My greatest musical collaboration to date: Starting from 0, bringing together different personalities and musical worlds, with the aim of creating an exceptional Soul piece!
Autour du mois d’aout/septembre 2017 (Déjà !? Ça passe vite !), alors que je partageais une soirée avec Ollivier Roy (auteur/compositeur/interprète) et d’autres comparses musiciens, la chanteuse Elsia qui était présente évoquait un projet de morceau à sortir si possible avant la fin de l’année. En novembre, nous décidions de collaborer autour de la chanteuse Elsia avec Ollivier Roy (piano), Thibaut Lurton (basse), Olivier Parcollet (synthé) et moi-même (batterie/enregistrement/mix), mais également Laurent Brett (directeur artistique) afin de réaliser ce morceau.
The difficulty? No room for error! On the one hand, we don't know what we're getting into, so there's no way we can be 100% sure of ourselves, and on the other, we want this piece to show off Elsia's potential!
The role of the artistic director
Art directors are often the source of reproaches and clichés. Up to now, I'd never had to deal with this type of energetic person, so I didn't know what to expect, but I went away with my judgement suspended, especially as Laurent Brett was very likeable to me. And, as luck would have it, this was also a new role for him. Having followed Elsia's work and being an absolute music lover, having Laurent as D.A. was an obvious choice. He was capable of leading and guiding the team towards the desired Soul color and gimmicks. The novelty of the role probably gave him a greater sense of humility than one might imagine, or maybe it just depends on the person. Whatever the case, in addition to being an effective driving force in the organization, Laurent contributed to making this experience unique, particularly on an artistic level, by bringing his vision, his remarks and his criticism, which were always extremely constructive, from rehearsals to mixing.
Rehearsals
As the song already existed (melody and Elsia's lyrics), it was Ollivier Roy and Elsia who first worked on the initial formatting. We then began group rehearsals to find the spirit of the piece, the structure, the placements of each musician, the breaks, in short, the layout of the piece and the most final parts possible for each musician. This was a real test for most of us.
For my part, during the first two sessions, observing Laurent's reaction between each attempt, I realized that the right groove was based on triplets for this piece. I finally found my place between two drum sticks after two or three sessions, thanks to some funk roots. Shortly afterwards, Thibaut found his feet, encouraged by Laurent when he'd found the groovy riff. Ollivier Roy, more accustomed to composing piano/vocal pieces, had to adapt to this track where the bass takes the lead; a process of adaptation that lasted right up to the recording. Finally, Olivier Parcollet had ideas right from the start about synth strings, the basis of which was kept and then rearranged to fit the final track, not to mention the extra ideas he came up with during the recording/arrangement.
Four or five rehearsals have already been completed: but there's no time to lose, there's a deadline, we're recording everything!
Model
To give everyone a chance to listen to each other again and work on things, but also to have a solid basis for recording the drums, we first made a demo where the drum part was simplified and done in a drum machine. Everyone worked remotely to send in their parts, except for the vocals and bass, which were done at my place. We could have saved a lot of time if we'd done everything at home, because it's not always easy to get everything right when some musicians are recording with 100ms latency on a track that uses double triplets! So be it. This meant that we knew that the final recording of all the instruments except the drums (for practical reasons) would have to be done at my place, so as to have total control over the quality of the takes.
Recording
Model ready, direction Polysonik in Orleans for the drum rec. Everything else was recorded in my apartment under the supervision of Laurent, who worked with the musicians and myself to refine the intentions and ensure that each take was the best possible. All this was done with homemade food provided by the speakers (hats off to them) and the occasional beer to keep hydrated.
Polysonik Studio
Polysonik is basically a rehearsal studio, which I've used and abused, and for good reason: it's quite simply the reference in Orleans. A friendly staff, decent equipment, but above all in this case: the possibility of recording. As the purpose of their studio is mainly to record demos, we opted for a booking between rehearsal and recording, in the sense that we managed the rec part. However, Polysonik supplied most of the drum mics, which was a great help. If I had to do it all over again, I'd still get the assistance of a local sound engineer - you'll understand why...
The Battery
Recording the drums was particularly demanding. First you have to bring the drums in, then set them up, then tune them. Normally, as a drummer, that's where it ends. Yes, except that I'm also the one recording. So we place the microphones, run the cables more or less correctly, plug in the patch, play a bit, prepare the computer with Cubase, listen, adjust... Ah, until we realize that the PC on site doesn't actually have Pro Tools at all... So we go back home to get our PC (fixed, of course), install the drivers for the interface present, and without wasting too much time, because there's still a song to record. And then, after running around all over the place, you have to concentrate on playing correctly. To play correctly a piece that has already evolved a little between the rehearsals and the demo. Luckily, I was able to requisition Laurent to rec/stop when needed. Then, between each take, I had to move to another room to listen to the result, choose, replay, etc... Until I arrived at the famous "Well, I think we've got it". And indeed, finally, the battery kept on the recording after peeling back the takes is a "one shot": the take that confirms all these efforts. Battery: Check.
The bass
Like all bass recordings: fairly simple. A "DI" take (live bass, without amp) which we then process. Thibaut is a little stressed, as he is every time I record with him (I guess I impress him more when I'm behind a PC keyboard than behind a drum kit), but with the right mood, the spirit of the song comes through, and a few cool ideas even take place at the last moment. A big, groovy bass that makes up most of the track on its own, satisfying Laurent, who (rightly) believes that bass is the very essence of Soul, and myself, who necessarily loves this instrument as a drummer. Bass: Check!
