PUSH IT TO THE LIMITATIONS

Having access to two very different-sized rooms within the hall meant that Andy and Felix could allocate particular uses to each space. According to Andy, “The big ‘main’ room sounded so beautiful, and we used that to get a range of huge, spacious sounds. There’s also the much smaller, tighter-sounding Library room. This is a little space behind Phil’s saxophone repair ‘lab’.” These two options meant that the production could be moved around as the need arose. Andy continues, “It was funny, actually… When we first got into the hall we set up the drums in the spacious main room where Phil had his Allen & Heath digital mixer installed. This had more inputs than we’d ever need. We recorded some drums in there and it sounded great, but then we moved the kit into the Library room to try that out too. We set up the same kit with the same mics, and everybody was immediately struck, saying, ‘No, this is where we record the drums!’”

This meant that the group ended up recording all of the the band tracks in a much smaller room, which was a room that also happened to be limited to the 16 input channels of an old iZ Technology Radar that Phil had installed in there. “It was fiddly but we had to make do, but thankfully Phil’s production suggestions ended up being brilliant.”

Felix picks up here, explaining, “We didn’t have enough channels to capture the grand piano in stereo on the live takes, instead we opted for one really nice mic and went with the mono sound.” In this input-poor scenario, the slimmed down approach that yielded favourable results was to mic up the grand piano with a single 1940s RCA MI-6203 ribbon microphone, which captured a rich, mono signal. “Phil’s mono piano technique was such a great revelation in the end,” shares Andy. “It ended up sounding incredible, and is something I’ve started using on other projects.”

The practical and physical limitations very much added character to the album’s production and overall sound. Felix expands on this, sharing, “We had a lot of musicians join us, but we also had a limited number channels due to the desk we had access to. As a result, we were making all these interesting mic choices.” Continuing along the narrative of working with restrictions, Felix goes on to say, “We didn’t have much playback. We wanted to record live vocals while we were doing takes for the songs, but I was about 25 metres away. To ensure I could hear what Andy was saying we extended some cables to hook up a talkback monitor for me — which was one of those old Gorilla practice amps sitting out in the hall.”

In the spirit of ‘going with the flow’, Felix, Andy, and the crew decided against the convenience and flexibility of DAWs to expand their input count — instead allowing the limitations to guide their methodology. Andy explains: “We were constrained to Phil’s Radar system. I mean, there were other options — like Ollie’s Pro Tools system — but the Radar was set up so we just ran with it and it was great. It’s cool to have restrictions put on you. And the basic approach to tracking was Ollie on the piano in the main room with lines running up to him. Then Felix was in a smaller booth Phil had built off the main room, meaning he was able to see Ollie from there.

Allowing the spaces to inform things, they’d often use smaller rooms that were off the main rooms as reverberant antechambers. Andy elaborates: “I threw a Neumann U47 down in a little hallway off the main room to capture the sound of a trumpet. I just love when there are little rooms that can accentuate the main room sounds.”

MIC DROP

As far as live miking the core band when working with a 16 channel system, Andy says it was tight. He placed two mics on Felix — a Neumann TLM67 and a Shure SM7; the drum kit had 12 mics around it; and the bass guitar had a single mic on the cab, and a DI. “Phil’s mate Matt had this collection of incredible mics he loaned us for the session,” he shares. “There was a pair of Neumann U89s, a U47, and we had this lovely old Neumann TLM67 from Olympic Studios that Freddy Mercury had sung into!”

Andy’s approach to recording drums is simple, and based around the placement of a single microphone. He explains, “When I’m recording I’ll have a dedicated microphone pointing between the kick and snare, aimed over the top of the kick. Often I’ll base the whole drum sound around that mic. I like to do that at the recording stage because with that in the drummer’s monitor mix they really tend to play into it.”

Phil’s microphone collection was also deployed during the recording sessions. This included a handful of Sennheiser MD408 mics that were used on drums and vocals. Andy explains that, “Phil has his own amazing mic collection, of course. There were some 408s we used on all the toms, and he had a bunch of old Calrec microphones we used on the 10-piece string section.” Having the luxury of overdubs, they chose to use individual microphones on the string and brass sections, as well as having a few room mic options up their sleeves also. “We had the U89 and U47 as room options too.”

Andy talks about how he decided to approach capturing the vocals too, as he explains, “We loved the mic we used for the ‘mono ribbon mic’ technique for the piano so much that we also used it on some vocals with it too — it was great for that. We also did a vocal duet with two of the 408 mics — in fact, because of the 408s I didn’t use a single SM57 on this whole album, and that’s an absolute first!”

On an initial listen through, one of the first things you’ll likely notice is the diversity of sounds and moods across the record. But the same can be said of the structures at the song level. This may seem like a complicated or daunting goal to write and mix towards, but they enacted quite a simple method to achieve it. Rather than orchestrating this at the song-writing stage, or trying to wrangle it in post-production, they instead chose to record multiple versions of each song, and chopped and changed sections to create the desired flow.

