Rebecca Florence

SpeakerSonic

Now, I could take you thru the step by step of mastering her entire album. I did this, then I did that, and then I sprinkled it with this, etc. But I'd rather tell you a little story about Rebecca Florence and my relationship with her as Producer/Engineer and her friend.

A great picture of her that I'm sure she'll hate.

I met Rebecca at Sidewalk Cafe over a year ago. She was playing the open mic and coming up and into her own as a singer/songwriter on the piano. She's a bit of a wild child. Her style is entirely emotionally based. She puts her heart, soul, whiskey, muscle, and razor sharp vocals into every moment of her songs.

Early this year, she asked me about recording an EP, so we got together for a planned 4hr session to record several songs with vocal and piano. Now, at this point, I've seen her play at Sidewalk in front of the open mic crew several times. Its wild, sometimes frenzied, but always impassioned. That was what I was expecting for her session on my old Wurlitzer piano in the live room. I set up the mics and we tested a few choices for the vocals till we found the right fit. 

Then something magical happened. She took a deep breath, and played the most focused, intense, and honest performances I've ever heard from her. We recorded 5 songs the first day. She came in a week later and recorded several more. She's dark. She sings songs about heartache, about female empowerment, about love, friendship and Murder Ballads. Awesome!

The "I am not a Vampire" moment.

I told her at one point, this seems more like an album than an E.P. She smiled and realized for the first time, she was recording an album of all original material. Her first. She switched gears after that. Ideas started to flow for backing vocals, guest performances by Brook Pridemore and Bob Black, real record/album kinda stuff.

During the final stages of recording we talked about what the tracks wanted or needed to feel finished. As things go, once the roots of a song are recorded, you can start to imagine and envision other parts. She added some very cool harmonies, and some crazy cool sound effects, and at one point, we added a male choir funerary mass. I added a few ideas as well, and the next thing you know, we're doing the final mixdown, and now here we are, the record is mastered and ready for release. 

I'm proud of her. Its a full, fluid album with so much color and character. I played a few songs for Reginald M Lamar, and he loved it! Its also NOT an over-produced, perfectly polished and edited pickle. You know the kind. This is Rebecca Florence, with some bits of Bob Black, Brook Pridemore, a little more of her, and a dash of Brian Speaker. 

Look for I Am Not A Vampire next year, just in time for Valentines Day.