I was back in the studio a fortnight ago for a few days more, and really settled into the place. I’m quite happy with the work that has come about so far. Heading back in for another bit again from tomorrow and after that I should have made a good start on pretty much every song I wanted to cover for this record.
Here’s a sneaky preview of some of the work that’s been going on in the studio – though bear in mind that these are just clips of tracks in progress, and pretty much just piano and my vocals right now.
Some of the songs are coming together a little differently in the studio to how I’ve been performing them live, which is an interesting to see develop to be honest. I guess there’s just a very different energy when you’re connecting with people live, and when you’re really just playing to yourself in the studio.
I’d been looking for somewhere to do some proper professional recording for the last while. I had a small list of things that I wanted from the studio:
I needed an actual real piano – with keys, strings, pedals and all.
I wanted an engineer who had recorded a piano before and who was someone I’d get on well with enough to work with.
The studio space itself needed to be somewhere I’d be comfortable in.
When I was doing a live video shoot in Charlie Byrne’s for a forthcoming Galway based music website, one of the camerafolk was the bass player for Ambience Affair. We got chatting about recording and the difficulty of finding a studio with a piano that was in my budget range. She recommended Charthouse Studios to me, and said that the band had used it for recording and recommended one of the engineers.
After a few emails back and forth, I was off to Dublin for an afternoon to play on the piano and see what I thought of the place. Left to my own devices for an hour of piano time while Ian was upstairs doing bits of work, a nice long chat about the studio and what I wanted to do, and another hour or so of piano time while he finished up some work and gave me a lift back to town. Sold. The piano is a lovely little Yamaha upright that has a gorgeous sound – much nicer than I was expecting.
So, yesterday I had a day in the studio to see what I thought of actually recording there, and recorded three little tracks that weren’t going to be too much hassle. It was probably one of the more enjoyable studio experiences I’ve had. But that could also be because I was playing my own music, and in charge of what was happening. I also didn’t have to do any of the engineering, recording or editing work that I’d have to do in my little home studio set up that I use to demo songs. I could just focus on the songs, the piano, and not worry about anything else.
Now, the question is, what next? More studio days seems to be the logical step, and I have plans forming in my head of what songs I want to do, how I want to do them, and who else I want to draft in to flesh out some of the arrangements.
I’m toying with the idea of using Fundit.ie to crowd-fund the recording project – I’d previously looked into sites like Kickstarter, but Fundit is specifically for projects based in Ireland.
Question is, if I set up the project, would people Fundit?
Playing the guest slot at this week’s Limerick Songwriters night in Foley’s Bar on Sarsfield St. If you’re around Limerick, drop in and hear some of my music. I don’t think I’ve ever done a gig in Limerick before, so it’ll be a first for me.
When I was in university, every so often one of my friends would announce some random gig or other that we all just had to go to. Sometimes the excitement was well founded – like the first time Damien Rice came to play in NUIM was just at the university open mic, but the excitement was well built up by the time he came back a year later with a full band. Other times, the hype fell through. But this particular friend had never gotten so enthusiastic about a gig before this. She wanted us to go and see the Esbjörn Svensson Trio. Nika is Swedish, and we figured it was just some random Swedish band who no-one else would know about, so we’d all go along with her and see them in Vicar St. In her eagerness, Nika ended up being one of the first people booking tickets, and we were seated up in the two tables front and centre in Vicar St – right up at the stage with a full clear view of the jazz trio set up.
We gathered first out in the bar, before going in to take our seats, and I got chatting to some random guy who was asking me what I thought of the group, and if I’d seen them before. When he discovered that not only was this the first time I’d be seeing them live, but also that it would be my first exposure to their music at all, he was surprised. But upon also find out that we were all music students, he decided to give me a copy of “Strange Place For Snow“, which he had intended to give to the friend he was meeting to go to the gig with. But it ended up in my bag instead, and I said thank you as we headed into the gig.
I felt a bit guilty taking the best seats in the gig, especially as only one of us even knew of e.s.t. beforehand. But as the gig progressed, I was kinda glad we had those seats, as the band completely blew us away. A gang of eager music students hanging on every note was perhaps the best thing you could have in those seats at a gig. The energy coming from the stage was astonishing, and seeing how each musician stretched the boundaries of what they could make their instrument do was inspiring. It completely reignited my love of jazz and Esbjörn Svensson quickly moved into my list of inspirational pianists.
After the gig, the simple gesture of a stranger giving me a copied CD of some music meant a hell of a lot more, and that album has become one of my most listened to records over the years.
Astonishingly wonderful piano playing. I love how he incorporates prepared piano techniques into his music, and quite effortlessly, and to brilliant effect:
The two piano lines in this track really showcase the Baroque influence on his piano style, and always brings to mind that amazing piano solo in Nina Simone’s version of “Love Me Or Leave Me” :
Tragically, Esbjörn Svensson died in 2008 in a diving accident. His obituary in The Independent tells how he brought jazz to new audiences, and speaking from personal experience, that is most definitely true.
The pianist and composer Esbjörn Svensson was one of the most popular and influential figures in contemporary jazz. His group e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) […] drew inspiration from Bach and the baroque, ambient music, rock and techno to create a new form of intensely textured instrumental music that proved as attractive to younger fans with no previous interest in jazz as it did to admirers of the classic piano trios that the group’s ensemble-based style referenced.
[…]
As a jazz pianist, Svensson had an unusually versatile style, which combined the structural importance of baroque counterpoint that he had learned to appreciate in his classical studies, with lightly twinkling improvisations that recalled Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, the two most influential piano trio leaders of the post-war period.
What made Svensson most unusual within the normally promiscuous world of jazz is that almost all his mature work was with the same group, and the same personnel. He was also very happy to let Berglund and Oström take up solo space themselves, and the great delight of e.s.t. as a group was the strength of the ensemble rather than that of the individuals who comprised it.
Someone I was chatting to recently about music, was hating on jazz, and saying that a lot of instrumental jazz had no heart, and was just experimentation and a wild mess that was unlistenable and had to structure. I’ll be the first to admit that I loved vocal jazz a lot earlier than I developed a love for purely instrumental jazz, but can you listen to this and say it has no heart:
The melody at the end of that track just hits me really hard. It’s just beautiful, and the whole ending of that piece is magical.
Along with everything else in this track, listen to the double bass part here around the 5min mark especially. Seeing a double bass being used like that live for the first time was ear and eye opening for a young music student, let me tell you:
