Ludicrous Liquorice - Iains Weblog

This week sees the release of the debut single by Ludicrous Liquorice on the World Citizen label. The track entitled ‘Walling At The Party’ was co-written with lyricist and vocalist Ric Thomson. I recorded the music and produced the single which is a straight ahead club/pop song based on a melody and bass line written by Ric. Ric and I have been doing a series of songs over the past year or so this way, usually using different vocalists until I put Ric’s voice through a vocoder for a song we recorded together called Liquid Love, which is scheduled to be the follow up to ‘Wallin’ if the track does down well. Liquid Love also features Offbeat artist Kirsty on vocals along with Ric and is far and away my favourite of all the songs I’ve done with Ric so far. Initially ‘Walling At The Party’ is now available on Itunes and is being heavily plugged to 450 UK radio stations over the next 6 weeks. The other tracks done with Ric remain in various stages of completion and are eventually planned to be placed with other artists.

Kevin MacLean - For U - Producing from a demo

The debut single - For U - by Kevin Maclean is nearing completion after four weeks work on the project for Plaque Records.

The song is turning out great having done 2 versions of the production. One based on the demo arrangement, which the label requested, and one of my own arrangement and production of the song.

Quite often the artist/label gives me a brief for the production which I follow but if I think I have a better idea for the production I always follow that idea too and in time the artist/label can choose which version they want to go with. Working this way means there no need to get into heavy arguments about whose idea is best during the creative stage of the recording. I get to produce my own uncompromised vision of the track and also supply a production as close as possible to a brief if one is given.

Sometimes both versions allow for different promotional possibilities for the record.

Allie Fox - New album

Work has stepped up on this amazing guitar based instrumental album. Last week we had Fraser Speirs on harmonica which was an inspirational session. Fraser lays down completed and produced takes which are an engineers dream, completely off the cuff. We also had Elisa Carthy’s producer and MD Ben Ivitsky on whistle and viola on two tracks. Now that all the guests have completed their parts we are now into some heavy editing sessions prior to mixing the album which has been in the making since 2003!

J2 kids - Peaceful World

Work is well underway on this fantastic song written by Randy and Jam Pritchard. Working to a demo of three kids from the J2 group the studio backing track is near completion, (J2 is short for ‘Just to be kids’). Last Saturday we auditioned a total of thirty kids and found 9 good soloists and the rest of the kids were good enough to be in the choir for the final production. We will be recording the soloists at Offbeat in groups of three at a time and the rest of the choir will be recorded on location at Ratho Village Hall sometime in April.

Kevin Maclean - iain’s blog

In his first visit to Offbeat Kevin Maclean has brought in his debut pop single ‘For U’ which really showcases his amazingly versatile voice and songwriting style. Kevin is signed to Plaque Records and all going well I hopes to get the opportunity to produce the whole album which has already been written and demoed. So far Kevin has brought in his Reason program files which run alongside the new Logic program created here at the studio. We have stripped the track back to a rhythm section and vocals and already the track is sounding great.

Ludicrous Liqorice

Just finished an  extended club remix of wallin@theparty, the debut club/pop single for Ludicrous Liqorice. The track is scheduled for release in April. Another song I produced and co-wrote with songwriter Ric Tod is called Liquid Love and is soon to be featured on the offbeat site.