I don’t do a lot of recording session type work and when I do, it’s nearly always for people I know! Meeting up with Martin Whiteman after many years has been as much a joyous encounter as a crazy coincidence! We both spent our ‘teens playing at the Leicestershire School of Music: Martin on violin while I played in various percussion sections. Fast forward some thirty years to an art gallery viewing in central Leicester and I get a tap on the shoulder – its Martin! Deep conversation ensues as we catch up on the missing decades; I hear of his illustrious career of industry-level music production, engineering and studio ownership, and then of his more recent move back to Leicestershire, where it turns out he is now living two blocks away from me in Market Harborough!
Brickworks Studio is his new creative venture: ‘A community music hub in Market Harborough offering professional recording studio facilities, rehearsal space, workshops and events.’ I’ve been lucky enough to use the space for rehearsals and the service really is excellent, with top-notch kit and lovely sounding rooms. Since being back in touch, Martin has also booked my services to deliver two workshops for local musicians: ‘Drummers Takeover’ (2018) was an open forum for local drummers to contribute their own workshop topics, which we covered in a fun, practical session format; ‘The Great Compromise’ (2022) presentation delved into finding a balance of creative output with the practical career needs of established working musicians. This latest communication brought a further new project into play, with the request to add live drums to a recording made at the studio. Brickworks has its own record label – Somewhere records – which represents local artists and forms a project base for not-for-profit collaborations.
This was a drum tracking session for a song written by Somewhere Records artist, Elena Val, called ‘Buoyancy’. The recording was pretty much complete, but the midi drums had been deemed too, well, ‘midi’! I had received a digital audio file of the track and was given pretty much free reign to create a part I thought would work. I treated this as a live drum ‘replacement’ session, but planned to open out a little where it felt right and maintain the easy going feel of the song. To my ear, much acoustic guitar-led, singer-songwriter material – especially of the ‘pop’ variety – often works best with a drumming approach which isn’t too measured; it wants to feel like it has always been there – just as it is; timeless, simple and classy! I created a chart from the original recording and the programmed drum part, including questions for the producer and suggestions I might make during playback discussions (‘In’ and ‘out’ of the track; tambourine overdub?). Notice I’ve written ‘There She Goes’, top left: to my mind, the perfect crafted pop song, whose compact arrangement I wanted to keep in mind through this process.
I like to be well prepared for any playing project because it generates a positive forward momentum. This is especially useful in the recording studio, where time really is money and any natural sense of ‘vibe’ can be eaten away very quickly. Prior to the session, I spent a little time playing with the click; making the grooves feel right and to see if I landed on any ideas or variations to propose. Luckily, the arrangement falls into natural 8 bar blocks; the programmed grooves already had character, feel and phrase variation to them (notice the chart’s 2-bar repetition in the verse, changing to 1-bar in the chorus). I decided to ‘internalise’ the structured feel of the midi drum part, but to perform each take from a more loosely phrased perspective.
During the drum soundcheck (and hearing the track without the midi drums) the intro sounded great on its own, so we agreed a minimal hi hat on 2 and 4. After two initial full takes, we had a listen back. Producer Martin and assistant, Sam, were very happy. I had noticed a vocal entry was being obscured by my fill out of the second verse (see the ‘Stop’ note?) so we agreed to keep that drop clear. I also had to be mindful to not rush the fills on the ‘out’, but we all agreed that the final fill should strongly announce the end of the track. The guys in the control room liked the out fill from the first take, so I sketched it on my chart and kept it roughly the same.
It was nice to see the use of a makeshift ‘plate room’ recording technique, in the placement of a couple of stereo mic’s in the studio lobby, with the live room door left open. These mic’s also came into play when tracking the tambourine overdub, giving a big, open and loose feel to its rhythm and texture.
Wishing Elena Val, the team at Brickworks Studio and Somewhere Records all the best with the single!
You can listen to Elena Val on Spotify:
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