Recording an album in lockdown
I am a singer and harpist living in Glasgow, placing traditional English and Gaelic language folk songs and texts in a contemporary setting alongside my own compositions. I am usually a busy touring musician working as a soloist and with several bands, but have recently found myself adjusting to a very different pace of life at home with all my live work cancelled for the foreseeable future due to the Coronavirus.
I was scheduled to go into the studio this month to finish recording my fifth solo album due for release later this year. At first, I thought I would have to postpone the project and push my release date into 2021. However, my co-producer/engineer/drummer Mattie Foulds and I have been working hard these past few weeks to find ways of making sure the project is still possible to achieve in the new self-isolating situation we all find ourselves in. I play the electroharp (it works like an electric guitar), so I can plug my harp straight in to my computer via an interface and recording parts is quite straightforward. I have then been adding vocals and keys and sending files to Mattie, who adds drums and mixes the music. We’ve been using video calls to discuss the sound and Mattie has software that means we can listen along to what he’s working on together. It has been a steep technological learning curve! And my bedroom wardrobe has now become my vocal booth.
The album will also feature Lauren MacColl on strings, Mikey Owers on trombones and Sarah Hayes on backing vocals. They are about to add their parts from their homes. I’m fortunate that everyone involved has the means to record from home and I’m excited to hear what they add to the tracks. It helps that I have been working with these musicians for years and we all worked together on my third album ‘Here’s My Heart Come Take It’.
The songs on the album will follow a woman’s experience through old poems and texts in English and Gaelic, alongside my own writing. I am especially interested in narratives where a woman overcomes adversity and steers her own story. I have been writing harp pieces then adding a song over the top using text from poems, and also adapting old traditional ballads. I recently shared a work in progress online. The lyrics for the song are from a poem written by Susan Coolidge entitled ‘To Jean Ingelow’. The poem is included as a preface to a collection of poems by Ingelow, published in 1885. I love the sentiment (my take on it at least) of encouraging another woman to sing from ‘out her deeper heart’ and that ‘we will listen to the strain’.
I have set up a Kickstarter crowdfunding page so that people can pre-order the album or pledge for a reward, such as a music commission or a cover song video. It is my first crowdfunding campaign and it has been really heartening to see the support for my project as I’m working on it. The money raised will enable me to pay everyone involved in the project and lessen my own financial investment, which with so much live work cancelled or postponed is a great help. It is such a boost to have a positive project to work on during this time and I look forward to being able to tour the new album live at some point in the future, whenever that may be.