Part 2

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

There is definitely no strict control in my writing process or the process when creating a demo - whatever flows out. At a point though, when the decision is made to turn a song or an idea into a finished piece of work, that’s a very dedicated and much more disciplined process.

I suppose that’s when you move from ‘artist’ or ‘songwriter’ to ‘producer’ and it’s a very different headspace, skill set and process.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Yes it definitely does.

When I started the production process for the album there were seventeen songs. Three of them didn’t make it on to the record. That wasn’t because the songs fundamentally weren’t as good as the others, in fact, I think two of them are up there alongside my favorite songs that did make the cut. But at a certain point, I came to the conclusion that I had taken those songs in the wrong direction and they weren’t going to be realised in the way I wanted for this particular album.

With certain songs on the album, ideas were tried out and changed along the way, but once you’ve taken something so far in one direction, sometimes it’s a case of saying ‘that’s not fundamentally right’ and you need to scrap it and start again. So there were three songs where that happened. One I think just wasn’t quite good enough to start with and the other two will be on my second album now I have a clearer idea of what I want the finished versions to sound like.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Definitely, I think I discovered spirituality through music primarily. The creative state is for me about connecting with your inner self in a very deep and truthful way - it’s getting into a meditation or flow state.

After that, I think for me it has been about realising your own potential as well as the potential of a song. Creating something that other people connect and relate to that came from inside your mind is a very special, and I think quite spiritual, experience in itself.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

A lot of people questioned whether I would ever finish this record and I think people around me thought I was being too much of a perfectionist and sometimes I also questioned this myself. But I think for me being finished is about addressing every moment in the song and making sure it does exactly what it needs to do at that point emotionally.

When I’m listening back to a production I will hear things that bug me emotionally or that just don’t quite feel right or give me the feeling I want. Once all of those things have been addressed and I don’t feel that way anymore, it means it’s finished.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I think it’s very important to step away from something for a little while once it’s finished or even at times during the process of refinement.

My initial intention for the album was to polish and develop each arrangement and production one by one but that just wasn’t practical. I got really lost with certain songs at some points and just had to leave them for a few weeks or even months while I worked on something else.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

For me, the role of production is intertwined with writing and arranging. For an album like this, production is about choosing the right musicians to work with for the songs and considering the sonics of the record both holistically and for each individual instrument.

In the early stages of recording, I worked with an amazing engineer called Lewis Hopkins who had a lot of input into how the record would ultimately sound and mentored me on sonics and a lot of the technical aspects of engineering and producing. Later on I brought on board Brian Malouf who mixed the record and was instrumental in bringing to life, the vision for how the album would come together sonically.

I worked very closely with Brian on the mixes. He would mix each track then we’d work on them one by one looking at more of the details of which verbs were used, where we needed to use automation in volume and effects and things like that.

After that I worked with Geoff Peshe at Abbey Road studios to master the album. I don’t think a lot of artists / producers usually sit in on the mastering session but I really like to make sure that I have a full view and input across the whole process and I also really like to learn so the opportunity to work with people like Lewis, Brian and Geoff has been amazing and I’ll go into the next album with a lot more knowledge and confidence now I think.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I don’t really have a sense of emptiness about releasing the music, I’m just really ready to share it and I hope other people will get a lot of joy out of it.

I think the sense of emptiness comes from the music industry more generally or the marketing side of things. Everything has become very ‘data driven’ and you’re checking ‘stats’ all the time to see how well things are doing. I suppose there’s uncertainty around what ‘success’ looks like for an album when you’ve invested a lot of time and money in creating something.

Music, for me, isn’t about money. If I wanted to invest in a business, this definitely wouldn’t be a sensible choice, but equally, at a certain point, when you’re all in, it has to be about it being sustainable. All this data just feels like numbers with no real meaning. When someone sends you a beautiful message about how a song has affected them or decides to buy your album on Vinyl or a ticket to your show, I think that’s where there is some joy because there’s a real sense of connection there.

I feel like on the journey, I’m constantly re-defining what success is but I think it’s about having a sustainable career in music, being able to create album number two and creating real connections with real people who appreciate and relate to the music. That feels very fulfilling as opposed to empty.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I think music has the ability to express ideas more holistically than ‘mundane’ tasks or just verbal communication. It’s a bit like if you reassure someone and you also touch their arm or give them a hug and you have eye contact that says you mean what you say. It’s the combination of those things all together that evokes a deeper sense of connectedness.

There are so many parts to music - the different instruments, the tone of these instruments, the unison of everyone playing, the words, phrasing, rhythm - it’s an auditory experience but it’s also so much more than that.

What that is can’t be described in words I don’t think but I think as humans we all understand the power of music when we listen to it and how it communicates to us in a very unique and powerful way.