a world with nothing but sad little robots running out of their last bit of electricity when it all goes pear-shaped, if it does. I can only hope that the lovely guy who posted that Global Warming is Fake News in the comments section on SoundCloud is right...
I think I must have been influenced by watching Jimmy Cauty (KLF) at work many moons ago in a former phase of my life, when sampling was in its infancy, creating sounds from what he could find just lying about in the studio: bits of old chain and other curious odds and ends. Oh yes, I have many stories to tell...
It was good to see Beefsdick (whose music I have come to know and love thanks to RepostExchange) recently on Instagram following in what should be time-honoured tradition, making new sounds out of his washing machine! Music is everywhere, it just needs to be tuned in to.
I have a few good friends I know will give me an honest and if necessary, brutal appraisal of anything I send them prior to posting it online but ultimately I have to be the judge, jury and executioner. I do listen to comments and value them. One commentator via Re-Ex very kindly pointed out that the first version of Buccaneer I put up on SoundCloud (which is there still as a salutary reminder) was not mastered. It was a real “doh” moment for me and I got onto the studio to correct the error right away. Over the years I’d simply forgotten the importance of finishing and mastering a track before putting it out.
My Boy means a lot to me because I live in an area in London where the effects of knife attacks are very raw and real and the song is dedicated to a young man who was unfortunately killed not far from where I live. It always chokes me up when I think of the loss and waste and the terrible grief of the friends and families left behind in these situations and unfortunately it’s happening far too often. I can’t do much to stop or change the situation that exists but if that song can give one person pause for thought when it’s needed, it will be something.
Still Kicking is the song I want to be played at my funeral. I want to live the life to earn it!
RepostExchange has been brilliant. I’ve discovered a whole new world of sound and the most amazing talent and positivity through you guys. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know some amazing new artists and hear them and their music grow and progress as well as more experienced people who have been wonderfully kind and supportive. It feels like a new family almost and somewhere safe for us to work and learn and progress together. It’s inspirational and international, which in a troubled and often divided and divisive world feels really comforting and special. It’s like an online refuge and source of inspiration to me. I don’t think I would have continued to do what I’m doing now without it.
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This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
