Adem Hilmi

So its finally finished, my 6 track EP featuring Ben Duberry, SERI, Natalie Jax, The Montagues, Capulets, and Peter Wolfe (instrumental to the previous Peter Doherty version). I hope the EP takes you on an auditory journey, crossing classical, hip-hop, 1960s rock, indie, and pop. I’m working on my album now, expanding the EP with collaborations by Amy Winehouse, ska legend Dave Barker, Danny Rodgers, some more up and coming British Indie bands, and another instrumental work. 

Hope you like the EP and enjoy my production style and music. I’d keep an eye on the featured artists as their all working on their own releases which by the sound of the singles, is not to be missed!

So I start work today on my debut album, 12 tracks I have written and collaborated with up-and-comming singers, the edgiest new bands, and one or two more well known voices.

Expanding on my newly released EP (which you can check out in the bellow posts), I’m hoping to feature the new ‘single’ version of Down for the Outing, a brand new song by Wolfeman, and perhaps most exciting; a few years back, I made some live sketch recordings of a new song idea with Amy Winehouse. I hope to work with/sample the pre-chorus/chorus idea she is singing, and develop it into a new song, alongside guest vocals featuring in the verses. Early days but Its got that classic motown sound baby!

Strike a pose!

Wow, my EP has over 700 plays total so far in just a few days. Been getting some really kind feedback so looks like an album is in order!

Check it out and spread the love if you haven’t done so already:

So things have been quiet lately. Well I’v been working on a 6 track EP with a handful of up-and-comming London artists (and one so-not-so-up-and-comming…), which I have uploaded for all to hear. Here are the first 5 tracks, production and music written by myself, and I hope you all enjoy it! Check back for updates on the last track.

Some people ask me what it is a record producer does…

Over the last fifty years, the record producer has moved from directing the band from the back of the studio, to sculpting the records sonic signature at the mixing desk, to now sitting alongside the band as writing collaborator. Needless to say, this has been partly aided by technological developments and the rise of ever more sonically demanding musical styles.

Since the commercial release of reel-to-reel recording devices in 1940s, recordings have been used to capture or imitate live performances. Records with musical styles such as classical, jazz, and blues, aimed to faithfully capture the musical expression of the performers. In the nineteen-fifties, the role of the record producer acted as production manager and critic, sourced studios and ancillary musicians, dealt with recording finances and had great deal of influence over which tracks and takes to release.

It is no accident that the rise of rock and pop music happened parallel to fundamental technological innovations such as tape editing and overdubbing. For Rock and Roll and its sub genres, the approach to recording no longer relied on the virtuosity of the performers or the harmonic complexity of the song, but rather, in a mood, an atmosphere, and an unusual combination of sounds.

By the nineteen-sixties, recordings became the definitive version of the song, rather then its live performance. Live performances came to be measured against the recording. The introduction of eight-track devices allowed greater control over the direction and the mood of the recorded piece. The process of multi-tracking empowered producers to dissect and manipulate the compositional components of songs. The producers such as Phil Spector, Joe Meek, and George Martin used mic placement, reverb, EQ and tape manipulation techniques to enhance the stylistic interests of rock and popular music.

By 1973, twenty-four-track recording was possible, and by 1982, digital recording formats expanded sonic fidelity and thus, creative expression by artists and producers. According to Brian Eno, who produced among others, David Bowie, U2, and Coldplay, describing his production process in the nineteen-seventies, “you no longer come to the studio with a conception of the finished piece. Instead, you come with actually rather a bare skeleton of the piece”

The process of stripping songs to their basic composition and rebuilding them in the studio is also championed by contemporary producer Mark Ronson. In an interview with ‘Behind the Glass’, he described his work with recording artist, Amy Winehouse; “it was just a matter of seeing how I could take her purest conception of the songs to where she wanted to go with them. When she played them to me on a nylon-string acoustic guitar, many of them sounded like jazz standards to me. My job was to take them into this era that we were both infatuated with.”

Well, with the historical overview out the way, I first went to Peter’s London flat to record a number of live songs he was writing at the time. I used a stereo field recorder and set it up in the corner of the room while Peter informally performed a bunch of new songs. Peter Wolfe was also present and often joined in vocally. 

A week later we hit the studio and from the live recordings we made at the flat, I chose Down for the outing as the song I wanted to work on. I made Peter record the song again live and from that recording I began to separate the musical sections and thread together a structure on the computer. Once the structure was in place, Peter was instructed to rerecord the rhythm guitar on-top of the newly structured song recording. A fresh set of vocals was then recorded over the new guitar parts.

As everything up to now has been recorded live (as some musicians, like in this case Doherty, feels more comfortable recording this way) with no metronome/click track, I had the painstaking process of editing each guitar stroke in time with a tempo grid. 

(Bellow: The orange headed pins indicate each tempo manipulation mark which has been manually inserted to push the guitar recording in time.)

Once the song was now in time, I could start to develop and embellish its sonic texture. Now I can’t even begin to explain where my musical ideas come from but from the audio clips you will find the track progressing from the iconic broken piano melody (with the original drum patter which was later dropped), to a full soundscape of strings, accordion, hip-hop kit, and sound effects.

Anyhow, I hope this was interesting for you to read and you get a clearer picture on how some records are made. As Eno said, you come with a bare skeleton, and hope your producer feels inspired that day! I’m sure there are many other production styles and processes producers go through but for me, I am not one to sit at the back of the studio directing, rather, I put my heart a soul into each track I produce. I try and take the track into new directions whilst reaming commercial and edgy, and with that, I want the listener to lose themselves in an auditory journey.  I use my skills as a classical pianist to add beautiful melodies on top and my love for hip-hop and pop influencing the rhythm section.

Next week we will look at the demo Dust on the Road. We recorded this song last year at Slaughterhouse and I will explain in more detail my production style and the process  of Peter’s lyric writting.

Strike a pose!

I’m Djing at the Astoria “Xanax Party”, 22nd May in Torion, Italy 2013. Come down for the best of British Indie classics and Rare bootlegs recordings.