Collaborative Project - EP w/Madison

See technical roles collaborative project here

See Tyler collaborative project here

Project (with Madison Kent): Create and release an EP with a music video. The EP will have three songs: 'Separated by Water', 'When I'm With You' and 'Meadows and Graves'. 

Two songs were written by Madison (Separated by Water and When I'm With You) and the third song we wrote together (Meadows and Graves). We did this by having a common goal and clear idea of what the song was about which is the autistic experience from our perspective. I found it difficult as we had to communicate everything we were doing so we remained on the same page. This process meant that it took a lot longer to write the song which I found difficult as, when writing by myself, I do everything very quickly. Something we compromised on was the melody as Madison wanted to add harmonies and so we kept the melody more simple as to make this easier. 

To prepare for recording, we practised for gigs and performed at gigs with our songs. We performed at The Old Tannery Cafe in Glastonbury which was challenging as it was outside and quite cold which meant our voices struggled with the tension and it also made any picking of the strings near impossible, luckily, we managed to hold it up and tried to remain as warm as possible to avoid these consequences as much as we could. We also performed at a disability event where we did a 30 minute set which went much better as it was inside and therefore warm and we provided our own PA and so I was able to be in charge of everything which made me feel more comfortable in terms of sound. This lead us to getting to be the opening act for a performance at Strode Theatre where we played five songs in front of a relatively large audience. All of these experiences strengthened our ability at playing/singing the songs which, in the long run, will make it faster and easier to record them.

COMPROMISES:

A compromise that we made in terms of recording was the location. Madison wanted to record everything at college in the studios whereas I wanted to record everything at home. I wanted to record at home as it would make everything much faster and easier as we'd have access to it any time that we want which would also produce the best result for the EP as we'd have the ability to put in the time and effort into recording as well as producing the tracks. Madison wanted to record at college as she wanted to be able to use the studios and she thought it would produce a better sound. As a compromise, we agreed to record the vocals at college in the studios but record everything else at home - we came to this agreement as Madison made the point that our vocals would sound too different if they were recorded in different locations and whilst I don't think that it would really make much of a difference, I agreed to record at college because she wanted to. I do like this compromise as it means the majority of the work is at home which means that it can become the best it can be due to the accessibility of it at any time. 

Another compromise that was made was when we wrote Meadows and Graves together. When doing the bridge, we both had quite different ideas of how it would sound and this is because I tend to have the song climax at the bridge and have it build up to that point and the final chorus whereas Madison normally has a more calmer approach to writing a bridge. I mainly wrote the bridge which meant it was quite intense and high and Madison thought it was too intense. In my opinion, I thought it fit the song as, despite the rest of the song being calmer, the intensity of this bridge shows the frustration and anger of the hidden emotions and makes the whole song the epitome of masking. However, to compromise, we decided to keep the bridge I'd written but to make it softer and calmer in the way that we sang it. 

Recording: ghost tracks. Madison did the ones of her songs so she could make the timing and the way they're played the way she wants but then I did M+G so I could also have some control over the way the music sounds and the timing. 

For recording the ghost tracks, we agreed that it would be best for Madison to record the two songs she wrote so that she can make them her own preferred tempo and the arrangement of the song in that tempo. I did the ghost track for Meadows and Graves though so I still remained to have some control over the sound of the music and had the experience of putting it to a good timing. 

Once we'd done the ghost tracks, I recorded the guitar for all the tracks and the bass. I used many root notes to write the bass parts but I also wanted to emphasise when the textures changed; for example, in Separated by water, I played a note on each beat during the B sections when my guitar was picking rather than strumming to help change the mood more. 

/23/08/24/

We recorded some vocals today for all of the tracks in the EP. It was originally delayed because

Madison was off sick but we managed to get some time in despite us both having mild colds. In order to be the most efficient with our time, I decided for us to plan out how we were going to use the hour and a half to get as much done as possible and to account for things. Another thing that I've learnt in terms of vocals from my own recordings is to not tell yourself you have to finish that day. I've learnt that the best way to do vocals is to record all the way through the song, trying not to stop (if something goes horribly wrong, then yes, you may want to stop and try again). Then, going back through and rerecording anything that sounds off or weird or is wrong. You do this until it sounds what you think is pretty good if not the best it can be. Then, you leave it for the rest of the day and come back to it either the next day or another day and do the same thing where you listen through it and you rerecord anything that's not right - the point of this is that it means you don't have the pressure of having to get it finished on the first day but still get a lot done and then by the second day, you normally don't have to do an enormous amount causing you to have more motivation to make it perfect as well as being able to hear it differently after not listening to it for a while. 