Andy gives an example of this, sharing, “On the song ‘Deeper’ we recorded two very different sounding versions of the song. We recorded them right next to each other, but in different rooms, and with totally different drum and bass setups. We then cut up the sections and spliced the two versions together.”

A fun little sub-task undertaken in the studio was to create their own samples. Rather than sourcing existing samples to create a deeper narrative and sense of texture they decided to develop their own custom-made samples to insert into songs to augment the atmosphere. Andy explains, “This was something that I really enjoyed working on. We’d talked about using samples on the album but ended up recording our own. We had Neda and Grace sing in their own languages — in Portuguese and Creole — and it sounded so brilliant. It actually ended up sounding just like old samples, except that we made them!”

HIRED FOR SOUND

So, besides the key members, there were clearly a few extra people who’d been brought on board to contribute — as well as an extended role-call of guest performers who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. There were string and brass ensembles, vocalists, and various percussion groups enlisted to participate in the project. As Felix reflects on the process, he comments, “I think there’s something like 40-odd guest musicians on this album — and that’s not counting The Heidelberg Wind Symphony who we got in one night because they just happened to be rehearsing there at the same time. We also worked with a large string section for a few songs, and on others we worked with a Brazilian percussion marching ensemble. Other songs had a bunch of West African percussionists too!”

Felix discusses how the venue and this crew were able to contribute to the sense of occasion on the recording. “There’s a real sweet spot. You’ve found the space, you’ve written the songs, and the people involved are all at the right moment in their lives to be able to be present — and that’s what brings this sense of purpose to the album,” he says. “And that was certainly the case here. Those things just came together, which meant we were able to enjoy the social and creative experience without second-guessing many decisions.” He continues, “You’re not focussing on whether the song’s right, or if you need to rewrite things. You’re not even stressed thinking, ‘oh, we only have 16 channels, but we need 18 for drums alone’. It is how it is, we’ve done the preparation, this is a moment in time, and we’re all giving each other confidence here. So, even though the space was chaotic, and there was a lot to organise, it all felt really good.”

When you take all of this into consideration, you quickly realise that all of this must have been quite the project to pull together. Felix comments: “The recording of this album happened supremely naturally, and that’s a testament to Rosco’s arrangements, the electronic pre-production Ollie did, and the songwriting in the first place — and the quality of the musicians too, of course. So we were coming into these really good spaces to begin with.”

The writing of the album happened during a strange and shifting time for live music. The landscape had already changed so drastically from when they first started playing together all those years ago, but add a pandemic into the mix and the concept has become so distorted that it’s now unrecognisable. Felix wanted to create an album that called back to those earlier, simpler times — to acknowledge the people and places who had directly and indirectly helped the band to find its meaning. Felix had these thoughts to share about his motivations. “This album rose from a time that was quite difficult for the music world. The world that we as The Cat Empire grew up in was a very vibrant one. Melbourne was such an incredible city to be a part of, back when Ollie, Ross, Danny, Uriel and myself came through. There was such a diversity of music, bands, and musicians who had let us sit in on gigs that ranged from amazing, dingy rock gigs to incredible jazz, latin and cuban shows. All these musicians were living and performing in Melbourne, so we wanted to make an album that celebrated that vibrancy. The decision to bring in lots of those musicians and have them play as part of the band was an intent we had early on in the process.”

Felix’s final thoughts have him reflecting on the overall project, and how successful he feels the process was, saying, “Of all the albums I’ve made, I feel that this one has been the most fun. We wanted to create something that overflowed and felt really alive, with a lot of different musicians involved and we chose a really unique space to do that in. Andy was the perfect engineer for that because he embraces all of those things. It was a wonderful experience.” He and the band were able to produce a warm hug of an album that both embraces the past and has hopes for the future — and was done so in a manner that sounds like it was the cat’s pyjamas.

A CASUAL ARRANGEMENT

Given that Katy’s voice is the album’s centrepiece, how did the pair tackle the task of capturing, treating, and mixing it? After landing on an overall desired vocal sound, they began looking at how best to present the essence of these parts. Some of this essence was in the effortless, off-the-cuff nature of the guide-tracks. Katy explained how these early takes would influence the song’s development, and often end up as part of the song. She said, “As we began to track vocal demos we’d usually set out thinking, ‘Oh, it’s only a demo, it’s just rough’ — not taking much care with them. We found that this would result in something that felt more spontaneous, and sounded really great. In fact, we wound up using the original demos on ‘LMK’ because they had a kind of quality that we just couldn’t replicate.”

