Recording Identity

Recording Identity was done in 3 hour blocks, with breaks in between.  The room can make a massive difference to how musicians play and having real daylight and not being trapped in an environment with just artificial lights is crucial. It’s enough to make the most patient person go mad.

Musicians add such personality to their performances so my scores are always adapted throughout the sessions because what I may have composed and scored on paper before the sessions may not necessarily be what I end up with at the end of the recording. I always take a mobile printer and lots of paper and ink to recordings.

Once the music is recorded, then it’s back to another studio to listen, listen and listen again and start mixing the sessions. This could take weeks or months, depending on schedules.

Following on from mixing is another very vital part of the process, the mastering which adds another layer of fairy dust to the recording and gets it ready for production to vinyl or digital.

Album artwork is very important to me and I have created and produced every single album cover since Porcelain.

The back of the Identity CD cover was actually going to be the front, I had no plans to be on the cover of any album. However, we started playing with an image taken at the photoshoot of me sat on some old cinema seats and then we played with having my name on it somewhere. We then thought about hanging the word ‘Identity’ like a framed piece of art at the top of the album cover and then rearranging my name to be under my feet. With the help of a superb photographer Simon Fowler, he manipulated the photo to be just as the album cover exists today.