Here is the plan that we made for the lesson in order to be as efficient as possible. We tried to account for things that might happen; for example, Dan was unlikely to talk for 30 minutes but we accounted for it as it also gave wiggle room for anything else that might come up. Consequently, this actually meant we were ahead of schedule the whole time and so finished about ten minutes early which caused for no stress or worry.

/06/09/24/

When we managed to book the studio again, we came back to the songs and did the method I mentioned above - I went into the studio first and every time we found a bit that sounded off, I

rerecorded it. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much time as there were problems with the sound in the studio that took us quite a while to figure out how to fix. This meant that Madison didn't manage to rerecord any of her vocals - however, this does mean we have a clear idea of what we're going to do next time which is to focus on Madison's vocals and then hopefully we'll be as efficient as the first studio session. 

/18/12/2024/

Today we did some research together on how we want to produce the songs and what feel we want to give them. In order to do this, we listened to songs from Folklore and Evermore by Taylor Swift as we wanted to go for a sound similar. 

6 WEEK PLAN:

Week one: Finish "Separated by water" (because of music video) and make the storyboard for the music video as well as plan out when we're going to record. 

Week two: Finish the vocals for "Meadows and graves" and "When I'm with you" and record the music video.

Week three: Finish recording music video and start editing it. Do the arrangement and production and finish "Meadows and graves".

Week four: Finish editing the music video. Do the arrangement and production and finish "When I'm with you". 

Week five: Finalise everything (and spare time in case we need it)

Week six: Write evaluation and also extra wiggle room

To make it easier for us, we've decided to have Madison as the main leader on When I'm With You and for me to be the main leader on Meadows and Graves whilst both of us take the lead on Separated by Water. This is because we are struggling to make decisions and suggestions when nobody is leading and so we're using SBW as a together leading song as we know it the best and we're more likely to be on the same page about where we want it to go. Then it makes more sense for Madison to do WIWY as she wrote it and then I can do M+G. This doesn't mean the other person has zero input, it's still technically equal leadership, but having either someone to check things with or the knowledge you have the control makes it much easier to get things done. I think most if not all projects need a leader of some kind. 

/18/02/2025/

This is during the half term before week one but I wanted us to get a head start on everything because there's no point in waiting around as that just means that it'll all pile on top of us later. 

Today, we talked through the storyboard and what ideas we had for it and what story we wanted to tell over the course of the song. Due to it being half term and us being in separate places, we spoke over discord and drew out our plans on a shared whiteboard. We drew/wrote the following:

We had the lyrics on the side of the screen as a reference so we could use them for ideas of what to put in the video. 

We both knew we wanted a water theme and so Madison suggested about us losing each other in some way and not being able to find each other until the end of the video. I thought this idea would work and so I used it to write small bits for each section based on the lyrics of it. We're still unsure on how dramatic we want the video to be but I think this will work itself out over a matter of time where we go back over the plan and change things and adapt to what we think is best. This is one area that I think will ultimately be a compromise when it comes to it as I love really dramatic things whereas Madison likes to make things comedic. In our call, she said she didn't want to make it as comedic but I do think that the level of drama in the music video will depend on what she wants to do. 

I am going to create a storyboard based on this plan and take artistic license where I want to as we are going to then discuss the storyboard I make at a later point and change anything that Madison (or even I) want to change and compromise on any disagreements. 

Week plan:

Week one: 

Finish Separated by Water

Make storyboard for mv and plan recording 

Week two: 

Finish vocals for M+G and WIWY

Record music video 

Week three: 

Continue recording for music video 

Week four: 

Start editing mv

Add production and finish M+G 

Week five: 

Continue editing mv

Add production and finish WIWY 

Week six: 

Finish editing mv and mixing tracks 

Week seven: 

WRITE UP AND WIGGLE ROOM

Week One:

We've had difficulty this week as Madison hasn't been in although she said she'll be in tomorrow (Thursday). Luckily, we had that meeting during half term online where we discussed the storyboard. I drew out and edited the scenes with sound which you can see here:

I sent the video to Madison and she said that she liked all of it and didn't have any changes for it. 

