So…let's talk about how I made my producer cry this week.
Look at his happy little face. He has no idea what's coming!
That guy on the left there is Martin. He and I have been collaborating on music for the last 7 years. He's produced and engineered every EP and single I've put out in that time and we've become pretty great friends over the years, bonding over a love of music, Doctor Who and a similar sense of humour.
So why on Earth would I want to make him cry, I hear you ask? I certainly didn't do it DELIBERATELY!
It all comes back to a song.
Most of you have probably heard me play a song in my set called The Hole You Leave Behind. It's a song I wrote back in late 2017/early 2018 about the true story of my wife and I losing a baby due to miscarriage. To this day, it is still the single worst day and week of my life and I processed that grief in the only way I really know how to: songwriting.
I've had the chance to play that song many times since then and the response from audiences has been overwhelming. I've had some amazing conversations with people at my shows off the back of that song and have been truly privileged to have people share their own stories with me.
The trouble is...I've never been able to record a version that I liked.
In the live environment, with the right audience, the song has always shined, but the studio version released on my first (out of print) EP never properly captured the song in it's best form. As the song became more of a mainstay in my live sets, I became more and more convinced that I needed to try and record this song again.
Martin and I recorded the song once more during the very first studio session for the album whilst we were waiting for the other band members to arrive. We took one, maybe two passes on it before the band got there and we moved on to setup for the main session.
When I finally reviewed the recording late last year, it was clear that we STILL didn't have the take of it that we needed. I decided to take a crack at recording the song at home, hoping that the crudity of the setup and a slight change to my playing style would provide the sound that I was looking for.
Sadly, the recordings were still coming up short.
Wondering what I was missing, I went back to an email exchange I had with Frank Turner about the production of an acoustic recording of his song Josephine (seriously, this version is utterly sublime!) and realised that I'd forgotten that he mentioned having recorded the song using a nylon string guitar.
A few WhatsApp messages later, I managed to get my hands on a nylon string acoustic guitar and hammer out a take, thinking that it will just be a demo to act as a proof of concept and that we will need several more takes before nailing the song.
After some back and forth with Martin, I received this message:
One take on a different guitar was all it took - we FINALLY got the version of this song that I've been chasing for years and it made the producer (and me) cry.
I suppose this is just a reminder to be persistent and not give up on achieving what you want - it might take you a while and you'll see plenty of failure along the way but, if you're prepared to learn the lessons of those failures, you'll find your way to where you want to go.
More to come on the album soon, but I'll leave it there for now.