H Y B R I D - B L U E S E . P
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Live Through The Night
Meaning
This track was initially inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s "Gypsy Eyes" & "Freedom", with a salute to Lenny Kravit's "Are you gonna go my way" in terms of use of the guitar to drive the track. The song’s meaning is pretty self-explanatory. It's about infatuation towards a stranger, and the anticipation this interest is reciprocated.
Making of
The beat was part happy-accident (often the best & most frustrating part of making music!). Spend enough time writing & producing & you'll find yourself becoming more and more proficient at creating the right conditions for great pieces to formulate from a variety of elements you like but didn't necessarily set out to use or find. I knew precisely what kick & snare would cut through the frequencies dominated by the guitar & bass. So finding other elements to compliment them & create a modern but equally 'throwback-sound' came down to knowledge of my instrument library & a shotgun fire approach with elements that may or may not work. This is why I strongly suggest spending a day or two every so often to just listen to everything in your sound library to remind yourself of what you have. As you increase your sound bank it becomes quite easy to duplicate what you have already or completely forget hidden-gems that may give your project that x-factor you or your client is looking for.
I can’t recall the total production time of the track as it was written and recorded quite some time ago, but what I can remember is the track itself was made at least 6 months before the lyrics where written & recorded. As you can hear most elements across the song are digital i.e. the kicks, bass, synth and various atmospheric effects. That said, this track is one of the stronger attempts to merge synthetic & acoustic elements like live recorded guitars, vocals & cowbells . By today's standards this seams quite commonplace in pop, however I've not yet heard an attempt featuring "Live Through The Night's 'thump & bass' aesthetic.
Interestingly, the reaction from most listeners is "What genre is this?" Electro-pop, Funk, R&B, Soul, Rock?”......... The short answer is, it's all of them and none of them, a hybrid kind of blues.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through Pro-Tools. Mixed in Pro-Tools. Weapon of choice: C1 Behringer Condenser mic.
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
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Meaning
'High Maintenance' is the would-be sequel to 'Live Through The Night'. A relationship has blossomed from that initial encounter. Unfortunatley for our self-proclaimed lothario the material demands of a consumerist goddess are a nothing short of gargantuan. A modern bluesy humorous outcry.
Making Of
The beat heard in the final edit of this track is the third attempt to find the right sounds. The initial drum track featured an accoustic kick & snare. But after wasting far too time trying to augment their characteristics I opted for the synthetic alternatives you hear in the final edit. They sounded much cleaner, punchier and complimented 'Live through The Night' when playing both tracks one after the other. The short tailed stab layered with the kick is ducked via a side-chain where it's frequencies clash with the bass kick. It's then normalised & balanced with tasteful compression to sound at the 'front' of the mix. The little 'eh' sample as well as the snare sound & end of bar drum rolls are all tightly expanded to avoid muddiness. The other elements throughout the majority of the track are deliberately minimal. I felt this helped maintain the 'slapstick' humor of the track while also allowing various elements to breath sounding polished & clean. This song's mix along with that of Moonlight Magnets demonstrate this 'clean' philosopy best across Phase One's catalogue. The guitar riff like the premise of the song is also a follow-on/evolution of the 'Live T'hrough The Night' riff. Where LTTN's riff was driven and direct, HM's riff is more fleeting & humorous. The solo took quite some time to piece together & a fair few takes to nail, but it's definately my favourite to play. Up and down the neck, fun trems, good ol pentatonic notes! Further humor, male yeah vocals serve to echo the sentiments expressed in the lyrics as if a group of guys familiar with this predicament. To build energy and momentum other elements are gradually introduced. Layers such as the piano and female chorals tandem with the male group response.
The change in beat for the solo was a little tricky. I went through several options before settling on the choice heard in the final version. It's a severely slowed down homage to Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir. The ending is a psychedelic tripppy tape stop, this was going to be edited out, but a few respected engineers convinced me to leave it in as an artistic anti-radio/commercial imperfection.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through pro-tools. Vocals recorded and layered in protools with the usual comping, No Auto Tune. Mixed in Protools, Dirty Rosewood plugged straight into a Liquid Sapphire Pro. Weapon of choice: Focusrite Midnight Plugin EQ
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
HIGH MAINTENANCE
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Meaning
Building site blues was written years ago during an 18 month stint working on a building site. Long hours, little pay, dirty clothes, unwelcoming company & general isolation, but… I can safely say I’ve not felt as physically strong since. The song is about deppression, this was a particulaly low point in my life. Still, there's a dry humor in both composition & lyrics, as you'll find with anything written in the vain of the Blues. Singing this certainly felt like a release.