I based it on a beach because Madison wants it to be filmed at Weymouth beach as she likes it there; after looking at the location on google maps, I used it to specify about where we could film it. 

I am worried about filming in Weymouth because it's far away and a public place, not to mention being on the coast (which is the point: "Separated by Water") which makes the weather more likely to be difficult. Another setback by this is that it won't be easy to re-film things we need to and we don't have as much time to get everything finished as the entire thing will be filmed in Weymouth. This would also include the amount of light available due to it not being summer (so shorter days) as well as the very real possibility of the weather being bad, causing a darker day. 

I think that because we've been unable to record any vocals this week, we're going to shift the entire plan a week forward and have next week become the first week and just focus on the plan this week. This is ok because the plan is only seven weeks long and so we have plenty of time.

We're going to have to record the video for the plan next week as Madison hasn't been in for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and the lesson we were going to record in today, we have an assembly that we didn't know about. 

I don't really want to make a music video as, after thinking about it. I don't want to go all the way to Weymouth as I'm too busy to spend at least a whole day there. I originally thought of recording it closer to where we live and suggested this to Madison but now, I think it'd be better if we just do the EP. I'm going to talk to Dan later on about whether or not this will be enough for our collaborative project. 

Week 2:

Here, we are talking about our new six week plan where we allow enough time to focus on everything and we are no longer doing a music video as I think it will take away from how the music will eventually turn out and I don't think we have enough time. I confirmed with Dan and this will be enough for our project as long as we perform them which we were going to do anyway during the gig at The Loft. Having just demos for the first few weeks works well as it means I can also spend my time working with Tyler on our collaborative project and then I can switch more easily between the two projects. 

We struggled today due to the computer being slow. However, this could've been seen as a positive as it meant that we had more time to rethink our plan and make a video for our blogs. Although we haven't completed the amount of recording we wanted to, we did complete the amount that we needed to for this week in order to finish the demo for Separated By Water, ready for production and an arrangement to be added. The only thing left to do on the demo is for Madison to record her ukulele part which she can only do at college. I have also booked out 13a (where we recorded the vocals) for a two hour session on Thursday and so we should be able to record her ukulele then, double check that we're happy with the vocals for SBW and possibly start on some of the other vocals to get ahead. 

Week 3:

We finished the vocals for WIWY despite it being week three but we also made sure to make a start on the vocals for M+G as our original plan follows finishing the demos/vocals allocating a song per week; having the first three weeks for the demos and then the next three weeks for the production aspect of it. Unfortunately. we didn't manage to finish the vocals to a standard that we're happy with and so we might need to slightly change the original plan in order to account for this as we'll need to rerecord the bits we don't like next week. I think that, to stick to the original plan, we should also do the production on SBW so that we don't fall behind. 

Week 4:

- Finish vocals for ALL tracks (focus on M+G)

- Do production for SBW - FREYA, write strings tonight and finalise with Madison and record tomorrow - MADISON, write backing vocals tonight and finalise with Freya and record tomorrow

- NEW PLAN: finish all of the vocals today as well as record all of the ukulele. Madison plans WIWY next week and I plan M+G next week and we send over to each other the parts that we want the other one to do as we write them. All the planning/writing needs to be finished by next Friday to give us a week to record everything and then we have the remaining time to mix, market, release and write about the project.

Half term = 4th April - 21st April. Goal: Finish production/recording by the 6th of April and start marketing that same week. Release the week before the Loft (therefore, entire EP and cover art and name needs to be completed by the 13th of April). 

Ideas for title - I thought of using one of the lyrics from one of the songs for the title of EP as this is what I did for my album. Here is the list that Madison came up with:

Forgotten Memories, Just ask how, Nothing at all, Move on, From the start.

We chose Forgotten Memories and From the Start as our favourites as they made the most sense and fitted the EP the best. We eventually landed on From the Start as it's more vague, fits each song and Forgotten Memories sounded a bit too cliche and common. 

