Emily Sings and notes on the making of...

[Pinball]

Emily Sings is the first of several planned singles and videos from the experimental new album “Blue and Hazy”, which is scheduled for release late in 2020. I hope you enjoy it.

Recording took longer than I expected due to a number of errr challenges. There is only vocals, acoustic and bass guitars on this track but without drums the guitar and bass are also the rhythm section and had to be spot on to get the sound I wanted.
I envisaged using double bass but in practice that didn’t have enough sustain and notes faded out too quickly. Pete suggested trying his Ibanez SRH fretless bass. This sorted the tone and sustain but it lacked high end and bite. Additional bass was added with a Eastwood Sidejack Vi, a 6 string bass that was played over the top in tic-tac style with a pick.
The guitar signal was split into two and recorded as both an acoustic and effect signal. These were then blended back together for a tighter sound. That also allowed sume subtle fading in and out of the reverb. I used a favourite Taylor (mahogany) guitar, with a Strymon Big Sky reverb pedal. It generates all of the choral, background swells and is also used on the solos.
Vocals were tweaked by Charlie Lintern in the studio. Some lines were changed later and I found that my voice had changed slightly, as I’d had corona virus. A permanent change I’m told, not that it sounds better or worse, just slightly different.
 

Recording Credits:
Eddie Mole: Guitars, vocals and bass
Peter Brownbridge: fretless bass
Sound Engineer: Charlie Lintern
Recorded at 13 sound studios at Weston super Mare