On music collaborations, part II…
Without a launch pad, and equipment.
If musicians bring me a composition and no fixed ideas or preferences about the words, it’s rarely a problem, though it does tend to be a slower process. I’m generally not someone who can knock out words quickly, whether I’ve themes to work off of or not. I spend a lot of time poring over them; poets do that. Musicians, consider that a heads up.
I conjure the ingredients for the poem/lyrics literally by listening to the music over and over and over and ovvverrrrrrrrr until I’m beyond sick of it. Until I know every note and flutter and am sometimes even dreaming about it – chances are I’ll fall back in love with the music once things get going, mind. When I do this for long enough, the music starts to tell me everything I’m going to need. It’ll start throwing up images, characters, situations, memories, lines and phrases... It feels uncanny. And properly exciting. I love it. Then when the click-merge-melt happens on top of that…c’est magnifique. But, although it feels a bit supernatural and mysterious, it isn’t really. In my (non peer-reviewed, non-researched, purely concluded by means of conversation and observation) belief, this happens to pretty much all of us as a natural effect of listening to music…doesn’t it? I don’t mean the word crafting part, but the music stirring our imaginations part. If you’re reading this thinking “Well duh, Abby. State the bloody obvious.” Good. The gathering of the raw material you’ll need in this sense, like magic, is actually pretty mundane (maybe it’s more our inability to trust the mundanity that causes us to struggle more with ideas forming/ writing?) It’s true in my case that there’s been many times where I can’t trust that my instincts/the raw materials of my imagination is “right” or that I’ve done nearly enough researching etc. All I can say to that is I’ve just had to find ways to suck that doubt up, accept it, and push through, as well as figure out when I’d do well to heed it. It’s a head-melt and I’ve no useful advice on how to be able to determine which is which. The doubt is probably never going to be completely gone, ever. There’s strength in accepting that. The life / attributes we give to the doubt in our own imaginations is crucial. Do we tend to think on that feeling as being a powerful beast that can subtly destroy us, or like a wittering sulking little brat on our shoulders that needs telt to wheesht?
EQUIPMENT
Anyhoo…I’ll then record a demo and go back to the composer, usually including a text version of the words, and we’ll back n’ forth about what is & isn’t working. A word on equipment: for years I was scared off by technology. Too many cringe-fest memories related to tech failures in all walks of my performance life. So I avoided it and as a consequence always needed someone else to record for me, had ideas that were never realised etc. It cost money and time I didn’t have. I can’t remember when I realised that needed to change but ended up doing a Music Performance and Technology course at the Nerve Centre in Derry where part of the course was learning how to use recording technology. It opened up a whole new world, and trust me I was NOT any good at it at first, wrecked the heads of some of the young lads on my course because I couldn’t do the most basic things, but here we are. I highly recommend putting some time into learning this skill. Self sufficiency is a delight. If you just want to record your lyrics etc you don’t need to be a whizz who could record an orchestral album. I most certainly am not – I don’t do audio mixing myself (yet), for example, I leave that up to the knowledgeable. For anyone unsure where to start, here’s a list of equipment I use:
*Mic: (I have an SM58 which is better for live performance, but mostly use a Rode condenser mic in home recordings. Condenser mics have better studio quality but are much more sensitive so where you’re recording should be carefully considered)
*Audio interface: Focusrite scarlet…to plug mic/instruments into and achieve superior quality recordings…do a bit of reading about why this is as I fid it too headmeltingly boring to go in to…Focusrite have a great quality bundle you can buy if just starting out: https://www.andertons.co.uk/recording/audio-interfaces/usb-audio-interfaces/focusrite-scarlett-studio-bundle-all-you-need-to-record-at-home
*Headphones: I was using simple Sony ones that cost £20 for ages. They were absolutely grand for basic purposes.
