My track was an original song my band had created over the easter break that we had wanted to record. We decided we wanted to create an indie rock ballad which has elements of shoegaze and 90’s rock. Bands such as smashing pumpkins and Radiohead were big inspirations as we really liked the textural elements in their music, and how they can manipulate the listener through dynamic contrast in their music. With this piece of music, I aim to be able to really accentuate and amplify the emotions and feelings in this piece through my production. When using sampling in this track I wanted to use something that can add another textural variety and thickness to the mix which was not already in there but would add another layer to the song.
For the production I took a lot of inspiration from two albums. One of them was Radiohead’s In Rainbows and the other was Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream. All the instruments in In Rainbows sound organic and “in the room” which I really liked, and they contrast this often with a subtle use of electronic textures such as a synth or potentially a drum machine. This is what I aim to do with my piece as I want to have a quite organic sounding first half of the track, and then let it build into something that is quite saturated and massive to create that dynamic contrast. For this part I chose to base some of my production skills off Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins as the guitar sounds in there music are massive, warm and rich. The producer Butch Vig created these walls of noise through multi tracking guitars to create a thick, almost orchestral sound to it.
When recording this track over a couple days we aimed to get down as much as possible and to have as many options as possible for the production aspect of the song. We knew that it needed a lot of layers to get the building effect that we desired in our song to fully emphasise the dynamic contrast of the instruments. So, we recorded everything section by section. For the first part of the song, we recorded me and the singer at the same time in two separate rooms. We decided that we wanted the part to feel intimate and raw to contrast the latter parts of the song. We thought this went well as it allowed us to have more creative experimentation in our music. Then for the rest of the song, we tracked every instrument individually through till the end. We wanted to really accentuate the dynamic build of all the main core of the band and give off an organic natural sound. We the layered guitars over the parts that needed more melodic difference in order for the song to not get too repetitive. Following this we added the distorted guitars for the final part of the song. We aimed to create the thickest wall of noise possible. We aimed to do this by having the guitar part played in all the octaves.
When utilising the sampler I wanted to create something atmospheric and interesting. I felt like using it on a vocal sample was a good option as it is able to create a different texture in the mix. I felt like the biggest part of the song definitely needed thickening up so i sampled a singer and used one individual audio file to create some BV/Pad sounds that harmonised with the lead vocal. The sample utilised phase on it to create a more warm, textually changing tone. I feel like it added a lot more to the song and created more thickness in the mix.
When marketing this song, I think if you go about a specific way through social media, it can be successful. The British indie rock scene is doing well with bands such as Wunderhorse, Fontaines DC and Sam Fender doing world tours and having major success in other countries as well as the UK. There seems to be a lot of marketability in this area of the market as these bands have cult followings, so if you were able to market yourself in with these bands on social medias such as Tiktok and Instagram and find the same audience, you should be able to have some success. A good example of this is a small band called Keo who managed to market themselves in with Wunderhorse on social media by using the same colour schemes and fonts to give off the same vibe. By doing this they have given themselves an underground popularity which has allowed them to sell out a full UK tour with only one single released.
With streaming taking up 88.8% of music consumption*, it is critical that you must find success on these social media apps as you can link everything easily and make your music accessible to wider audiences. Also with this exposure you can start to market your own products. Vinyl records have had a significant resurgence with sales reaching 6.7 million units in 2024*. This can help develop more income at your gigs to finance your life as a musician while also giving your songs more exposure. Overall I believe that if marketed correctly in person at gigs aswell as online on social media platfomrs such as TikTok and Instagram, the song has the potential to have commercial success.
Overall I felt like the time in the studio recording went well as we came in with a set of aims and ideas about how we wanted to have full creative control over the song and what we were doing and we came out with something which we are all proud of. With this full idea of what we wanted, it made it quite easy to be able to achieve our desired sounds for the recording. When recording this song we found abit of struggle in some of the performances. Especially the first verse where the singer and guitarist are being recorded at the exact dame time, because if one makes a mistake then both of the instrumentalists had to start again. But overall recording and producing this track has allowed me to have a new perspective over my music and has also taught me where to go and direct my music towards in the industry, In order to have success in sales and marketing my music.
*1 – https://www.bpi.co.uk/news-analysis/bpi-playback-2024
*2 – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/14/sound-investment-john-lewis-teams-up-with-rough-trade-to-sell-vinyl
