ROB/ROB/ROB

THE PALPITATIONS - ‘Milk It’ - (BOBARELLA’s TECHNOTECHNOTECHNO HYPER-EDIT)

This wasn’t supposed to happen! When offered the chance to rework ‘Milk It’, I immediately had a clear idea as to what I was going to do. However, when I got down to it, the initial idea wasn’t really coming together as I had envisioned. This was frustrating as I believed in the idea. So to take my mind away from the frustration, I started messing about with things very spontaneously, looping different bits and being rather blasphemous with the material. I stumbled across a bass inflection - a small glissando groove. It immediately put a smile on my face and got me bopping along. That’s all the encouragement I needed! I went with my bodily instincts, worked out a structure, and then edited the vocals and guitars to within an inch of their life. Aside from a very very small slither of midi drums, this is entirely composed of the organic materials they sent me. 100% fresh and wild! Designed to be played at maximum volume, of course.

A year ago, I completed the writing and recording of an album which sadly never saw the light of day. I spent a long time and a lot of energy sculpting and perfecting something that I could clearly see in my mind. I was heartbroken when I realised that it wasn’t going to get released, but looking back on that period of my life now, I can see clearly that it was my apprenticeship. I learnt so much, and probably didn’t realise the extent of my new knowledge at the time. I’ll post more on this some other time, but check this tune out for now. It’s situated in the middle of the album at the bottom of the ocean. I wrote this having watched a documentary on a Peruvian girl with sirenomelia, and a story of faith and miracle in the face of extreme adversity. I immediately had something in my head, so I went to my keyboard and put the chords together. Very much a cinematic tune from a widescreen album - there’s well over a hundred of my vocals here, plus I laid down a texture of clarinets. Inspired by Danny Elfman, Fantomas, Finding Nemo, the oceans… all sorts. My one sadness is that I never got the harp recorded for the end! I had the perfect unresolved melody for it!

Last night, we started the exciting process of layering the vocals…

Over the past 4 or 5 years, I’ve developed what I believe to be a unique and progressive series of vocal recording strategies. Emerging from trial-and-error, positive and negative experiences in professional studios, experimenting in my own studio, life experience, philosophies and psychologies - all sorts and everything. I’ve cooked up a melting  pot of techniques which I couldn’t wait to start implementing on this record. The more I listen to the tunes, the more I understand every minute detail and movement, the more pumped and totally ready I’ve felt for this. 

We started the vocal session at Orbital Studios, but we weren’t gelling. Things felt a bit clunky - so I downed tools and suggested to the boys that we go back to my house. I knew that I’d be ten times quicker, the home environment would relax us all and allow our focus to flow unfiltered - everything screamed to me: “GO HOME!!!”. So we fashioned a vocal booth in the porch area, and set up in the lounge. 

Every song and every person needs a different key to unlock the door - we found a way in with ‘The River’, and pretty much got the whole track complete. I’m so happy with the multi-tracking - it’s gonna sound brilliant.

Artist: THE EDUCATION///Location: ORBITAL, BRIXTON, LONDON///

Most of the production/mixing projects I’m involved with are very much post-production - me sat at home tearing things apart, dreaming up a bespoke vibe, sculpting an atmosphere, toying with the dynamic, and crafting it from the foundations up - working towards my interpretation of how to serve the song the very best and fully reach and expand it’s potential.

Aside from projects and bands that I’ve been playing in, working with The Education has probably been my first ‘proper’ experience working with a band from the very beginning of the process all the way through to the finished product. I feel like they’re having a baby and I’m the father - wanting to be there every step of the way. Having this experience has progressed my knowledge, encouraged the band, and has undoubtedly led to a tighter/more focused + fearless/spirited record. 

I would consider my role with the band as a co-producer and artistic director. Given my position, I can give an objective opinion of the band - especially, I’ve found myself listening out and identifying hooks in their playing that need to be blossomed out into key motifs, identifying key dynamics and explaining to the band what and where I can hear the music trying to go, helping with guitar tones and recording strategies (e.g splitting one guitar line up in to two intertwining call-and-response guitar lines/multi-tracking to accentuate killer-punches etc). A major role I’ve found myself taking on is to make the band totally believe in themselves. I profoundly understand the terrible destructive nature of self-doubt, lack of confidence, and bullshit insecurity or fear: all of which bit-by-bit erodes the quality of the final outcome. If a band believes in themselves just that fraction more… then those fractions all add up over the course of the recording and by the end, that little fraction’s now a sizeable chunk.

Coupled with fearlessness is release - fun times/band banter/cameraderie/gang spirit/juvenile behaviour. Things can get tense in the studio. The focus that it demands takes stamina and a disciplined mindset - to know when to talk, when to shut up, when to get involved and when to pull out. It’s a healthy contrast to be able to inject some idiocy into the proceeding, at the right time and place. That’s me in the dress in the photograph above! The night before I had gone to a rest-home themed fancy dress party, and at the party it dawned on me that at the right moment, me turning up at the session dressed as my grandma would loosen the vibe up and split the tension and self-consciousness up. This was on Sunday - and our aim for Sunday was to get as much guitar and synth takes completed. So the boys went out for a well-deserved cigarette, and I took the opportunity to switch from my tracksuit into my granny dress to surprise them upon their return. It worked, we all laughed and joked, got our head down, and laid down the bulk of those guitars and synths on 2 of the 3 tracks… and they’re sounding inspired and sensational!!! Sunday was a long day - 11 or 12 hours of intense concentration with no proper breaks… and that’s exactly how we love it - full on focus, fearlessness, constructive criticism, progressive tactics, exchanges of ideas, inspired sounds, improvised chaos, rock-solid hooks and grooves - everything. We killed it! WE GRANNY-SMASHED IT!!!

PINK FILM - ‘It’s In My Head’ (THE BOBARELLA 5AM BERLIN WORKOUT) 

The genesis of this remix emerged when I was producing the ‘single edit’ of ‘It’s In My Head’  - there’s a momentary breakdown just before the final climactic killer chorus. It drops all the way down to the bare bones and naked vocals of the track to provide even greater use of dynamic contrast, which I attempted to accentuate, by spinning the track out a little into a trippy psychedelic swirl. His vocals in this part were so lush, so so sweet - perfect timbre - so i started cutting them up, adding delay/reverb and turning them into this dreamy blissed-out soundscape - which countered perfectly with the bombastic chorus that was on the verge of kicking in. As I was producing, I felt a little sad that I only had this small amount of room to work the idea. The briefness of the part in the single edit was the very beauty of it, but it struck me that I could further explore this new-found motif in a reworking of it’s own. So, just a few seconds of treated vocals from a three minute pop song inspired this. As the title suggests, another key inspiration and vision I worked towards were my treasured experiences in shady Berlin minimal/tech house clubs and adventuring around the city at night. I’m fascinated as to how moments and places we physically experience can unlock new doors of perception and, in turn, new forms of music. Huge pounding Berlin clubs unlocked my love for quality minimal techno and tech house, just as night-long beach parties in the southern-most parts of Italy unlocked the doors to reggae and dub. It’s one thing appreciating an art form, or trying to ‘get it’ - being there, being present to that moment, being within that moment in space and time - and those doors of perception effortlessly/accidentally/thoughtlessly opening - is a whole new world. It’s one of my most treasured emotions!!! And it makes me feel naive and childlike - full of wonder with so much to learn. A student of life, for life. X