Like most folks, I was hoping to clear the proverbial desk before the Christmas break, but it’s not going to happen, which means there’s still plenty of work to roll into the New Year. So no sign of the music business grinding to a halt, as predicted by some.
The jobs could hardly be more diverse for a string arranger: Mike Kintish is producing a major celeb, Attie Bauw has asked me to pitch for strings on the new album of a legendary rock band, Richard Jacques is working on a video game score - he writes evocative and expansive melodies and makes best use of strings. Duncan Waugh and Chris Taylor are once again being prolific for Cunard, Saville is finishing off album tracks and Lyracis is working on hip-hop tunes. David Wrench is producing for Elin Fflur.
And I’ve swung to the other side - with Logic 8 (currently going through some pain!).
Busy run continues with pop, score and theatre projects rolling in, but in the post this morning was a CD (purchased off eBay!) of a charity song for Dove House Hospice called from Hull to King’s Cross. It started life as a commercial for Hull Trains and somewhere along the line turned into this great charity record! The song was written and produced by Adders at LBS, vocals by Jocelyn Brown, strings by realstrings.com and it’s fun.
I’m always up for learning some new skills. And as I regularly harp on about the need to diverge with skills, as the creative industries converge, I spent a day as a camera director for a concert shoot in Preston. The gig was a choir and orchestra concert at Preston Minster, directing 5 cameras. I had the scores to read and needed to have cameras pointing at the right place at the right time basically! Think it went well, though the editing will be the judge. The job made me focus on how a music performance can be visualised. Shots of the right performer at the right time is one thing, but pan, zoom and registration all have to respond to the emotion and passion of the performers, as well as the texture, flow and character of the music - in this case, Handel, Vivaldi and Puccini. This job came through blast-from-the=past Bob Christie at Langdale Productions.
I met Jim Copperthwaite through a KPM library music project and he recently landed a choice gig to score the latest Stella Artois tv ad. My role was to prepare the score. Music notation is still a great communication tool, even in these days of multi-media and technology that allow anyone to make music (like Garageband). Music notation still plays a significant role between musical ideas and performances. We wanted to ensure the score encapsulated Jim’s ideas and inspired the performers to produce more than just the right notes, rather a performance with life and vitality. Of course, much of this interpretation would come in the session but if the score got close to drawing out the best from the musicians then session time could be devoted more to perfecting this than simply achieving it.
Jim supplied audio (the score played with samples) and midi and I imported this into Sibelius. Even though it was a short-notice gig (aren’t they all in advertising?) we passed drafts of the score back and forth, adding updates and discussing performance markings. Here’s the result; a score that (I feel) really captures the life, fun and emotion of the movie.
The score is online as a Sibelius Scorch file here.
Henry Priestman has come full circle - from his band days with the Christians, through numerous production projects and back to a band, this time his own. I put strings on 3 tracks, including this great fun song - r.e.d.u.n.d.a.n.t. If he gets to Glastonbury, he’s promised me a gig.
Knackered, but content, after a short session in the middle of a long day. The session was in Dublin, for Laura Izibor, produced by Darren and Tunde of Futurecut who have been on a roll of success since I first met then doing the Un-cut album.
We only had one song to record (Everytime) and used top Dublin players. The studio was Cauldron - great guys and a great vibe!
Laura has an immensely appealing voice and writes hook-filled songs. Strings were simple but effective.
It sure beats working for a living.
Lee Stanley was involved with the production of Un-cut’s Uncalculated Sum and recommended me to Karen Boardman at Crisis Management for the debut album of Karima Francis, a talented and distinctive singer/songwriter. The producer is Ken Nelson and it was fascinating to see him and Karima work. They are both incredibly focused on the project and intent on every note and sound that goes into each song. The result should be an album of passionate, crafted songs. We used a quartet of players from the Halle and recorded the songs at Parr Street in Liverpool. Here’s Karima with 3 of the players on a brew break.
A project that started in January has finally come to fruition with arrangements for American hip hop artist Rhymefest. The contact came through my North American representation, Jen Chapman at Stronghold Entertainment. His tracks are ideal for strings; powerful and emotional music that mixes genres and brings in diverse influences. He was happy for me to try some experimental ideas, just hope they end up in the mix! The songs mix the fun with the serious, and it’s that ‘bitter-sweet’ kind of combination that is such an emotional winner for me.
