Winter by Holdsworth (2012) - release

A soulful reflection on solitude during the long, cold winter time.

Holdsworth captures the essence of missing the special ones who we wish were with us.

Written by Holdsworth, this track came to life deep within a basement studio complex in North West London. Engineered and produced by Wavefields the aim was to capture the feel of the lyrical content by providing a wide sonic background on which the lyrics could play.

From the piano to the harmonica solo it was clear that the balance between the instruments and the lyrical imagery would be critical to this songs success. Working on creating a lush texture, the live instruments were recorded to pre-sequenced keyboard parts. The live performance added a natural energy to the recording and the keyboards were then re-recorded to fit in with the now more soulful feel.

The drums took their direction from a rough and ready sound which was part of the original concept. This in turn gave direction for the rest of the recording and created the desired atmosphere. It was further reflected in the recording and mixing of the other instrumentation, with the moody lilting harmonica adding the icing on the cake by lifting the play-out instrumental section.

The Harmonica session was short and sweet as fellow musician Sam Banbury (now 3D visualisation guru) nailed the harmony within 30 mins of hitting the record button. We ended up layering 2 takes to emphasising some great harmonies which became apparent in post production.

Drums and Bass were laid down by Calum Rees and Andrew Philips, guitars by David ‘Vid’ Cousins with the Keys and vocals performed by Holdsworth

We finished off the process with professional mastering which enhanced the best bits, smoothed out the wrinkles and provided a top class finish for the project.

“Love the feel and intimacy we achieved. Through out the production there was always great care taken to capture and keep the essence of the track. The dynamic end section really lifts and soars. Great stuff”  Holdsworth

Available Now on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Emusic, Zune, Rhapsody, Nokia ...

The M.A.  (2012)

Full Production for the Lille based rock band. 10 track high quality demonstration recording, produced to highlight the qualities that make them one to watch.

The material was recorded in various rooms, in and around the Lille area. This was really a session of 2 halves.
An initial quick ‘record and go’ session, which took place in a loft space deep in the French countryside, showed great promise, enough to convince the band to take a chance on a fuller production. “It became obvious that there was something special the wasn’t quite captured in theses sessions and that a longer production period could bring out the magic that had been hinted at".

So a few months later recording was reconvened in an disused recording space under a sports hall just south west of Lille. Previous to these sessions bespoke click tracks were recorded and sent to the band for rehearsal to get used to playing to the click. The results were a tighter kit sound plus a more focussed arrangement.

The tight timeframe of 2 days to record the kit and bass for 10 tracks left little time for improvisation and following up new ideas. The fact that all the tracks were well rehearsed made the entire process painless. The kit was prepared, mic'd and sound checked quickly and the recording commenced with 6 rhythm tracks laid down on the first day. The final 4 were finished on the following morning, leaving half a day for the bass which was again laid down with minimal effort, even with the time constraints.

The next sessions were based at Wavefields' production studio in the UK, where guitars and vocals were recorded. These were again well prepared and the signature sound of each song was quickly captured. The guitars were the first parts to be laid down with the aim to capture as much of the sound and feel of the performance as possible, be it harsh and grating, light and soft or big, grungy and powerful.

The Vocal session, which was swapped with a later overdub guitar session due to a major loss of voice, came together well allowing time for experimentation, fixes and additions, providing all the elements needed for the final phase of production.

Early in Jan 2012 the final mix and sub mastering were completed, finishing off the production process.

“I took a quite aggressive approach to the final mixes as I felt this would give the songs the right energy and feel to match the bands overall concept for these tunes.”

The difference between the original sessions and the final piece were quite apparent with the latter a tighter, wider and punchier sounding performance.

“Cannot find the words to tell you how great your work is. Telling myself that Julien and I wrote these tunes and u turned them into major company tunes!
You made our music a new music. Punchy, precise, hard but delicate... The hardest part will be to deliver this almost perfection live... A lot of work ahead but we now have a goal.... to sound like your work. “  The M.A.

The M.A. are Julien Grignon,  Nick G and Mike Coquerell