Hi Neil- no need to apologise, I'm just glad you wanted to listen
Happy to lift the lid on this for you sir. It was a lot of work and a lot of love, but much of it was done in my absence. Due to factors such as life, needing to earn money and such like, it was a bit of a patchwork approach. The first 4 songs we recorded, I went to the studio, laid down piano/ guitar/ vocal tracks, and left my producer to get on with it. At that point I'd only intended to record an EP - but producer persuaded me to extend it into an album.
So the next batch were done with me recording guitar/ vocal at home, and sending him the files remotely. Sometimes he sent back things that blew me away, and sometimes I had to send him a long list of changes. One song never made it to the album because we both heard it so differently.
But I was running out of money, and making records is expensive! So I began dipping my hand into home producing, and the last 3-4 were built very strongly on my demos - of course with extra production elements, but the core ideas remained.
In the beginning, I allowed him pretty much free reign. I didn't know how the songs should sound or even if they were any good, and I think it was a great experience foe both of us. He was used to clients with very strong ideas who needed to OK everything as it happened, whereas I just said "surprise me"! It was nerve wracking, but also sort of liberating. And really exciting when something brilliant arrives in your inbox.
But as my confidence and home production skills grew, I was keen to be a little bit more hands on, which also lowered the cost and sped the thing up.
In an ideal world, I'd like to do my next album at the studio and be there for the whole thing, but reality will probably dictate a similar approach to this one. On the whole, I'm really pleased with it, and although there are things I'll do differently next time, I wouldn't know about them if I hadn't had this experience.
Does that cover it?
Really glad you enjoyed it