Vocals were recorded at home in their DIY studio which was a flexible, dual purpose space: the spare bedroom. The setup was minimal but effective, and allowed them to work whenever the mood took them. “We had a really good home setup, and it sounded amazing,” recollected Graham. “Most of it was recorded in the bedroom with a Neumann U87. I worked completely in-the-box, so was mainly using UAD’s collection of plugins — generally using the 1176, LA-2A, or 1073 at the start of the chain, and then sometimes adding a bit of EQ at the other end.” He continued, “I did start experimenting with other plugins too — the Manley VoxBox and Avalon VT-737 both worked really well with Katy’s vocals — but her voice was so consistent that I didn’t need to go too hard on that side of things.”

SIGNATURE VOCAL SOUND

The key to Katy’s signature sound was less about plugins and more to do with layering her vocal parts, relying more on doubling and panning to highlight her unique delivery. When replicated in unison, the precision of Katy’s performances results in a gently chorussing movement. Katy commented that she’s also a fan of adding harmonies to create lush vocal beds. “I always double up my vocals, but I love harmonising too. They come to me quite naturally, so we end up having lots to play around with.”

But Graham, who proves to be the patient one, quickly added, “There were sometimes triple and quadruple vocal parts — and then there were the harmonies. We took the songs to a certain point — kind of throwing everything at the wall, so to speak — and then had to scale it all back again to restrain the pallete. I mean, it’s great to have so many vocals to work with, don’t get me wrong, but it was also quite a process to thin them all out.”

With all of the vocal comping now out of the way, both Katy’s main and backing parts have been left relatively intact, only receiving subtle processing to help with focus and placement in the stereo field. “We did use Arturia’s Dimension D chorus and UberMod from Valhalla, and the Eventide H910 plugin,” recalled Graham. “And down the track, when we had a remix of ‘Come See Me’ done in a studio in Perth, they put Katy’s vocals through a physical H3000 unit.” Katy also noted that “We tried the Antares Harmony Engine as well. I didn’t really like what it came up with but Graham definitely vibed on it.”

Through all of this trial and error, the pair refined their process and ended up with a solid approach that allowed them to confidently capture and process vocal takes. More importantly, being a simple home setup meant that they could leave it partially set up. “Now we can have things waiting, ready for an inspired moment from Katy,” said Graham. “And we know we can get something sounding good, straight off the bat. We just need a good mic and preamp. And a good vocalist!”

TRADE TOOLS

As far as instrumentation went, most of it was performed by Katy and Graham on the collection of instruments they’d picked up overseas. “The Juno was doing arpeggiated bass and leads on ‘Feel So Bad’ and ‘Come And See Me’, but unfortunately we’ve just sold that,” shared Graham. “And ‘End Is Near’ has Katy’s SV-2 parts all over it.”

So, in addition to the the Roland Juno 6 and Korg SV-2 hardware synths — and the Casio keyboard — a couple of software options were employed too. These included: Reverb Machine’s RM-20, the virtual instrument that samples sounds from the Yamaha PS-20; the Arturia CMI-V plugin emulation of the Fairlight digital sampler and synthesiser; and the U-He Diva soft synth that models the components and modules of a handful of vintage analogue synthesisers.

Graham gave some further detail: “I was watching a lot of ‘Mix With The Masters’ at the time, which I was finding really inspirational. There was one in particular with Illangelo, and while I’m not a massive fan of the music, his process really resonated with the way Katy and I were approaching the record. I spotted that he was using the Diva in the video so we gave it a shot and ended up using it quite a bit. ‘Feel So Bad’ had a lot of that on it.” He continued, “‘Beside that one, there was also a preset from the Arturia CMI-V plugin that we used on ‘Falling Apart’.”

Katy chimed in, saying, “The Casiotone, the SV-2, and the CMI-V plugin patch all created such a canvas across the album. We also dug our old Casiotone 401, but then found the RM-20 plugin which is essentially the Beach House sound.”

HIRED TUNES

When working on an album by yourself, having only a single creative source can create a homogenous outcome, so while Katy and Graham were the core songwriters and performers, they also enlisted the talent of a few others. These additions contributed different perspectives to the process, which helped to broaden their sound.

Local Perth multi-instrumentalist, Josiah Padmanabham, made an appearance, and ended up playing quite a significant role across the record. Graham explained: “It was a really interesting process. Josiah was such a gun, and really brought a different colour to things. When he sat down in front of a synth you’d have to hit record straight away because he’d do something magical and you’d never get him to recreate it.” Katy also added, “We added a couple of backing singers too — Tara and Solomon came and helped out. They were recorded at Poons Head Studios in Fremantle, and you’ll no doubt hear them throughout the album.”

MIX & MATCH

Of the three mix engineers auditioned to work on the mixdown, Dave Hammer was the one they selected to carry out the final duties. But besides being hired to give the album a general spruce up, and a tying up of loose-ends, he also ended up making some creative decisions that helped reduce the clutter of mixes and sessions. So, after working intimately on something for so long, how did Katy and Graham feel about passing that kind of control on to an outsider?

