Almost Unique Releases Sanctuary EP

Some readers may remember some tracks I produced with an artist called Almost Unique back in 2020, including Break The Tie and “Wanna Feel Alive”.

Almost Unique just released the Sanctuary EP, which features these two tracks, along with an alternative version of Break The Tie, and the title track, which has never previously been released.

All these tracks were produced remotely by Almost Unique and myself during the 2020/2021 lockdowns here in the UK. It was fun to look back at these tracks, especially “Sanctuary, which I personally haven’t heard in a very long time.

Speaking of Sanctuary, a big thank you to James Berry for his amazing choir presets used on this track. Go subscribe to him on YouTube!

All tracks on this EP were produced by Almost Unique and myself, and mixed by me.

Check Out The EP On Spotify

Check Out The EP On Apple Music

Check Out The EP On YouTube

Logic.band Interview

I’ve been a big fan of the YouTube channel Logic Band for a while now, so was very excited to be asked to feature on it. At the start of 2023, we got together on a Zoom call and chatted about, well, everything. In fact, the Zoom call went for almost three hours.

So, enjoy this (slightly) shorter version of that chat, in which I talk about how I started out in music, we reminisce (if that’s the right word) about the old gear we used to use, and discuss some of our current favourite tools.

We also talk about mixing, producing and making music as blind/hearing impaired people.

Enjoy, and please don’t forget to like, comment, share, subscribe, and all the other stuff

Check Out The Interview Here

Alfie Underwood – All That I Need (Demo)

Capping off 2022 by sharing this demo I recorded and mixed with Bradford rock singer/songwriter Alfie Underwood.

I was the engineer on this session, beginning by recording Alfie playing guitar and singing at the same time, before then layering up more layers of both. I also suggested repeating the “All That I Need” line with hard panned backing vocals to make the chorus stand out.

I mixed this demo too, which was a fun challenge as I don’t mix this kind of genre often, but we’re both really happy with the result.

Check It Out On YouTube

Denise Barajas – Moving On/H-Streets – Friday Night (feat. Denise Barajas)

Two tracks I mixed a few months back dropped last Friday, hence why they’re both covered in one post.

First up, Denise Barajas released Moving On. This is the first track I’ve mixed for Denise, and it was a lot of fun. I particularly love the drums on this tune, which have a very warm tone to them which I’ve tried to further bring out in the mix.

The bass is lovely on this track too, and there’s some brilliant keys work to be heard as well. Check It Out On Spotify

Check It Out On Apple Music

Check It Out On YouTube

Up next, H-Streets dropped the latest single from his upcoming album, which is an extended version of his track Friday Night featuring Denise Barajas doing some more amazing keys work.

Again, the highlight of this mix for me were the wonderful drum layers, which really make the different sections of the song pop.

Having worked on a number of tracks on this album now, I can promise you, you don’t want to miss this album when it drops.

Check It Out On Spotify

Check It Out On Apple Music

Check It Out On YouTube

Sunrise – Almost Unique X Anne Wille Ft. Liv Elwood

This is a collaboration between myself, Almost Unique and some other very talented musicians. This was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed producing this track. It was very much a collaborative project, with recording taking place in various different locations and everything being done remotely, but we all love the end result.

With thanks to Charlie Barnes for his invaluable feedback during the creation of this track.

Watch The Lyric Video

How I Produced “Embrace” by Almost Unique

Here’s another breakdown video, this time breaking down Almost Unique’s second single “Embrace”.

Hope you like it. If you do, please like, comment, subscribe… All that kind of thing.

See below to watch:

Also, by request, on this video and on the “Break The Tie” Breakdown Video I have added links to all the third party plugins I’ve used in the description, so hopefully some of you will find that of interest. I’m planning to do this with future breakdown’s as well.

More videos coming soon…

“Wanna Feel Alive” By Almost Unique

Almost Unique dropped another single last month called “Wanna Feel Alive”. This track was a lot of fun to create, and there were some interesting challenges to face.

As per usual, I was sent an acoustic guitar/vocal demo, and as soon as I listened to it I knew I wanted quite small sounding drums, but bigger sounds as the song went on. I achieved this by using one Battery kit through more or less the whole song, then in the second chorus I added a second Battery kit, and for the last chorus I added some acoustic drums from Abbey Road Modern Drummer. The tom fill that joins the different sections of the song together also came from Abbey Road Modern Drummer, with heavy treatment from flanging.

Next came the piano intro, played with Alecia’s Keys, which I then continued to use throughout the song. This was quickly followed by two bass layers from Sylenth1, and then a pad from FM8. I then happened to be flicking through and messing around with some other sounds from FM8 and stumbled across the stab sound, which also features throughout the whole song.

To help lift the chorus’s and add some variation I played the same part on two different synths, one being Sylenth1 (I like that one, can you tell?) and the other was Xpand!2. They’re very similar sounding, so playing the same part on both and panning them out and adding some pingpong delay provided a nice touch to the chorus’s.

This done, I added some smaller parts, like the messed up brass stabs that play in the verses and the bridge, which I played using a stock Logic brass sound and heavily manipulating the audio, and a little synth part in the second verse from Massive.

We then ran in to the issue of what to do to make the bridge sound interesting and different from the rest of the song. I decided to try making it completely different sounding, so I kept the pad from the rest of the song, but played a more intricate part on it, almost like a solo, and moved it up an octave. Next I used an 808 bass sound from Arturia’s Analog Lab, and added a new beat using some bigger, harder hitting drums from Polyplex.

To come out of the bridge we used the classic technique of dropping out everything aside from the piano and vocals, and adding the guitar in the second half of this section to give it more of a build up. Of course, Rise And Hit had to be the transition from this section to the final chorus. Just like on “Break The Tie” I added a low octave piano to add some energy, the acoustic guitar played by Liv (Almost Unique) that had played throughout the whole song became stereo as we added a second one, and the final touch was a choir preset created by James Berry, which sounded wonderful and really added something special to the final chorus. Do go Subscribe To James On YouTube and Follow Him On Twitter

I plan on doing a video on this track as I did with “Break The Tie”, and “Embrace”, so watch out for that!

Go check out “Wanna Feel Alive”.

Listen On YouTube