Making of
The synthetic percussive elements are largley Inspired by Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, only made much heavier via extending the resonance of the bass kick & boosting the lower-mid frequencies of the snare. Simple, clean & driven with little edits/variations. The guitar melody and solo were actually the first i’d ever composed for a specific song & serve as my warm-up for almost all recording sessions. Like the High Maintenance solo, the notes move across the entire fretboard. So despite the song's origins, I'm now quite fond & nostalgic over it. As my first attempt at a structured intro, verse bridge & chorus.
Orchestral elements are always great for dramatic statements. So I opted for sustained endearing violins from the the beginning to evoke the listeners empathy, then accented these these feelings with violent stabs at poignant parts of each verse. With such a stark mood it wouldn't be tasteful to overcomplicate the mix, so I used either long expressive or short sharp sub-bass notes to underpin & bind the track together in the lower frequencies. The vocals have very little processing, a little reverb & two layers, thats it. Whilst most engineering tastes are subjective and these days trend-dependant, i've found keeping a mix simple allows for more discernible experimentation on the master bus. In this case I exercised UAD's Ampex Mastering Tape. Once you fall in love with vinyl you'll find yourself exploring ways to emulate the warmth born from those tiny wondrous distortions. No outfit provides this service better than UAD. As Building Site Blues doesn't lean toward a synthetic sound as much as LTTN & HM I was able to subtly wrap the strings, vocals, percussion and bass in rich tape saturation, glueing them together with retro character without losing modern clarity or dynamic range.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through pro-tools. Vocals recorded and layered in protools with the usual comping, No Auto Tune. Mixed in Protools. Weapon of Choice: Ampex 102 Mastering Tape. UAD DSP
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
BUILDING SITE BLUES
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Meaning
Its after hours, the heavens have opened up over London Town. A full moon bears down on the city, creatives & artisans alike receive an inspirational jolt from the Luna cycle. When the God's Chimes fanatic Zharahz fitted Rosewood with an unsticking device he didn't realise it would amplify the moon's magnetic influence on the metal elements found in human bodies. When struck during the zenith of a full moon, people within earshot enter a trance like state of euphoria as the zinc, copper & iron in their bodies become resonant and pull them closer towards the coil magnets of the guitar. Unaware, I open my windows and people flock to my abode for a night long soirée. Of course I charge admission. Gold, & why not? it's untraceable & goes towards my pension :-P
Making Of
MM was written (during a full moon of course) shortly after BSB quite some time ago. The recording process was pretty straight forward. I plugged Rosewood straignt into my saffire 56 pro instead of micing her amp. I wanted the cleanest possible recording so I could dress-up her tone 'in-the-box'. As the primary element of the track, all other instruments were chosen to compliment her timbre. The 2nd most important element was the 808 long tail bass. Best heard on a system that punches 'well' below 100hz. Or via some oversized ‘Beats’ headphones. Definitely one of the quickest tracks to write , record, edit, engineer & mix down. The only issues I recall during the engineering stage was the balancing of the kick & 808 bass notes, as they both competed for similar real-state across the frequency spectrum. Guitars and vocals also like to vie over the same space between your ears so I played with the stereo imaging of the two to ensure the song maintained depth and width. Both guitar solo’s grew organically and remain the most relaxing pieces play. There was a version featuring a low-end reese synth common to R&B tracks these days, but it had to come out as it took away from the guitar tone & 808s making the song feel whole lot more commercial & common. I had to throw in a salute to three-6-mafia style production with the mandem shouts, but managed to resist the urge to follow the crowd with the over-skittered hi-hat trap loops you'll hear on most beats circa 2015-2020. All-in-all a totally stripped back beat that uses the silence between sounds for impact. A technique i'd encourage all engineers to utilise & no underestimate. Lastly I have to mention the Fab Filter echo. This little Pandora's box is an outstanding wildcard for stripped back & atmospheric productions. Generally you want to avoid echo effects in your mix as large halls & venues will naturally introduce these characteristics anyway, especially if there aren't many people to absorb the reverberations from the floor. However, when the time is right for echo, theres no better wizardry to utilise.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through pro-tools. Vocals recorded and layered in protools with the usual comping, No Auto Tune. Mixed in Protools, Dirty Rosewood plugged straight into a Liquid Sapphire Pro, Liquid Channel pre-amp. Weapon of choice: Fab Filter Echo.
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
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