Katy remarked: “We were still kind of working things out when we got Dave on board, but he really elevated the album. Graham had produced and mixed pretty much all the songs, but then Dave took it all up a notch in his final pass. He was also very patient with us.” Graham continued, saying, “Dave did the final mixes on the majority of the album, but he helped us to strip things back a bit too. We’d send him our sessions, and some of those were pretty big — sometimes with 80-100 tracks… But he came in with fresh ears and a different approach and made such a difference. I knew this all needed to happen, but I wasn’t the right person to do it because I was too attached. So Dave helped us by making things more manageable — but I’m sure he could have gotten rid of a bunch of other stuff without us noticing too!”

LIVE WIRES

Katy and Graham settled on Ableton as their DAW of choice (via Logic and Luna) which proved a good choice when it came time to prep for live performances. And speaking of which, what does their live contingent look like? Well, Katy has been so inspired by the performances that the Korg SV-2 and its RH3 keybed is joining them on tour. Straight to the pool room. She explained that, “The SV-2 has really changed everything — it’s just so beautiful to play… It’s changed how I write and perform, so it’s replacing my Nord on tour. Those old Nord keys feel so flimsy now, but the Korg’s keys are weighted so it plays just like a real piano.” And compared to the Nord, the Korg probably feels like it weighs as much as one too.

But the Korg has played a creative role in more ways than one. Given this preference for it over the Nord, the comparatively smaller library of sounds in the Korg means they’ve had to be more particular about choices in the studio to ensure the sound can be replicated live on stage. Graham shares, “It sounds great straight out the box, you know? It’s not got as many sounds as the Nord which means we have to be more conscious of what we’re adding to songs to ensure the Korg’s live patches can translate them — but it has such a nice feel to it, so it’s all worth it.”

With a 14-date national tour lined up, tour preparations began. Graham offered some insights on this, and stated that, “We had Josiah playing in the band in the studio, but we’ll be stripping it back for the live shows, with just Katy and I performing. A lot of the synths will be on backing tracks, but I’ll be playing some live synth and guitar too. And because we’ve had Ableton running in the studio we’ll be able to transition to our live performances easily.” Katy will be also juggling some roles on tour, and said, “I’ll be playing acoustic and electric guitar, and keyboard. And obviously some singing!”

The pair are stepping it up a notch on stage in other departments too. Katy goes on to say, “Graham is currently doing a tech rehearsal because we’ve just hooked up our new in-ear monitoring rig. Everything will be running through a Behringer x32 Rack so that we can have more consistency from venue to venue.”

THE VIEW FROM HER

Considering Katy’s history in the music industry, it’s interesting to imagine how she might have found this experience compared to her previous album-making endeavours. This one has been different on a few levels: with a new addition to her repertoire being the straddling of parental commitments while being a musician; and then more widely, that there’s been so much social and musical change in the world in the last 20 years. Katy says it’s been an interesting journey, stating, “I’ve kind of taken it all in my stride — being a mother to a 14 month old and 5 year old means that life’s hectic. Time is just so precious to us, so that’s been really hard. And the industry is just so completely different now, it’s kind of an upside-down world. I mean, Kanye West puts out a record, then decides to change the mix after it had been released — he just took it down and changed the files, you know? Crazy.” Katy said that as part of that, she and Graham often discuss the importance of being independent, and not taking that for granted. “It’s amazing to realise that now we can do what we want, because we just can.”

With ‘abundance of choice’ being an underlying theme of this album’s story, and without deadlines in place, the creative luxury of working from a home studio quickly became a hindrance. Having no time constraints made it harder to finalise ideas — and easier to get bogged down in the extra choices that were needing to be made. In regard to having such fluid goal posts, Katy said: “It kept ballooning and getting more adventurous. The finished product is the result of a lot of work, and a lot of experimentation — a lot of hours, a lot of sleepless nights… And sleepless days!”

As the album project wound down there was some reflection on the journey. With confidence built, lessons learned, and new skills developed, Graham shares his thoughts on the final outcome by saying: “There’s definitely lots of things we’d do differently next time, 100 percent. It was pretty stressful towards the end, for sure.” Katy wrapped up by saying, “I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved. I can’t wait to do the next one, and see where we end up. It feels like we’ve just started, and this is just the beginning.”

SOUND ADVICE SOUNDS GOOD

Andrew Sheps became a mentor, and offered his advice and feedback over Zoom calls and chats. While Nathan was caught in a moment of analysis-paralysis, he offered a helpful perspective — a kind of mantra, if you will — to help remove some of that doubt. Nathan says, “I was the kind of person who’d worry that if I was needing to, say, boost 5kHz by more than 4-5dB, then there must be a problem with my mix. But Andrew told me, ‘If you’ve got to boost it all the way up, like, whatever… If it sounds good, it sounds good!”

