Today I am back in the studio with Carl Rosemond looking at production and mixing for more of the first even tracks recorded last month. This requires a great investment in time to really make the material sound as good as possible. I blogged about this on my personal site here – http://www.nickcody.co.uk/blog/2014/12/music-production-and-mixing-for-the-small-change-diaries.htm
Its a fascinating process and of course puts all the performances under the spotlight where everybody’s performance can be heard in high resolution audio. When we started to record in the studio I had an idea to record everything live as a band in a practice situation. However I now 100% appreciate that it’s far better to record in stages. This means putting down the key rhythm tracks first and then adding vocals and instrumental parts later.
In January we’ll be back in the studio recording the second batch of Small Change Diaries tracks. There is a great deal of material to choose from and each week I find myself torn as to which songs to record next! In the last week to my surprise two new songs have appeared and certainly one of them is quite different to everything else we have played to date.
I’m especially grateful to Jessica Bowie my co writer on many songs and we have developed a really excellent process for creating these songs. I tend to produce the lyrics and ideas of music and she provides an invaluable job of editing and brilliantly suggesting melodies when I have become totally stuck with particular tracks. “Miles Ahead” and “One Day I’ll Disappear” are terrific examples of really smart musical arrangements which would never have occurred to me! Our weekly meetings provide all manner of sonic explorations which makes The Small Change Diaries quite unique. Playing styles include gospel, jazz, blues, folk, pop and swing.
I have never co written with anyone previously and I am now appreciating why a great deal of songwriting is done by partnerships. This allows better scrutiny and musical exploration. Certainly with 21 songs and two instrumentals already written this working arrangement is creating a terrific creative spark as well as being excellent fun!
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