The wonderful Anna Lee was around Galway yesterday, so she came and joined the family dinner I was having with two of my siblings. After a post-lunch walk on the prom, we came back to my house and listened to some music and caught up a bit. But she offered to work the desk for some recording work that evening too, which was wonderful, as a fresh pair of eyes sorted some of the random things I’d set up badly and helped iron out some of the wee quirks with my recording setup.
Being able to just relax into the role of the performer, instead of trying to do two things at once, was a really lovely feeling. I got to chill out and just focus on giving a good performance of the tracks we were going to lay down quickly. Ended up working on three tracks in total – just vocals and piano takes of The Best Of Me and Maria, and re-taking the lead vocals and the piano line on Take Me Away. I was keen to keep all the work that Meadhbh had done on the latter track, as her vocals are just beautiful on it, but I really wasn’t happy with the guide piano and vocals I’d laid down for her to sing off.
Maria I’d never recorded before, and I’m really pleased to have a nice little demo of it done at this stage, as I can go to the other arrangements I’d sketched out for various instruments, and see if those lines will fit the way I think they will. As it turns out, re-recording The Best Of Me in the key and tempo I now play that song in was really helpful too in terms of further instrumentation, as when I was listening back to the best of the takes, I could hear the other parts I wanted in the track. I have some arrangements for that to sketch out on some manuscript paper, but I think it’s a ‘cello and viola I’ll need. I’m not sure – I’ll need to tease it out a little bit more.
I’ve not listened to those takes again yet after last night, but I’m going to leave them to listen again fresh later this evening after I go and play some Samba drums with some kids from Youth Work Ireland as part of their fundraising day. The LGBT youth group I’ve been volunteering with for the last few years, shOUT!, are under the umbrella of YWI, so helping out the main body helps keep the LGBT youth group going.
