Abubilla Music

Ed’s excellent adventure in Abubilla Scholar Land

Written by Ed Stone

The phone rings.

“Hello, this is Ed”

“Hi Ed, this is Jimmy. I’m setting up this little gig with professional session musicians, seasoned record producers and the best recording equipment I can find, to help people who don’t normally have the opportunity to record, do so. I’ve been asking around at work for the best song writer/ guitarist etc. and you’re name keeps coming up. Would you be in to coming down to my studio and trying out to be one of these people who records their songs with us?”

“Yes, well I’ve just come back from a month off work, during which I tried to record my album in my bedroom, I do loads of stuff with the Band at work and my old Uni band are considering reforming, but even with all that I’d like to do more recording of my songs in a group so yeah, it sounds exactly like something I’d be into. ”

“Fantastic. Well, if you want to come along this Saturday and try out one of your tunes, we’d love to have you along”.

“Sounds great, always keen to play more music. See you there”

And so my Abubilla Music journey began. It has been a really fantastic experience, one I hope continues for a long time, but let me give you the blow by blow account…

My first Saturday in the London Studio was a little scary. I’m quite a slow writer of songs – music comes quickly, but the lyrical side of things takes me a loooooong time – and I went in with one called “Motorcycle” that I had only half completed. In that it didn’t have a chorus. Or second or third verse. And it was too high for me to sing. Anyway, we gave that a go and, whilst Jimmy was very complementary of the modern feel of it, I must admit I came out pretty disappointed – in my head it was a fantastic song, but I just couldn’t get it sounding right in the studio; it sounded muffled, staid and didn’t really go anywhere. My happiness with my song writing ability and Abubilla music took a bit of a knock, especially as this was my first time in the studio I wasn’t sure my “scholar audition” would cut the grade.

The great thing, however, about being a music scholar was that I wasn’t just there to play my songs. I also had the opportunity to contribute to all the songs that Jimmy, Andy, Lou, Martyn and Rob were developing themselves. Now, as I said, music comes pretty quickly to me, so for several weeks after the Motorcycle kick in the teeth I had a wail of a time, going into the studio and jamming to my hearts content on guitar, trumpet, keys or backing vocals on some of the tracks Jimmy and Andy were writing (Old Gray Post, Knife Will Come etc.) . Most of this jamming was little riffs here and there, laying down basic rhythm guitar parts and walking people through vocal harmonies (as an official Beach Boys addict, 3-6 part close harmonies are some of the music I most enjoy writing) etc. And from that I really started to gel with the gang, and as my suggestions went down well and the music coming back at me from the speakers sounded good, I started to get my confidence back as a writer.

So, a few weeks later, I came back in with a different song (I decided to ditch Motorcycle) that I had written as part of my album recording month off called “Love you anyway” (You can read about the lyrics in this blog). That one went down really quickly (we actually ended up redoing the instrumental track in Spain, to give it more of a live, “That thing you do”, early Beatles feel, but also had a damn good version from pretty much the first take) and we were off. I was now an Abubilla Scholar, good and proper.

From there it has been a really fantastic experience. I and the other scholar Lou have now become a regular contributors to the song writing process – where once Jimmy would come with lyrics and a tune, Andy would “chordify” and then we’d all lay down our little riffs/ tracks etc. over that basic chord/ song structure, now I’m very involved in writing chord progressions and song structures along with Andy, and then working with Lou and everyone else to develop a cool tune (where Jimmy doesn’t already have one) to go over the top. And lots of harmonies, of course. Watch out for “An immoveable thing” and “Sex with a cave man” on the next album for tunes where there has been a large degree of collaboration on the writing front.

The biggest thing I will take away from Abubilla – aside from some great friends and a fantastic CD that I am seriously proud of – is a realisation (had during our first Spanish Jam) that I needed to completely change the way I went about writing a song. Before Abubilla, my song writing process went a) hear a cool riff/ tune/ chord structure in my head, often with 3-5 words associated b) bash said riff/ tune/ chords out on guitar going “do do de de” over the top to develop a tune where my 3 words ran out c) make that music sound brilliant and perfect and then d) scratch around for anything to write about that fitted in with the 3 words I had been working with the beginning. However, from watching Jimmy come at it from the complete opposite angle (he does all words with a few snippets of music here and there), and listening to Louise and Andy’s chatting about the what the different bits of the song mean (e.g. “this is where he’s never been more alone in the world” for verse 2 in Roadside Comedy) I realised that the greatest songs are ones where the music and words all work together, pointing in the same direction. I know that wins the Cybil Fawlty award for “Stating the Bleedin’ Obvious”, but it was something that, whilst I kind of knew, had become lost in my continuous searching for new and interesting musical sounds. So, now when I write a song (or any piece of music, for that matter), it starts from an idea or feeling e.g. Tommy Come Home (or P(r)etty Hyenas, as it started life) was written in the space of one bus ride home, when I was thinking about how much the “whatever” attitude of the girls that Helen (my fiancée) teaches annoyed me. From that idea came some lyrics and a verse chord structure and melody (read all about here). Granted, I did then go back and re-write the lyrics to get a more jazz club feel, but the initial creation of the song was a lot more holistic than previously, and it has retained that melancholy feel all the way through it’s development. As another example I’m currently writing a tune about how finding the “love of your life” may just be down to a lot of luck and time and place. I have a few lines of lyrics, a basic tune and some chords for the verse, and an idea of structure.  I’m letting it all develop organically, as new ideas around that time and place concept come to me, rather than finishing the music (the easy bit) and then forcing some words to fit (the hard bit that has previously always let the music down). We’ll have to wait for me to bring these songs to the team to if that way of working is any good!

What else have I learnt? I have picked up quite a few production/ recording tips from watching Andy and Jimmy work their magic with the spectacular equipment they have in London and Spain. I’ve learnt to play guitar better (thanks Martyn) and to make some cool beats on drums (inspired by the fun Mike obviously has bashing everything in sight, and thanks to some down time in the Spanish studio – if you had some free time and a set of drums in front of you, wouldn’t you give them a bash?). I’ve learnt that I have a habit of staring at keyboards when I’m trying to figure out what those tunes I’m hearing in my head are… And I’ve learnt that telling loads of people that you like music can lead to good things – thanks to all those guys at work for getting me this whole gig in the first place!