News flash: it sounds good. From stylistic- and production-based standpoints ‘Miracles’ covers an impressive amount of ground. Opening with some sure-footed coastal/dolewave swagger, the album winds it way effortlessly through classic rock, yacht-rock, and delta/southern blues — and perhaps there’s even a nod to Dennis Waterman’s bawdy ‘Minder Theme’ too.

All of this genre-hopping is supported by convincing production elements that seem simultaneously able to accentuate the differences, while cohesively tying it all back together again. As far as common factors or devices go, the album feels cohesively bound by a variety of elements. Nathan shares, “I did start to form little patterns around how I was going to create things. The drums took some experimenting, but the fundamental drum sounds across a lot of the tracks are quite similar. Then throughout the mix process they really began to sit in different worlds.”

FAST TWITCH MIXES

As a source of productivity it seems rather counterintuitive, but another interesting motivational tool has seen Nathan taking to Twitch to live stream his studio sessions. “The first couple of months were hard because I was still in ‘performance mode’, and focussed on the audience. This was pulling me away from creating, but eventually I sank into it,” Nathan shared.

Much like having a client in the studio, relying on you to turn up on time and get work done, Nathan shares that, “Going live on Twitch ended up creating an incredible focus because I knew I had to commit.” He continues, “If I was ever feeling a bit unmotivated or distracted, like, ‘Oh, I think I want to go for a walk, or check my emails’ or whatever, I’d know that they were expecting me to be online and mixing,” he said. “It’s just having another presence in there with you, with expectations, you know?”

This novel approach to motivation was also found to be creatively beneficial in that it that helped him to push through a fear of judgement. “I actually learnt a lot from the chat. I learnt how to better handle my insecurities because when somebody was being an arse and it bothered me, I could pause and think, ‘Oh, I’ve got that belief in there that I should probably work on’.”

Nathan found that the live chat also allowed him to make quicker decisions because some of his audience were offering him valuable suggestions and constructive criticism. “Every now and then I’d have somebody make a comment. They’d make suggestions that informed me that they knew what they were on about — you don’t make those kinds suggestions unless you’re a big-dog. And they wouldn’t say who they were either, they’d just comment and piss off, and I’d never hear from them again.”

When preparing himself for the project, Nathan had a clear vision of how he needed to approach the mix, stating that, “You can mix creatively, or you can mix from a place of fear. With my insecurities I had a tendency to default to mixing with fear. When you mix from this place you can end up with really safe, boring mixes.”

GO WITH THE FLOW

So, what does Nathan Cavaleri’s workflow look like? Is he a hardware-tragic, or does he prefer the convenience and immediacy of working ’in the box’? Well, a bit of A, a bit of B. Naturally, growing up in the 90s — in studios, on big-label budgets — he was well acquainted with high-end analogue studios. “As you know, I grew up on blues,” he says. “I’m a purist — I love hardware and amps, and I was probably a snob for a long time when it came to guitars, amps and simulators. This is the first album that I’ve actually used a lot of software amps.”

Nathan explains that, “Compared to the previous album, the main thing about this one is that it had to be about capturing the energy of the moment, and I so wanted to remove any blocks that got in the way. Perfectionism is a real thing, and obviously this is a distraction. So when I have to use an amp and I have to get that sound I generally find that I fall short — there’s something that pisses me off about it, so I’m never happy.”

He felt that having the option to re-amp between the production and mix process would give him more flexibility, but quickly realised that it was an option that could also smother his creative flow. “I got to the point where I’d be about to re-amp and realised that there were a lot of tracks on there and started to think, ‘Why? Why would I bother when this already sounds great?!’ The only reason why I would have tried to amp it up was the worry that maybe it could sound better. But then I thought, ‘I’m not going to do that to myself’. I did that last time and really struggled with needing to over-process things, then finding they’d lost their energy.”

He continues, “So as part of my process this time, I recorded in the box because I didn’t want to mix those two parts of the brain — engineering and performance.” As Nathan adjusts to this shift away from hardware he says, “I always feared having to confess it, to be honest, because I can imagine all my peers thinking, ‘Ohh, that doesn’t sound like a real amp’. And that’s why I won’t get specific on which songs because I don’t want to skew the experience for people.”

As far as plugins go, Nathan lists a few of the favourites he used on the album. “I heavily relied on Waves ‘Scheps Omni Channel’. That thing is just great. Really tasteful, and I love that low-mid cabinet-type sound it has. Then there’s Newfangled Audio’s Elevate suite. The Saturator is just so good, I like to use that on a mastering or drum buss.

“As far as the guitar side of things, I’d have to say Helix Native. I was using this for a lot of different things, but mainly for the delays and mods. I’ve also been going through a massive psychedelic verb-y phase and I have two favourite verbs. There’s the Spring Reverb in Guitar Rig, which is killer. It just sits in the mix beautifully. Then, like everybody else, there’s the Valhalla VintageVerb. I feel like this is going to be one of those reverbs that you look back and think, ‘Oh, that was such a 2020s sound’, because it’s on everything.”

