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Songwriting and Recording

Who and Why?

This is Jimbo, Sevenball's bass player (you probably already knew that.) I've been wanting to put something like this on our site for ages but two things have been stopping me:

1. I hadn't got a frigging clue how to do it (the new website makes this about a million times easier).

2. I thought it might come off as awfully pretentious so I thought it necassary to explain why I'm doing this.

One thing you may heve noticed about us Sevenballers is that we are massive music fans ourselves. It is of great interest to myself (but not so much to the rest of the band) not only how a finished tune sounds but also who played on it, what instruments and gear the band used, where and how it was recorded, who produced, mixed and engineered it, what was going on in the band at the time etc etc etc. So basically, I'm going to try and write a column for those of you who are in any way shape interested in the more anorachy (i'm sure that's not a word, sorry Dunny) aspects of songwriting and recording.

If you like it, cool, read on and i hope you enjoy it. If not, be warned, I have an awful temper, so fuck off before I open a discussion regarding the merits of the various Whitesnake line-ups.

Where?

We are fortunate enough to have our own small recording studio/rehearsal room in Battersea. It is truly awesome to have an outlet whereby you can simply go write, record or simply make as much noise as you like any time, day or night. I played in bands for years where you would have to rent out rehearsal studios and spend half the time you were paying for loading in and setting up the gear. Basically a pain in the arse that we happily avoid.

The studio comprises a live room, control room, a small kitchen and a store room. There is no natural daylight which can be more than a lttle disconcerting on those longer sessions. Also, the clock in the control room is back to front and runs backwards which only serves to perpetuate problems of studio time lag.

What?

We use a very simple set up, recording with a selection of staple studio mics going into a Pentium 4 PC running Nuendo 2 and Soundforge. We have a twelve channel Soundcraft desk and a few other bits of outboard gear such as compressors. However, 99% of effects, compression, gates etc are provided by the software on the PC. As it's more often than not myself at the controls, it's best if things are kept simple.

Mics we use include an Rode NTK, Shure SM58's and 57's, an AKG D112, a stereo pair made by a company who's name slips my mind and a couple of AKG's I bought because they were cheap. This aspect of the recording process is hardly rocket science in the world of Sevenball. I am often well happy with the results and I think there is a certain element of "Emporer's New Clothes" syndrome when it comes to recording gear. If you spend a shit load of money on your studio gear but you haven't got a clue how to use it then what the hell is the point? To quote Dunny: "It ain't the shoes". If you get good results with a simple set up, stick with it I reckon.

The Birth Of A Sevenball Song

The first tune I'm going to take a look at is Shanty, a real favourite of everyone in the band. This song (musically rather than lyrically) was written almost entirely by Dunny, who brought it to us one night in a state not too dissimilar to the one you hear at gigs and on the recording.

He wrote it on his Kay Gibson Hummingbird copy (this is the guitar he uses for lapslide on tunes such as Open et al) using his lapslide tuning but playing it in a standard seated position. As Dunny had the main body of the song complete, all that was left to add were drums, bass and of course, a vocal for the song to be near completion.

Luke opted to add a 12 string acoustic part. Played using a capo, this to my mind adds a pretty, delicate edge to Dunny's lower end riffing. His part was written very quickly by simply sitting opposite Dunny in the live room and mirroring the chord changes with strummed patterns and the odd hammer-on and pull-off figure for added interest. A couple of demos were put down the same night as follows:

Demo 1 (DI)

Download mp3

This song was recorded twice in this session. We will often do this with new song ideas so we have a point of refernce for structure and so that Luke can write his lyric/vocal melody at home if he so wishes. The first demo features Dunny and Luke with their respective acoustic guitars DI'd straight into the mixing desk. I believe Luke sang the rough vocal into the NTK. You can hear Luke giving minimal direction regarding structure (i.e. the odd nod towards the chorus and little else.)

This demo is indicative of how Luke writes his vocals. The melody usually comes first, with him scatting over the instrumentation. He will then apply lyrics at a later date when he gets something he is happy with. Lyrics are often very personal to Luke and rarely, if ever, the domain of the other band members. You can hear from this early demo that the first ideas Luke had for the break down before the stomp section are the ones that stuck.

Demo 2 (NTK)

Download mp3

This was recorded minutes after demo 1. Here, Dunny and Luke are simply sitting around the NTK mic on a stand. This version had three main purposes that i can recall:

1. Luke had some vocal ideas he wanted to get down (including early lyrics).

2. He wanted to nail a slightly neater guitar take.

3. The NTK offers a more "sitting aroung the campfire" feel to proceedings where DIing can sound a touch harsh.

There is a greater deal of embellishment during the breakdown that was replaced in later versions with a bass motif.

Final Recording

You can hear the final version of Shanty on our MySpace page

For what is fundamentally a simple song with minimal instrumentation, the final recording features a veritable shit load of overdubs and multi-layering. The instrumentation is as follows:

Dunny: 4 guitar tracks playing much the same part utilising different guitar tones for effect. These were played using the Kay mentioned earlier and a Seagul acoustic owned by Jonny Turbo. These were recorded in numerous ways: DI, close miked using the NTK and with Dunny playing through his Carlsbro combo close miked with an SM57.

Luke: The 12 string part was played using Dunny's Yamaha. This was close miked using the NTK. The vocals were recorded using the NTK straight into the desk. Backing vocals were recoded but later scrapped as they were deemed excessive. This pat is double tracked.

Martin: Mart used his usual Pearl Maters Custom kit and Steve Gadd Yamaha snare. He played everythnig up to the breakdown with hod rods, where he changes to sticks for the stomp section of the song. There are a ridculous 4 tambourine overdubs!

Jim: As usual, I used my trusty Fender Precision in dropped D tuning DI'd out of my Ashdown combo. The bass tone has little top end or middle so as not to clash with the numerous guitars in the mix. I also added an overdub using the Yamaha 12 string. For this I added a capo at the 7th fret and retuned the guitar (I can't remeber how) for a mandolin esque effect to add a little detail and interest in the top end of the track. This was, once again, was put down using the NTK positioned not far fron the soundhole of the guitar.

This track was recorded in the following order: drums with guide tracks for structure, Dunny's guitars, Luke's guitar, Bass, Tambourine, Vocal and finally the 12 string overdub.