Week 5: /24/03/2025/

This is the week where we're working more apart than together as it'll make it easier to get stuff done in terms of booking rooms (we won't have to) and for me to find time to also work with Tyler. We bounced all of the vocal tracks and ukulele tracks last week and I've gone onto Bandlab and added all of them to each of the projects so that we can start adding stuff and then be able to mix it to create the final tracks.

Last week, I wrote the strings on the Thursday evening and then recorded them for Separated By Water. Madison sent me what she'd done for backing vocals for SBW but they didn't sound right to me and on the Saturday, she said that I was right and they weren't good. I ended up doing a rough mix of SBW on the Sunday as I wanted to finish the song so we could focus on the other two songs. I also programmed in the drums using a drum machine on Bandlab. Madison tried to add backing vocals but said that no matter what she did, it wouldn't work (as in, the vocals didn't fit the track). She was getting frustrated and so I eventually just said that maybe it doesn't need backing vocals and she just agreed and we left it there.

I'm finding it difficult to work with her because she seems to leave things to the last minute a lot and doesn't get things done when she says she will. I've been working on Meadows and Graves this week and she's been working on When I'm With You this week. I only managed to properly start doing things on the weekend (although I wrote the strings for M+G on Wednesday I think) because Unplugged was on Thursday and then I had a gig on Friday and then I was doing an interview and a couple of songs live on GWS Radio in the afternoon on Saturday because they were having a relaunch of the radio station. I managed to get myself to record the strings for M+G on the Saturday after I got back and then I did a rough mix of it because I wanted to finalise it more. I also used a drum machine to program in some drums which I didn't do a lot of as I felt the song didn't need that much in terms of drums. 

I'm not sure when to do the drums for WIWY as I messaged Madison on Saturday asking how far she is with it and she said she isn't far at all as she's focusing on her D10. D10 was due on Friday and so I'm finding it difficult that she is being disorganised and also that she isn't doing a bit of both (e.g., working on her website a bit and then recording some backing vocals for WIWY). 

/02/04/2025/

I have completed the backing vocals and mixed Meadows and Graves. After listening a bit more, I think I just need to tweak the drums' presence and then it'll be finished. Separated By Water is now finished and I'm going to add drums to When I'm With You. 

Something I noticed when adding drums to Meadows and Graves is that I struggled to program in drum patterns that complemented the melody. I found this easy in Separated By Water but I realised that's because I matched what the guitar/ukulele is doing and not what the melody is doing. This is something that I want to try to improve when I do the drums for When I'm With You as I think I'll get better the more that I do it. 

I have now completed everything for M+G and SBW on my end. I've mixed them both and also added a part to SBW where most the instruments drop out and just leave Madison's vocal with her ukulele and the drum kit and then all come back in simultaneously when my backing vocal comes in to create impact and more dynamic variety. 

I just finished programming the drums for WIWY. I wanted them to be unique to each song and to complement what's going on well. In order to do this, I spent the whole time while programming the drums just listening with the vocals and drums on solo. This meant that I was purely basing the drum patterns on the rhythms that I heard in the vocal melody as oppose to the rhythm of any of the instruments.

/05/04/2025/

I still haven't noticed any progress on WIWY so I messaged Madison again (I messaged her on Wednesday but she hasn't looked at the message) to ask how she's getting on with it because the deadline for our plan is tomorrow and she said she was finding it difficult and still hadn't done anything.

I found this very difficult and told her that our deadline (that we decided on two and a half weeks ago) is tomorrow and so I just need her to do something. Because of her not doing anything, I was worried about taking over the project too much as it's meant to be collaborative so I didn't want to just do it myself but it was difficult because she didn't respond to my messages and then has only done things today because I told her the deadline is tomorrow. She wrote a violin part for me to record for the song, it's 8 bars long and not very complicated but I wish she'd done it earlier because it meant I had to do it today and get it all finished today and it's all very last minute and I don't like how last minute it is and it's made me incredibly stressed out. 

I recorded the violin and then asked her if I could mix it or if there was anything else and she told me there was one more thing and so I said to let me know when I could mix it. I messaged her again an hour and a half later and she was struggling with it and was trying to add clarinet to the song but struggled with transposing the notes. I told her she doesn't have to add clarinet if she doesn't want to (if it's too much stress) but she said she does have to add it and two hours later, it was finished. She then said I could mix it and so I've done a first, rough mix of the track and I'll have to check it tomorrow along with the other two songs as they're all meant to be finished by tomorrow.