ON STUDIO TIME

Most of the recording and mixing phase of the album took place in his suite at Massive Music (formerly Song Zu), and having worked there for 15 years, it was a space that Nathan had become more than familiar with. “That was the first professional room I’d had to engineer and create my own stuff in, and to me that was a ‘live’ room,” he shared. In the suite Nathan ran Protools with his UA Apollo interface, the studio’s rack of 4110 preamps and Neve 1073OPX, as well as his own 1176 compressor and Vintech X73 pre.

But after building his new studio he was surprised by how he was now capturing sounds that required less post-processing than before, and went on to say, “To be honest, I always thought that it was just me — all the work that I’d normally have to do just to pull a drum sound and get it sounding how I wanted. But then I moved here and realised that it was the room!”

The new studio space was designed by Rick O’Neill and is still a work in progress, but that suits Nathan just fine. “I’m not a massive gear-head, I just make do with what I’ve got. In my first rig I just had an SM58, and so that got me learning how to use ‘space’ in general. I was always fascinated by what you can do with just one mic. Then I got a second mic, another 58. So I built things up slowly, and along the way I just learnt how to be as purposeful as possible. And I feel like that’s never left me.”

Nathan continued, “I grew up on the schooling that you don’t have to have the best gear in the world to create something that moves people. This got me really focussed on what actually matters when you’re creating a song, and what really matters when you’re producing — the songwriting process obviously, and then the mix itself.”

GEAR NO EVIL

Even though Nathan has adopted many facets of software-based recording, there is still some hardware in the studio that he can’t do without. In pole position, the Shure SM7 features prominently on the album and was used widely on snare and hats, as well as doubling as a vocal mic. This is also the mic used in his Twitch broadcasts.

While the Shure was generally Nathan’s go-to he also had a handful of other microphones at his disposal — including some clones built in Melbourne by Open Plan Recording. He would sometimes track vocals with a Sennheiser MD 441, but the O.P.R 251 — a clone of Telefunken’s ELA M 251 — was chosen when he wanted to capture his voice in a more open, polished way.

O.P.R’s Rocket, a Coles 4038 ribbon mic clone, was used on overheads and room mic’ing, however a pair of Neumann M149s were also given room mic duties too. While the SM7 was generally favoured on snares Nathan would occasionally swap in a Sennheiser MD 421 there as well — so all in all, quite a range of different flavours on hand.

Nathan has some plans for outboard gear too: “There was an old Chandler preamp that I was running my SM7 into at a studio I was working at and just loved  the sound of it”, but after discovering the asking price thought, ‘I need one of those for my studio, but ohh — maybe after a few hit albums I’ll be able to buy one’.” And his preferred guitar/amp combo? “That would have to be a Fender Telecaster with a PAF up the front, single coil in the back, with my old Fender Princeton. Although maybe not mine. I always get the shits that mine doesn’t have reverb.”

Defying discomfort and analysis-paralysis thanks to a healthy dose of self-reflection, Nathan has ridden a continuation of growth between ‘Demons’ and ‘Miracles’. Comfortably grounded in genres outside the wheelhouse usually associated with his name, he’s managed to create an album that feels like an awakening and a rebirth.

Nathan concludes by saying, “Even with the internal and external doubts associated with making an album that’s not rooted in traditional blues, the overall theme has always been about doing what aligns with my truth. Since my late teens I just wanted to be able to create songs with my guitar that moved people, so that was the aim throughout this whole process — create an album that does something to me, and if it makes others feel something too, then that’s a bonus. And if they get inspired, then it’s done its job.”

In a distinct, coherent fashion the variety of song-writing and production chops on ‘Miracles’ prove that blues isn’t the only string to Nathan’s guitar.

IF YOU BUILD IT

After months of scouring Gumtree and Marketplace, Tay secured a container matching his price-range — however, it was soon partially submerged in floodwaters and required significant attention. Days of mould-scraping later, the build was now ready to commence.

Expensive acoustic insulation was avoided as much as possible, which meant the build must instead rely on physical mass to manage the sound, so Tay first set about deadening the alarmingly vibrant steel structure with recycled carpet underlay. The container’s existing hardwood floor was then buried beneath three layers of the same 2mm thick rubber underlay. Finally, heavy plywood sheeting was laid over the top, serving as the foundation of the internal, decoupled room.

Opting for generic adhesives over the revered branded options, this internal room was constructed from pine framing and a single layer of 16mm Fyrchek plasterboard. While Tay carried out the majority of this work, he also had assistance from his carpenter father, and a friend who was handy with a welder. 

