Pre-Pro at Starling Audio, and we're off!
Starling Audio, Mon 29th July 2019
Today I’m meeting up with Jon Fletcher and Lisa Fitzgibbon at Jonnny’s studio, Starling Audio. This is the final pre-production meeting before we head to Evolution Studios to record the album in September.
The purpose of today is to write chord charts, make arrangement decisions, tweak lyrics and make sense of it all. We also recorded some acoustic demos to send the session players. This all helps save valuable time in the studio when we all rock up to record.
I met Jon Fletcher on a Pro7ect Song Writing Retreat… he is one of the Headline Producers and we share a natural shorthand.
By that, I mean, when I play the first three bars of a tune, he would know where I’m heading with the next three. It’s not just about his incredibly broad melodic frame of reference, that is constantly at his fingertips, it’s also about his ears. He’s the best listener I’ve ever met. He hears melodies that aren’t there yet. He hears all the little errant notes. He hears what instruments would embellish the song. He hears what I’m saying & playing. He hears the cultural ancestry of each song & all the possibilities. Well that’s good then.
Lisa’s experience is invaluable on days like this. I mean, I’ve got no administrative skill set at all. My lyrics are scribbled on napkins & stolen printer paper. She types them out.
“Who will play strings on this album?” Lisa knows people.
“Who will play the drums?” I ask
“I’ve got somebody, you’ll love him.” She replies
I don’t doubt her for a minute. Here’s the thing: Lisa doesn’t doubt me & might actually get a little cross if I’m too self-deprecating. Doubt? Yes, I live in a perpetual state of doubt. I’m over 50 & I’m unpublished FFS. Some of these songs have been with me, in me, for a quarter of a century. If it weren’t for Lisa’s & Nick Moorbath’s (my Producers), unshakeable faith in me, then they might well have never seen the light.
Today is shortlist day. We whittle down all the songs, to form an album, with a couple of extras, to give us some flexibility about what we finally include or leave out of the album.
One of these songs is Note to Self. I’m very nervous about this song, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s three chords that just repeat, until the very end, then it finally, fatally descends. Secondly, I’m worried it’s over preachy. Its intention is supposed to evoke the idea of facing yourself on the eve of destruction & exhorting oneself to continue, as a good person, despite our evident, inexorable slide towards our own, self-wrought, extinction. A cheerful little number in short. It can however, (here’s my fear) just be interpreted as The Sermon on The Mount, & that’s my worry… ‘cuz I ain’t no Jesus. Crucifixion? No, they said I could go free. Oh well that’s nice, off you go then. Thirdly, (doubts, yeah?) there are 15 songs ahead of this one in the queue. It might not make the cut. We shall see.
We go through each song, Jonny’s watching, listening & we talk through ideas. Slowly, song after song, we hit the bottom of the bag. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s like dumping a lumpy 100lb rucksack, after a long, long hike.
Each song now has a name, a lyric sheet, a chord chart & a “notes to musicians” file attached, including audio references and arrangement ideas. We are ready… and they live!!
Update: We recorded an acoustic demo of Note to Self last today. I suddenly found my belief in it and recorded a good pass on the guitar, I think. When I finally took to the mic to sing it, I found something new in it. A faith, perhaps. I disappear into the song. I sing it once and & we recorded it.
Afterwards Jonny and Lisa are nodding thoughtfully at each other. “Tune Will” says Lisa.
“Yeah, Will, that’s a Tune” says Johnny.
“Really guys? You sure?” I’m not, since I’ve just been somewhere else for the last 4 minutes.
“For f***s sake Will, course it’s a f*****g tune!!” She smiles and shakes her head at me.
See, I told you she’d get cross.