- I've been floating around the idea of an a cappella song for a while now - I've been mulling over a few verses and choruses for months (see below) but I finally settled on a few. I really liked the idea of a song following an ABACADA structure instead of a strophic one (mainly because I've been writing so many songs for folio at the moment that the structure feels tired) so wrote it that way.
- I was feeling particularly inspired by Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek and King Princess's If You Think It's Love, both of which very sparse arrangements. I did attempt to use a vocoder when recording the new song (working title I'll Kiss You Better) but it felt too derivative. Instead, I worked with the harmony in the same way I usually do but I made an effort to keep it as sparse as possible - only using the harmony where absolutely necessary.
- I've been really enjoying Pictish Trail's new album Thumb World recently and I'm considering playing around with some of the vocal processing - maybe using a bit crusher, distortion, auto-tune and pitch shift to add some textural interest to the song without over-complicating it.
- I've re-recorded the bass in Smooth Talk. I had felt that the clean sound didn't 'match' the grit of the re-amped keys so I wanted something that was a bit more distorted. This time round, I recorded the bass via a fuzz pedal and the two instruments blend much better together this way.
- Reciprocate is really lacking in low end - I have outlined a potential bass-line with a midi instrument until I can get the real thing but I'm really going after something very simple that won't distract from the movement in the top end.