ATMOSPHERE

Breaking up parallel surfaces with angled walls wasn’t an option due to the container’s restrictive internal dimensions. Instead, diffusion was handled by rainbows of insulation offcuts, and the unique reflection coefficients of varied surface finishes — most of which were donated by friends to keep the purse strings tight. While the selection of repurposed bamboo flooring, reclaimed timber decking, and coarse rendered walls were aiding the room’s acoustic treatment, they were also chosen to create a bit of atmosphere.

Speaking of atmosphere, Tay sourced and fitted windows from an old Queenslander to provide a view and some natural light, as sitting inside a dark box while surrounded by nature can be a bit of a creative buzzkill. To keep some of the sound of that nature outside, two of these windows were sandwiched together and installed. This created a relatively effective double-glazing solution which means that the neighbour’s ride-on mower is now undetectable at a distance of 50m, however the piercing drone of cicadas at full-tilt does still manage to permeate the walls.

Tay purchased a split-system unit to keep the space feeling a bit more temperate. Where most materials on this build were second-hand, and either cheap or free, the air conditioner was the only item to be purchased brand new. Power to the studio is supplied through a caravan cable, with the powerboard and fusebox fastened to an exterior wall meaning that the whole outfit can be easily relocated when the time comes.

YES WE CAN

Since the studio’s completion, Tay has been able to record and mix the entire album in there. Using a couple of AKG 414 mics of various vintages and a Sennheiser MK4, he was even able to capture a full drumkit using the three-mic ‘Glyn Johns’ technique. While Tay produced most of the album himself, two tracks were produced by Garrett Kato (who also has mastering credits on the album), and these songs ended up defining the overall mood of the album.

On DIY builds and self-producing Tay says, “The biggest challenge with doing it all myself — and having my own space — was the potential for overthinking absolutely everything. That includes building the container. Having this space gives me so much control, but having the option to go back and just do it again is a real double-edged sword.”

Tay shares how Garrett imparted an invaluable pearl of wisdom while caught in one of these moments of indecision. “He told me, ‘Treat yourself as if you’re a producer working with an artist — where you’re on the clock, but the artist is you’. This idea really helped to put things into perspective for me.”

With a limited budget and the luxury of time, Tay was able to build himself a comfortable studio, and then complete his album. All up the album project set him back $11,000, with $10,000 of that going towards the studio, and $1,000 to cover the mastering — a pretty tidy result.

Having grown fond of the rural life, he and his wife now hope to buy a block of their own, which highlights the value that this portable, custom-built labour-of-love holds.

Tay is set to release his debut album ‘Keepers of the Morning’ on April 14.

Tay Oskee: tayoskee.com

Interview: Neil Gray

AT: Describe your journey to becoming a music producer.

Oscar Dawson: I remember messing around with a Fostex four-track cassette recorder when I was a kid. That might have been my favourite time in my musical history. I used to use a really shitty multi-effects pedal and record layers of guitar and voice, and put them through the pedal, add delay, reverb, distortion, or whatever, then buss them onto one of the tracks, keep recording more overdubs… repeat. I’d be lost in there for hours.

I played in bands as a young adult and started getting those old Digidesign MBoxes, Digi 002, Digi 003, basic ProTools setups. I think of those years as the dark days of digital as the plug-ins and converters, were so bad. I started out making demos for my band, then kept at it, making demos for other bands. I was in enough recording environments that I picked up mic techniques, and learnt about what types of microphones were commonly used for what types of applications. I just kept doing it, gradually bought pieces of equipment, and eventually got to a point where someone paid me a small amount to manage and mix a recording session. 

AT: Describe your current studio setup.

Oscar Dawson: I record in ProTools with UAD converters. I use UA’s Console application for running the monitoring side of my setup.  I do have a 32-channel 1978 Yamaha PM2000 console but it’s busted — the joys of consoles. I’m working to fix that at the moment and I’ll use a lot of the console preamps once it’s going again — maybe I’ll use it for summing, too. I use a pair of JLM 1290 preamps, and an Undertone MPDI-4 (four preamp) unit. Those are my go-to pres — they’re glorious. I have one of those Hairball 1176 compressors (rack unit, not 500 series), and a Distressor. I finished building my studio around six months ago, so I’m recovering from that experience before I dive any deeper into more outboard purchases. Plug-in wise, I’ve got lots of UAD plugs and lots of external DSP! I’m currently running 18 cores. Beyond that, I love the FabFilter and Sound Toys plugs and I’ve been getting more into some of the iZotope plugs as well. 

AT: Describe your favourite, ideal or preferred, workspace/methods and why?