*Laptop/computer: OK, so I learned the long, hard, heart-wrecking way that your machine needs to be of a certain standard of tech spec. I spent ages in literal tears and snotters trying to record on a machine with, like, 3gb of RAM, next to no internal memory spare, and with an ancient processor. I had to spend long boring afternoons on Youtube researching how to fix that. I learned that my machine would need at least 8gb of RAM to run the recording software smoothly…get more if you can. My laptop (it’s a high spec one that I’ve only been able to afford due to funding from the Arts Council of NI; you don’t need to start out on this) now has 16gb of RAM and 1TB of SSD memory with a Core i7 10th gen Intel processor… Those are the three main components: Processor type, RAM amount, and internal memory amount (if I’m being inaccurate let me know.). Top tip: consider gaming machines if you’re looking to buy. They typically have a high amount of RAM, a fast processor etc because gaming is very heavy work on the system. So is audio and video editing. My desktop is great; I got that refurbished model for £180 (without a monitor). A little research goes a long way (she says, after literal years of pain).
*DAW - Digital Audio Workstation: You’ll record on to this. It’s where the soundwaves live. There are many kinds: Ableton, Logic, Reason, etc etc etc…I don’t know much about them. All I know is that I use Ableton because it came free with my audio interface (oh aye; if buying an interface, try go for one with free built in DAW to get you started) and I like it because it’s fairly intuitive. I learned the basics on Logic X (only for Macs). Once you learn the basics I reckon you’ll be able to get a grasp on most of them. But as I say I’m clueless. I look for comfort and ease. Any further info on this where related to recording lyrics and spoken-word welcome.
*Sound dampening panels: to stop sound bouncing round the room off your hard surfaces. Before I bought some panels I was using home-made ones made from old canvas frames and old towels, covered over by the old t-shirts I no longer wore but loved and didn’t want to chuck out. Towel is really effective at sound dampening. Just try and make your recording environment as soft as possible. When working in a school once, the guy doing the audio recording made a recording booth out of bed clothes.
BACK TO THE POINT:
Usually, when I’m working with someone for the first time, I’ll make a point of telling them clearly that my skin is thick, I’ve done this plenty times, and I’m openly inviting frankness and honesty in the process. For me, that’s crucial. It saves so much time, misunderstanding and energy and also helps you continually improve as a writer: you’ll learn more about your strengths as well as your weaknesses. If you only want to be told your work is brilliant, amazing, genius, needs no further input, then collaborating might not be for you … actually no, I’d say if this is the way you feel (I’ll bet we’ve all felt like that at some point) then maybe collaboration is just what you need (any form of) to free yourself from cuffs of your own making. Make no mistake: no matter how accomplished or decorated or award-winning we are, there will be times when we will write utter shite. Everyone does. It’s part and parcel of the process of writing well. It’s much more satisfying and nurturing for us as artists to be open to learning where we could improve, or to accept that our idea wasn’t the best one. Best of all, it gives us practice in figuring out when/where our ideas/vision is the best option; talking about them, arguing for them, being able to verbalise why we don’t like a certain direction and why. Life skills.
A dream collaborator will be up front and to the point (I’m not always a dream collaborator but I strive to be lol). It saves A LOT of time and overthinking and wasted effort. I’m very lucky…well, actually, no. Nowt to do with luck. It’s to do with hard work, getting back up again after each knock, getting back to work and building on each success or failure. So what I should more accurately say is: I’ve now put in sufficient work that…) I get regular requests to collaborate and have to choose carefully. One thing I consider is how to-the-point/up front any potential collaborators are/likely to be and it has become part of my decision making process. Time is short and precious and I don’t have the option anymore to spend, say, 10 hours where I could spend two.
And often times it just is that you send in the demo and everyone’s happy and everyone gets on and respects each others space and wants to work together again in the future. And that, my dears, is pretty sweet. And if I don’t end this now I’ll have written a novella for my next to non-existent blog audience! Good luck, people! If you’ve any questions or something you’d like me to go into a bit more etc, email me (abbyospokenword(at)gmail(dot)com and I will if I can). See yiz.