Here & Now is available now on your favourite platform!

Link here: https://smarturl.it/aaa7ft

Having signed Ollie in October 2018, we have been working tirelessly to make this project happen. But the journey began when I first heard Ollie’s demos in his bedroom back in October and saw huge potential in his songs and ideas. I instantly understood Ollie’s direction and had ideas flowing from the get go for where to take the projects. There’s no better feeling than the excitement you get as a producer when you hear those magic demos for the first time. That first listen is the only opportunity to hear the songs objectively. It makes you want to hit the studio and get to work straight away. Which is the exact feeling I had when I first heard the demos that would become ‘Here & Now – EP’.

I was working at the Stables Studios in Somerset at the time so we decided to record there. The guitars were what we tackled first. We decided on a BPM, set up the studio with a stool for Ollie that didn’t squeak (harder than you might think). We grabbed a cup of tea and got the lights just right and ready record.

Many takes, outtakes, broken strings, bleeding fingers later, the guitars were all recorded and sounding really crisp & organic. I can’t remember the exact details but the sessions were over a few weeks and we had some great laughs in the studio during this time. The Bass, performed by Joseph Lees, was also recorded at the Stables Studios. Joe was fantastic and we let him have free-reign on the first few takes to get his influence which was exactly what was needed. Joseph wrote some fantastic bass lines which allowed space for the drums to come and complimented the guitars perfectly. It wasn’t too ideal recording all the instruments separately but the drummer who I had in mind was busy dominating the Jazz scene up in Leeds so we made it work.

Once the bass was done, I made plans to trek up to Leeds to meet my friend Jo Meikle to record the drums. Jo was studying Jazz at Leeds college of music and is a fantastic talent on all things percussion. I had sent Jo the demos and he agreed to put down some drums for me. Since this was the first year running the label and only having a supply of funds from my part time job, I needed to keep costs down which meant that a 9 hour coach journey was the best option to get to Leeds. When I arrived, we went straight to Jo’s Uni accommodation and prepared for his flat’s Christmas meal (which I had no idea about at the time). We ended up getting completely hammered, listening to some crazy intricate jazz music and messing about in his flat with his friends. Jo then dropped the hammer at around 10pm that he had booked to main studio from 11pm to 3am that night. Having been drinking all evening I had to sober up quick and get in the zone for recording.

Before we even got to the studio, I had to sneak past security at the main desk because I wasn’t a student at Leeds College of Music – or any other Uni for that matter. I decided to listen to the many cans of cheap lager in me and just walked through super confident behind some other students who held the key-card door open for me. Once I was in, I made an effort to make friends with security so that I could pretend to have forgotten my card the next day.

Once we got into the studio, and to my surprise, I was faced with a huge SSL mixing desk with tonnes of awesome rack pre-amps and a glass wall seeing through to the live room. Having never set foot in there before, or recorded on such a massive desk it was big boy pants time and I had to learn quick. Luckily, I had the foresight to hire one of Jo’s friends who was studying production at Leeds and was able to fill in the blanks for me on the night. Once everything was set up, we just hit record and went for it. I was blown away by what Jo did to those drums and the tracks. He knew exactly what to do and locked in with the vibe straight away. We used that full night to record and wrapped up to start packing down at 3am.

Once the drums were all done, I headed back to Somerset to edit all the recordings & add some production stuff and effects. To record the final vocals, we converted Ollie’s bedroom into a vocal booth to get the final takes. Sometimes we would get the perfect take but his mum would clatter through the front door half way through so we had to scrap it and start again. This was also the time where we decided to drop one of the tracks ‘Faith’. This was set to be the final track of the EP which had a slightly happier tone. But Ollie decided he wasn’t feeling it and wanted to use this other song idea instead. This was when the idea for Anchors Pt.1 came about. Ollie played me the riff and described how he wanted some synth elements and some production drums & crashes etc. Once we had recorded the guitar, I went home and produced all the extras – the synths, bass, drums etc. Ollie then came up to my home studio to hear what I had done and he was really really pleased with it.

After this, it was final mix down time. I immersed myself in the alt-folk genre and studied mixes of a similar dark tone. Much like Ben Howard’s album ‘I Forget Where We Were’. Still finding my feet in the mixing world, I really tried to not let my lack of experience limit the quality of this record. I knew it would to some degree but I focused on punching above my weight to make the mix as clear, dark and tasteful as I possibly could. Once Ollie and I were happy with the mixes, we sent them off for mastering and allowed ourselves to get excited to share this project with the world.

I feel as-though this project is a true snapshot of this period in Ollie’s life and I feel a certain magic whenever I listen to it – I hope you do too. Go check it!