Oscar Dawson: If I’m working with a band — and by this I mean, a collection of multiple humans who play instruments all together simultaneously and that’s their main creative approach — I like everybody to be in the same room together. It just makes communication so much easier. I like doing preproduction, possibly just in a rehearsal studio so the stakes feel lower. I like to get everybody playing together. We can just tell what works, more immediately than when we spend ages building songs in the computer, especially around tempo and key. If it’s more a ‘production’-style project, or a band that tends to like doing more programming and sequencing, I would, of course, flow with that and work within the computer. Maybe I’ll build from demo stems, if they exist. I find those types of projects work better when there is just one or two creative minds in the band or project to bounce off, rather than four or five individuals. I like to play instruments, too. I will always try to get the performances out of the instrumentalists in a project but if the band members are relaxed about it, I’ll often find myself playing a lot. I don’t like sitting at my computer and just hitting record and layering playlists in ProTools for later comping. That’s my least favourite thing to do, and if it is to be avoided by me playing a part, then we do that. If it is to be avoided by the player leaving for a short while to do some foundational work, we do that. I don’t like moving slowly.

AT: Favourite microphone or any other pieces of kit that are indispensable to you?

Oscar Dawson: I’m a practical producer — I’ll work within the parameters allowed. For example, time that we have available, Covid lockdowns, are we interstate, and so on, and also I’ll follow the energy of the performer in ascertaining the right piece of gear. So, all to say, I don’t obsess about microphones or other pieces of kit.

Quite often I find that a vocalist will become intimidated when you plonk them in a fancy booth with a beautiful old shockmounted microphone and a pop-filter. In these types of instances, I might be in the control room with the band, communicating with the singer via a talkback mic. They start feeling excluded from the control room discussions, they find it hard to get their mix right, lose a bit of confidence, and then the vibe is completely lost. This doesn’t always happen, but when it does, I am reminded how little value the fancy microphone is. I recently made a record with a band, where the singer is super dynamic, and also likes to just whack out a vocal pass here and there, take breaks, talk shit, do another full pass, not do too many drop-ins. After all, this singer hand-holds a mic on stage and puts in amazing performances so why not just do that in studio? We ended up recording the whole record with a Beta 58, hand held, with the singer right next to me in the control room. We could chat between takes, find a relaxed energy, and that worked perfectly. The takes are awesome. I don’t think we would’ve got that if we put this singer in front of my old U87 in a booth. This is a roundabout way of saying; I don’t have a favourite microphone.

Indispensable kit? Beyerdynamic headphones. My room. My Unity Audio monitors (Boulder mkII). I had to mix a lot on headphones during the Covid times, and I do love headphones, but, once I could get back on my monitors in a proper room, things felt like they were ‘back to normal’.

AT: In the last 10 years, what pieces of gear, or features, that have proven to be game changers for you?

Oscar Dawson: The Universal Audio kit has been so useful and made life easier. There may be better converters out there, but for pure practicality, I’ve found the integration of the interfaces with the software so simple and intuitive. Likewise, the plug-ins sound fab.

This sounds a bit niche but some very basic and long overdue Pro Tools features have been improved on over the years. I remember when there was no off-line bouncing. That’s no longer the case. I remember when they wouldn’t compensate for plug-in delay on side-chain inputs. That’s no longer the case. Little things like that make such a difference and save so much time.

AT: How have your working methods changed over the last 10 years?

Oscar Dawson: I’ve become less pedantic and more focussed on the right energy. I’m less stressed about making things sound ‘perfect’. I’ve always done a lot in the box — I came up during a time when, with my background and training, it wasn’t possible to learn and practice using outboard equipment, tape machines, or consoles. I had to just use the computer. They’ve gotten so much better, it’s ridiculous. So, that hasn’t really changed, other than the ease of use and power of the computer — so I’m doing lots of programming, lots of manipulation of sound in the box. That only increased during the COVID isolation months.

I am more open to remote recording than I used to be. If there is a great drummer interstate who can record him or herself and send files through, then great, do it. If we want changes? We’ll ask for them. If the guitarist is just DI’d and puts down a great performance, and we use an amp sim to bring it to life, do it. No point overthinking, then miking up an amp, spending time getting a tone, then trying to re-create the performance. We’ll lose hours and become sad in the process.

Another big change: don’t follow any tradition of recording order. Don’t leave vocals until last. Don’t do drums first. It doesn’t have to be that way. I often try to get a programmed drum part down, or just a rough guide, then do basic instruments, then vocals. Then come back to the guitars, other programming, maybe, then live drums. Don’t let the vocalist to just sit there waiting to do their bits, it’s a nightmare for them and may waste more time in the long run.

AT: Any tips/words of wisdom for someone starting out?

Oscar Dawson: Take your time. Don’t rush, in life, or in sessions. When mixing, let the mix emerge, don’t force it. Don’t listen to references too much, they’ll confuse you and make you feel bad. Do listen in the car. Get a decent pair of monitors and set them up in a decent-enough room. Pay for plug-ins — your computer will run better, and you’ll respect the plugs more. Always ask, at the higher level, what is the piece of music trying to say; what is the purpose of the music?