I’m in the middle of a project which involves 15 other artists from across the globe and it’s been quite enlightening. When we send over files we deliberately allow the artists to use their best judgement and avoid any kind of micro management. This is producing some terrific and often unexpected results and I am absolutely loving working in this way.
I recently had a track where I continued to think “its just not quite right” for some reason, and then I finally figured that my original vocal take was far “too polite” in reflecting the subject matter. I’m super pleased with the lyrics, but it needed something new, if the track was to really work in the way I originally intended.
I sent it over to an excellent songwriter who is part of this project who rather politely made the same observation, which was quite gratifying and perfectly illustrates the power and usefulness of working in a collaborative manner.
“Fantastic”, I said, “I 100% agree. Just go for it and add what feels right.”
I’ve blogged before about the unhelpful excessive use of superlatives in describing work and how a lack of critical thinking is not helpful to the creative process. When everything is described as “awesome” there’s no need to reflect on how to improve existing work. The most talented artists are always pushing forward, seeking out new sonic territory and further developing their own unique creative voice.
The material from “All kinds of crazy” is more musically diverse and different to anything I have been involved with to date. Its an absolute joy to bring together some exceptional talent across the globe. I am grateful to everyone involved in this project either as an artist, or in sound or video production. This material will start to appear later in 2021 both in audio and video formats.
One of the joys of working with so many talented musicians is that the results are quite fascinating and nothing I might have originally envisaged. There is also a parallel remix project Code-E1 which is also turning out to be excellent and I suspect will surprise many folks.
