Shaun Ponsonby
03-10-2007, 06:05 PM
http://www.brianmay.com/whatsnew.html
"OK - I know I don't write much about our music recording work in the studio. But, it's deliberate really ... I feel a reluctance to take advantage of this Soapbox platform to expose too much of what must essentially be a private process, needing room to breathe and develop organically. I'm happy to say that the process has worked, in a very fine way.
This (second) period of 3 weeks of QUEEN/RODGERS recording sessions is over now, so, for a while at least, I can get my life back a bit ! It's actually tough, being so closely focussed on what has to be a very emotional workplace, and during these times, life outside virtually stops. But we have some good music on the boil ... about 8 songs so far - with some great moments, I think ....very grown-up and organic in feel. It is ALL played ... together as a band; no samples, drum machines, or protools fabrications. You can hear the interactions of us as musicians in a room - very rare these days ! We are very excited, but conscious that there is a little further to go before we are ready to launch the new material on the world. The greatest thing for me has been to see us evolving into a proper band - like the old days. Every day we have played together in the studio, trying out ideas, and most of the tracks we are working on are the result of playing a song for the first or second time only ... the freshness and spirit of adventure all being there. And we have not even been 'careful' ! By this I mean that mostly we have treated our playing together not as a baseline, but as the front line of what the performance will turn out to be. In the past we have often put down a pure backing track - say, Drums, bass and rhythm guitar, and added the 'top lines' - lead vocals and lead guitars - afterwards. In what we are doing now, Paul sings it for real, on the take, as well as playing piano or guitar, or bass, and I play the lead guitar for real, and Roger is interacting in the moment too, so this very organic, live moment is what you will hear on the final mix. We are able to add some craftsmanship to this in the ways that we have learned over the years, especially as regards those trademark harmony vocals and guitar 'orchestras' - plus play with the blend of sounds ... and gradually the new music is taking shape. To my ears it sounds as if it is full of our joint heritage, but different from anything either Paul or Queen have done in the past. This session produced some welcome heavy crunch, as well as some more contemplative textured moments ... These things, it seems, cannot really be planned ... they happen, if you are lucky, when you put the work and spirit in, when you keep an awareness of the balance between instinctive and analytic, and when the Muses smile on you.
A break, now - time for getting perspectives, regaining freshness, and having new thoughts.
Cheers
Bri"
"OK - I know I don't write much about our music recording work in the studio. But, it's deliberate really ... I feel a reluctance to take advantage of this Soapbox platform to expose too much of what must essentially be a private process, needing room to breathe and develop organically. I'm happy to say that the process has worked, in a very fine way.
This (second) period of 3 weeks of QUEEN/RODGERS recording sessions is over now, so, for a while at least, I can get my life back a bit ! It's actually tough, being so closely focussed on what has to be a very emotional workplace, and during these times, life outside virtually stops. But we have some good music on the boil ... about 8 songs so far - with some great moments, I think ....very grown-up and organic in feel. It is ALL played ... together as a band; no samples, drum machines, or protools fabrications. You can hear the interactions of us as musicians in a room - very rare these days ! We are very excited, but conscious that there is a little further to go before we are ready to launch the new material on the world. The greatest thing for me has been to see us evolving into a proper band - like the old days. Every day we have played together in the studio, trying out ideas, and most of the tracks we are working on are the result of playing a song for the first or second time only ... the freshness and spirit of adventure all being there. And we have not even been 'careful' ! By this I mean that mostly we have treated our playing together not as a baseline, but as the front line of what the performance will turn out to be. In the past we have often put down a pure backing track - say, Drums, bass and rhythm guitar, and added the 'top lines' - lead vocals and lead guitars - afterwards. In what we are doing now, Paul sings it for real, on the take, as well as playing piano or guitar, or bass, and I play the lead guitar for real, and Roger is interacting in the moment too, so this very organic, live moment is what you will hear on the final mix. We are able to add some craftsmanship to this in the ways that we have learned over the years, especially as regards those trademark harmony vocals and guitar 'orchestras' - plus play with the blend of sounds ... and gradually the new music is taking shape. To my ears it sounds as if it is full of our joint heritage, but different from anything either Paul or Queen have done in the past. This session produced some welcome heavy crunch, as well as some more contemplative textured moments ... These things, it seems, cannot really be planned ... they happen, if you are lucky, when you put the work and spirit in, when you keep an awareness of the balance between instinctive and analytic, and when the Muses smile on you.
A break, now - time for getting perspectives, regaining freshness, and having new thoughts.
Cheers
Bri"