The Piano
Ollivier Roy gets down to business! From his home, he sends out various ideas. After much consultation, the spirit that convinces everyone arrives. But there's something wrong with the recording: it's not really on time, sometimes OK, sometimes late... Strange, it doesn't sound like Ollivier! I understood the reason a few months later, when I saw that his audio interface was too high latency, which inevitably disturbs the playing of any musician. Be that as it may, seeing that the result was not to my liking, it was with his piano and at my place that the recording was made. A few takes, a few adjustments and we had our piano: Check!
The voices
Curiously, despite excellent communication, I only learned of Elsia's limited recording experience at a very late stage. Indeed, her excellent performance had masked a lack of knowledge of certain recording processes which, to me, seem obvious with time, but which of course are not at all obvious to someone making his first recordings. Having realized this, I took a little more time to explain my recording method to Elsia, which I'm sure made for much greater efficiency later on. This included the technique of re-recording a passage quickly to stay in the thick of the action, physical placement in relation to the microphone, as well as aspects of stamina as a singer - stamina which was certainly maintained with good teas and home-cooked food!
In the end, this lack of perspective on my part allowed me to familiarize myself with the process and meant that the supposedly "final" voice was, with a little hindsight, re-recorded in its entirety, this time with greater ease. The result was much greater coherence and a much more natural feel, with many more "one shots" and therefore fewer takes to pick from.
Arrangements
Choirs and claps, tambourine...
There's not much to say on the subject, except that the result is there! Elsia quickly found the choruses that sound, give depth and make you want to sing along. The claps (and finger snaps) were recorded by three people - Elsia, Laurent and me - two of whom were only equipped with headphones, for practical reasons, but which also had the advantage of having one person less in rhythm, which gives the claps more scope. Tambourine and shaker were recorded by myself, nothing extravagant, just a foundation that fills the spectrum at this frequency and adds rhythm and support to the highlights.
Synthesizers
After a billion wildly imaginative ideas, Olivier Parcollet was invited in for the finishing touches. After a good deal of time spent finding the most inspiring sounds, close to the most popular ideas, we record that good old Leslie synth, which contributes greatly to the track's groove, a few violin layers that are found in a snap of the fingers, and junctions that really tie the track together. This is the icing on the cake.
Make way for the mix!
Mixing
As always, I start the mix with the drums and then the bass. Once I've found that balance, the rest just flows.
Drums
As usual, my good old Pearl Forum Series gives me a hard time, as do the very powerful AAX cymbals and the rather "garage" studio room, which doesn't really fit in with the style I'm aiming for. After finding the right spatialization, filtering out half the frequencies on the toms and kick, and finding a good compromise on the snare, the result is quite clean, powerful without overflowing dynamically, and groovy to my taste.
Bass
The biggest challenge when you have 0 amps on the record: Giving a natural sound. After several trials and manual adjustments, I found the amp simulator sound to be just right, and once reworked, it's deep, round and both medium and deep, a little vintage, with the right level of dynamics. A little tweaking of the bass volume at times to bring it more to the front (or a little less to the front) and you're done.
Piano
If I had to pick out one word to describe the spirit of the piece, it would be: airy, soaring, punctuating. Here, the piano is there to create the atmosphere, but at the same time to provide the accents that make all the difference. My regret is that I didn't put it louder, but the difficulty is that the bass takes up so much space in the lower midrange and the voice in the midrange, not to mention the synths that follow, that the piano is bound to take a back seat if you don't want to fall into a general mess.
Synths
It's a question-and-answer game with the piano: one of the two systematically takes the place of the other. But here, the synth is mainly used to bring the tracks together, the surges of energy that herald the choruses, but also the soaring sides of the bridges/couplets with the violins, on which we play up the intensity. For me, with the piano, we have all the little details that make you want to listen to the track again and again to discover them.
Vocals
In a nutshell: a natural yet vintage sound. The charismatic lead vocals make the 90% of what we'll perceive in the end. Nevertheless, a great deal of work has gone into the numerous backing vocals and their placement, both in terms of spatialization and the volumes of the different backing vocals throughout the track, to ensure that the whole is as coherent as possible. In my opinion, this is precisely what makes it possible to concentrate on the lead voice, while being carried along by the whole. The treatment of this lead voice was no easy matter either, given its great dynamics. Basically, my idea of the thing, based on Laurent's and the whole team's recommendations, was "Well, I see a sound that's a bit vintage, and we still need to perceive the dynamics while managing to calm them down, and keep it natural, but still with a bit of distortion, and then it has to sound big." In the end, between harmonic distortion and compression, with a few well-placed delays and reverbs, I managed to achieve the result I was expecting (phew!). Not to mention the fact that the backing vocals build to a crescendo over the course of the track, and there are of course dedicated "buses" (groups of tracks) for the backing vocals, with effects to link them together, all of which produces a result that seems to me coherent, groovy, and enhances this voice. And the airy side of certain voices, I love it! Long live delays, long live high-pitched, playful backing vocals, long live Soul Music!
Mastering
I needed fresh ears on this project, in which I'd already played many roles, and I really needed to delegate the mastering on this project, even more than usual. And by chance, thanks to the SAE (sound engineering school), I had a contact: Benjamin Savignoniof Translab. This made the song a little more uniform, added the final layer of pizzazz and made it suitable for broadcast everywhere. With excellent communication, in all simplicity, the result is there.
Conclusion
There's so much more to say about this project, I'll never have covered all the juicy details, from the neighbor who comes banging on the door when we record the bass a bit loud, to my girlfriend at the time who can't stand hearing the same track any more... In the end, it's all of little importance.
What really sticks in my mind is the tremendous teamwork involved, despite everyone's family and professional commitments, in managing to start not quite from scratch, but in any case from a new musical background, musical baggage and organizational skills and everyone's willingness, to manage to put it all together and come up with a kick-ass result. And it's beautiful.
Thanks to all the project participants for this experience, and thanks to all of you for sharing it with me.
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