How to build a professional recording studio - Part 1
I moved to Central Brittany in France in November 2020, getting my feet under the table just before the end of the Brexit transition period. From then until April 2021, my wife and I were in the process of buying a beautiful stone cottage that we had found while appearing on the TV show A Place in the Sun. Besides it being a beautiful cottage, it also had a huge, stone coach house - The Devil’s Coach House this newsletter is named after - that we planned to turn into a recording studio.
As John Lennon (allegedly) said, “Life is what happens while you’re planning something else”. Well, our plan of moving to France, quickly completing our property purchase and having a fully functional recording studio by May 2021 did not quite turn out how we expected.
A Little David Bowie Trick from Tony Visconti Via John Carpenter
This little vocal reverb trick is one that I don’t use all the time, but is fantastic for vocal performances that start off very quiet and intimate, but build into some kind of dynamic climax.
The technique I’m about to share with you is the one I used for the extremely dynamic vocal performance by Anikó Tóth on the song ‘Cast’ that I wrote in collaboration with Mike Sizemore. The song had appeared in print form in John Carpenter’s Tales for a Halloween Night.
Pork and Doom Soup
Back in September, I worked with Christophe Chavanon at Kerwax Studio in Brittany on the new Withchthroat Serpent album, Trove of Oddities at the Devil’s Driveway. Withchthroat Serpent are an excellent Doom Metal/Stoner Metal group from France, and they chose Kerwax for their latest project because they wanted to record live to 24-track tape, which is exactly in what Christophe and Kerwax specialise.
Music for Radio: Composing the Soundtrack for BBC 4's Amazing Grace
Way back, I composed and recorded the music for a new BBC Radio 4 drama called Amazing Grace. The drama was broadcast in five parts throughout the week beginning 28th June on Woman's Hour in 2010. The drama was written by Michelle Lipton - and was directed by Justine Potter. The lead character, Grace, was played by Wunmi Mosaku and opposite her was Mrs. Bucket herself, Patricia Routledge.
For anyone unfamiliar with the story, here's a brief synopsis:
Decade Roundup 2009 to 2019 Part 2
After attending the performance of Strike! and the premiere of Residue at the International Computer Music Conference in New York in 2019, I went directly to a composer's residency in Visby on the island of Gotland, Sweden.
This residency was for three weeks and would be the first time in my entire life that I would have such a long time concentrated entirely on music. While that was certainly wonderful, I did find myself going a bit nuts at times.
Decade Roundup 2009 to 2019 Part 1
As a composer, 2009 to 2019 has been a pretty good decade for me, and I thought it might be fun to document the most prominent events. I had a real drive in getting more overseas performances, and I began to transition from more abstract electronic compositions into more music for acoustic instruments.
