A Labour of Love
Collaborating with a banjo player and a bird
Please listen along whilst you read…
Last week, Brisbane based banjo player Andrew Tuttle came to my HOTA studio to record on my new songs. At the end of the session we dedicated about 20 minutes to recording a few short improvisations, just guitar and banjo together. We even put a stop watch on and gave ourselves 1:30 per idea.
Later that night I trawled through what we had and put aside the best little moments of our jams.
Over the next week I kept revisiting the recordings, with an overwhelming sense of curiosity and in the end, obsession.
A few times a day I would open up the Protools session and rearrange tracks, add field recordings and reverse audio (You know…the fun stuff).
The track evolved slowly each time as I built and shaped the elements at hand.
In the spirit of the original improvisations, I have tried not to throw too much into the mix and have kept this as a short track, just over 1:30.
I have loved working with the lyrical interplay between the banjo and guitar. It has sort of a Duelling Banjos vibe (just not as creepy).
The ‘reverse’ banjo and guitars took some effort to get to work together and I found I was making lots of little tiny adjustments to the placing of the tracks to get the phrasing of all these elements just right.
After I included some from the forest and water sounds from my trips to creeks around the Gold Coast, I threw in a recording of a noisy little Butcher Bird who visits our bird bath at home in Burleigh Heads.
The jovial, carefree vibe of our little juvenile friend matched perfectly with the vibe of Andrew and I’s fingerpicking jam.
I chose the best bird melodies and placed them around the banjo and guitar so there is a melodic dance between the three of us (there is also some Rainbow Lorikeets in there for extra avian goodness).
I played it to Berny, my partner (and truster critic) on the second day, when it was a baby of a song. She liked it, but I knew that the idea did not totally transfer. “Maybe more bird songs” she said and “put some of the reverse sounds at the end”
Ok… that was easy… ‘bird sounds’ tick…….’reverse sounds’ tick
Over the next few days I kept on making small adjustments that I knew would make sense to Berny. The next time I play it to her, I want her to love it.
A fellow HOTA Artkeeper in my studio took a listen as I finished this mix and was transported to the Australian bush, but thought that the ending should wash away and disappear more gently.
I then sent it to Andrew Tuttle and his reply was “This is Lovely”. Lovely is good word.
I then played my updated mix to Berny again, and she loved it.
It has been great to play my ideas to people whom I trust whilst still in the process of creating (I am not usually so forthcoming to share in the early stages of an idea). Receiving feedback has been so helpful in plotting the direction of my productions for this project.
Despite the positive feedback from my trusted critics, I still have this lingering feeling that I need to keep tinkering.
I feel that the song needs a little more space….just a little.
I’d love to know what you think.
I think it's perfect, a kind of democracy of sounds, bird and human!
The little gaps between stringed instruments and bird make me think that your butcher bird friend is listening in then commenting on your efforts. I don’t speak BB so I can only hope it’s a good review.