August 31, 2009
How to write a song.
Andrew Bird discusses his time spent recording at the Wilco Loft:
In the studio, a number of things can conspire to turn the natural act of making music into an awkward dance. First there is no audience, no one to impress. Second is the temptation to be too careful, to isolate every sound and not let it migle with other sounds. The third deals with the voice, the most personal and vulnerable instrument. Recording vocals can be fraught with aural illusions akin to the weirdness of hearing your own voice on your answering machine. ”That’s not me, is it?” You sing into a device that converts your voice into an electric current, which travels through wires and gadgets to a tape machine. You scrutinize that voice, make adjustments to your proximity to the microphone, switching between “head voice” and “chest voice.” When you belt it out it almost always sounds thin and small but when you sing quiet, close and intimate it sounds thick, warm and huge — but then it can lose gusto. Recording is full of counterintuitive stuff like this, so you can see how quickly the original sentiment of a song can get derailed.
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I have had similar experiences in recording my voice, but I find that that’s exactly what makes the journey of recording a song – of making a record – really interesting. I love exploring this stuff, finding the balances, the contrasts between singing as small as possible, playing with breath and intimacy, and finding how to belt out from the chest in full voice. What I’m finding is that the process of recording my songs is revealing and contextualising the songs themselves, bringing them to life, giving them a story, an environment to be in. I find that all of that is clarifying and gathering steam as recording progresses.