The production of Quarter is an amalgamation of Alfie’s thoughts around imperfection and authenticity. He was looking to transmit this collection of deeply meaningful songs in the most honest way possible. This is something I’m also very interested in, I’ve been researching authenticity and liveness as part of my MA, and have been trying to force myself out of perfectionism for quite some time now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We collectively wanted to make something that was the opposite of a shiny studio production, full of normal imperfections, that often get edited out in the production process. Dare I say, ‘live’ sounding, despite the LoFi quality. This felt like the best way to serve the songs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, recording Quarter was about documenting what was played in one or two takes in a single room rather than typical ‘producing’. I wanted minimal interference from technical mishaps and restless gain staging in order to capture the first take while Alfie was raring to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The setup was a single condenser to capture a balance of his voice and guitar. Hilariously, we were so keen to record, I didn’t bother taking the mic stand out of my car and ended up using a bar stool, and an oven glove to minimise vibrations. I played the bass in the background at the same time, enough so it’s slightly audible. We overdubbed some electric guitar with what I think was a karaoke mic, again using mostly first takes. This all went into my Tascam 8 track recorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mention the minimal technology because it’s interesting to me, but the technology isn’t what this EP is about, it’s just the means I used to capture a moment in time with all of it’s imperfections in tact. Would I produce everything in this way? No – not every song wants this style of production. But is there something to be learned from this that could be used in other productions? I’m sure there is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n