I've just returned from an 11 day recording session at _______ (Yet to be named) Studios in Cologne, Germany. Situated in the basement in central city Cologne it was the perfect place for like-minded music lovers to hibernate and let the magic happen...
The project was another one of Red Bull Music Academy's ideas and was invented to bring previous participants, lecturers and helpers together specifically to record some tunes for an EP which Red Bull will release.
I consider myself very privileged to be part of the project alongside so many people who's music I collect and have been the soundtrack for my life for many years. The team was a good size and the people involved were all down to earth music lovers who had a lot of respect for what each other were up to and everyone (no exceptions) learned a little something from everyone else.
The people involved:
The Mizell Brothers (Larry, Fonce, Rod)
Theo Parrish
Steve Spacek
Om'mas Keith (Sa-Ra Creative Partners)
Mark Pritchard (Harmonic 33/Troubleman)
Skymark
Sofie Loizou (Miss Memory)
Roman Sisikov
Andreya Triana
Black Spade
Julien Dyne (Opensouls/The Tornadoes)
The first night was like watching kids in a candy shop, well at least some of us (Theo, that means you!). Hitting the studio for a quick briefing, which was basically open ended - have fun, make music - that sort of thing. So I hit the lolly bowl (As I do) and
skipped from room to room jamming away or just listening to people opening their musical minds.
It was straight into it from the first day. With so many talented musicians, producers, singers and songwriters there was no question there was going to be magic, we just didn't know what the result would be. The gravitational pull of certain people was obvious but as the days went on it became apparent that everyone had more than enough talent to get down with everyone else! Sometimes the music just made itself and no matter how crazy the ideas got the song ended up winning in the end. Ideas turned on themselves and 10 minute Detroit house tunes were stripped back to their original acoustic guitar and vocal arrangements for the sake of the song. Don't get me wrong though, there were tunes that went the other way where lyrics crowded the music and were scrapped so the process was an organic one.
The vibe was constantly pulsing and the nights were late. Some faded sooner than others while some would serenade the sunrise on their walk home to the hotel (Guilty...). With only two main studio rooms and one designated vocal room the studio time was precious. This meant that while the Mizell Brothers were laying down some live Motown soul, with myself on guitar and Julien Dyne on drums, others were left to cultivate their songs in the pool table room (a.k.a. Echo Chamber) and fine tune their lyrcs. If that wasn't working you could always hit the ground floor for some Guitar Hero Playstation action or to "Grease" (Look under eat in the Mizell Dictionary!).
(Dj Adlib takes some time out form editing audio for the RBMA radio...)
To our delight one of the studios was filled with Torsten's private drum machine and analogue synth collection. I'm pretty sure there was a machine in there that each of us had dreamed about or waited for the day to play on a track.
With all of the talent in such a small place with so much gear and ideas the music evolved and we were all excited to see and hear what each other were up to...
Adi
Check out:
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/HOME.12.0.html?&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[year]=2007&tx_ttnews[m..08&cHash=27fbebae4f
for Photo/audio diaries of "A Class of it's Own"...