According to our plan, we're also meant to be starting marketing next week and I'm not sure if that'll be possible considering how close it is.

/11/04/2025/

Now that the tracks are finished, we needed to set up the release and, because it's on Madison's Ditto account (we chose Ditto because it's the distribution company that I use), it means that she has to set up the release. She struggled to do this and so we had to call so I could tell her what to do. We still need to sort out the cover art for the EP and she said I needed to come to her house (she wants to do a crafty themed cover) and I said that I don't need to be there and we compromised on a call (it would also be very last minute considering it needs to be set up on Ditto by Sunday and it was Thursday when we spoke about this). 

We agreed to call today although I didn't get a chance to message her until the evening as I was busy with other things and I was also feeling quite overwhelmed by everything. I should've messaged her earlier, that's my fault for being slack. I messaged her at 20:47 and she hasn't replied so I suppose we'll have to do it tomorrow instead. 

/21/04/2025/

We sorted out the release and she sent me an idea for the cover art and I said that it works because I knew she wanted to have primary control over the cover art. Then, she later sent me a picture that she said her friend drew for it and it looked alright and in the theme of what Madison wanted for the EP and so we decided to use that. 

I decided to set up the royalty splits (I remembered from trying to set them up with Tyler) so I messaged her about it and told her step-by-step how to do it and then it worked and it was linked to my already existing Ditto account. However, this meant that I realised that the names of the tracks were the names of the files and release date was the 24th and not the 23rd. I messaged Madison asking if she changed the names or anything and we realised that she'd not changed the names and so they'd automatically saved as the file names and then she must've pressed the wrong date for the release. I'm not that bothered about the release date as it'll be out by The Loft. She emailed Ditto and they managed to remove the rc from the end of the names (it's something I add to clarify that it's an actual recording of a song). 

It's fine because it's sorted now and it also means that I now know that a release has to be approved before you can set up any royalty splits (I assume it's because they only assign it an ISRC code once it's approved to be released). 

/01/05/2025/

Our EP came out last week and I posted about it on my story and we also performed the EP at The Loft. I think that it went quite well as we didn't make many mistakes and I think any mistakes that we did make were covered up and not noticeable. We also recorded a video at college to use for promotion which we're going to post after The Loft. It was a smooth transition into our set as I was already on stage and Freddie came to set up Madison's microphone and to plug in her ukulele. I think the talking in between the songs sounded mostly normal and I think we performed well. I think I slightly messed up by playing the wrong chord at one point but I quickly changed it and so I doubt anybody noticed. I think that for it to have been better, we could've improved our talking to be more back and forth and I think that we should've edited the stage plan of our set up to have us more central as I was standing in the centre of the stage but Madison was more off to the side which made it much harder to see her. 

Evaluation:

Overall, I am quite proud of the final product in terms of the production as I think that I enhanced the songs well and we also managed to perform them well at The Loft. We gave the audience a good example of how the EP sounds but in an acoustic form and we did make some mistakes but they were all very minimal and I doubt many people in the audience noticed, if anyone. I think that we struggled to work together as we have very different ways of working and I don't think that they meshed very well. For example, Madison likes to leave things until the last minute to get them done as she works best under pressure but I much prefer to get things finished as much in advance as I can so I don't need to worry about it and can sometimes even get ahead if I do it early enough. As you can imagine, these two methods can't really work well together and so it caused both of us a lot of stress at having to try to adapt to each other's methods. I think that because of our difference in working that it caused our communication to suffer a bit as well as Madison became overwhelmed with my method of working which meant that she found it difficult to respond to my messages about the work. 

However, despite this, the EP was finished in time to be uploaded to Ditto and released before The Loft which is a good thing. The project did change over time and we were definitely right to not attempt a music video as it definitely would've been too much to have achieved and the music definitely would've suffered so I'm glad that we made the right decision there. 

I think something that could've improved our results could've been having better communication so that we could've worked more to each other's strengths. Another aspect was that we probably should've practised the set for The Loft more so that it was flawless by that point although I think this is a slightly lower priority as we did a pretty good job that was likely flawless to most of the audience. 

See performance here

See finished EP here (Spotify)