File Transfer
I'm back! Amazing week on the Costa Del Sol and now I'm back to work and back to blog! File transfers and idea transfers galore today...
Programmer, producer and mix engineer Chris Marsh joined me in my studio today. Chris has done a number of remixes for big labels in the past and he had offered to make a few tweaks on That Thing, so after recording some chorus harmonies with top-liner Shaz Stacey yesterday (literally done in 20 mins - girl's a machine!), I invited him round to have a look. He has also been working on Mamacita for me and really brought this track up to date but I felt I could improve the feel with some percussion elements! We are also going to try to add a Spanish/Latin-style acoustic guitar as seems currently popular (Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Wild Horses by DJ Khaled being good examples).
So apart from talking production influences, reference tracks and ideas, today turned out to be quite a lot of stem bouncing and file sharing! Chris wanted to strip back That Thing further than he had originally thought, so I made stems for that. He seemed keen to get further involved in my project (and who am I to argue with that?!) so I have also just sent stems for You Got Me. He has sent me stems for Mamacita so things are moving forward nicely! I will post up to date work in progress tracks on my player tomorrow morning so watch out for those. A little bit of quality control was evident too as I offered Chris a chance to work on 1000 Ways To Want You which he politely declined due to not particularly caring for the track. I am beginning to see peoples preferences come to the fore which helps greatly in going forward with only my best works!
Over the last week I have had files from top-liner Anna Jaichner for You Got me and added some live Sax Section parts which blend beautifully with my programmed horn section, courtesy of Katie Laycock. I have received some seriously funky Prince inspired guitar parts for Controversial from top writer, producer & session player Jo Webb and am hoping to get some mix/remix work from Matthew James who is keys player and electronic music producer.
That Thing was featured again on Christian Carlisle's Introducing show on BBC Radio Sheffield on 19th August. Some really positive comments such as "what a track" and "can't get enough of that one at the moment" so am going to get another track up on the Introducing page as soon as I can and put out some feelers towards Mr Carlisle! More positive feedback from Matthew Hoggard at Sentric Music Publishers, who also really liked That Thing, saying he thought it would be commercially viable and suggested that an instrumental version would be useful for a publisher like Sentric so that they could try to get a synch (commercial use on TV or Radio). I will be further investigating Sentric's services as they seem very friendly and accessible!
I have sent more work in progress tracks to Phil Harding and sent him a recent version of That Thing as it was his suggestion to add harmonies to the chorus so I await his approval!
I am going to reign this blog in but before I go, a few final things. I need to begin transforming my website from a project website to a pro website and am collecting information to create a mini biog for all the amazing contributors. I have also been recommended a great book (thanks Dr Tom Attah) - The Song Machine (How To Make A Hit) by John Seabrook which drags you in from the opening where he is forced to listen to his 10 year old son's taste in music in the car, but quickly starts to dissect what he is hearing so I'm looking forward to some great insights!
Goodnight all!