I’m going to give you a quick synopsis of my life before I jump into the nitty gritty, so hang tight. My musical journey technically started when I was four and my mom started me out on the violin. To be fair, there was no free will at this age — so thank you mom for getting me started! At the age of 12, I picked up the guitar and started singing and songwriting. Actually, I probably started singing in the womb, but we aren’t counting all of that. After getting pretty good, I appeared on American Idol for a quick second and through that experience met a bunch of awesome people who helped me get my music out there. Fast forward to today, and I am recording my debut album in my Barnard dorm room. Crazy how time flies, huh? Now, let me tell you what this experience is like, because it is far from easy.]
I have a producer and he’s the best, but he also lives in Austin, Texas. You might be asking, “How do you record with him then?” Great question! We use Zoom. Yup, we are producing this album virtually. This is what my recording days look like: I usually record every Friday morning at around 10 AM. My producer and I have a set Zoom link that starts at that time weekly, so we both hop on each Friday. My debut album will have seven songs on it. Each week we pick a new song to work on, draft it, and then we both have “homework” to do before the next time we meet. Drafting usually means that we go through the lyrics of the song and revise and rewrite for the first half of the meeting. This usually involves lots of brainstorming and jokes about writing lyrics that are really bad. After we have a solid grasp on the song, we use a software program called Audiomovers, which allows me to listen to whatever my producer is working on. For example, if we are working on the intro to a song, I’ll tell him the melody I want on the piano or the guitar. He will then go into Logic Pro (the recording software we use) on his end, add in the melody, and then I can hear what’s going on through my laptop. Trust me, I’d much rather be in the studio, but it works. Essentially, my producer drafts all of the instrumentals and sounds and we work together to put our best musical ideas out there.
Here comes the fun question: How do I record vocals without being in the studio? What a fun question! I invested in the least amount of equipment needed to make my voice sound like it’s being produced in the studio. So, in the corner of my 72.8-square-foot dorm room, there is a mic stand, a microphone, a headset, an interface, a pop filter, and a sound insulator. The interface connects to my laptop, which means it connects to Logic Pro. Once my mic is connected to the interface, I am able to hear myself and the instrumentals through the headset. It’s not ideal but I am surprised at how good the quality of this makeshift studio is. There are obviously some downsides. For one, I have to turn my AC and fans off while I’m recording because otherwise, there will be some serious AC singing in the background and who wants that (my sincerest apologies to my AC)? Also, there are always people talking in the hallway or screaming on the streets of New York. This means that a lot of times I can’t record when I want to and I have to wait it out. Lastly, my setup is very sensitive to noise. For example, if I’m belting the chorus of one of my songs, it can sometimes sound really buzzy once it’s recorded. Because of this, when I have big notes coming up I either have to stop recording and lower the knobs down or take 5 steps back and keep singing. It’s crazy, I know.
Anyways, that’s about it! I hope this gave you some insight into what it’s like, and if you ever wanna come check out the set-up let me know! In the meantime, stream my newest release “Revenge”, and look out for my debut album!