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 - 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.

Mega March at Offbeat

This coming month is set to be very exciting in the studio. Already confirmed bookings include ;- Randy Pritchard and the J2 Kids - Allie Fox - James Forrest - Ric Tod - Aegon Scottish Equitable (podcast to be confirmed) - Kevin MacLean - Anna Jarosz - Mike Kearnan, Brian Rice + Clive Moorhead (to be confirmed) , also Hip Hop acts Bruce Kilpatrick and Aggravated Assault. More work will continue on Kirsty’s new video for her song “Feels Good”.

February recordings

Coming up in February will be the continuing recording of Allie Fox’s new album. Guests on the album who will be recording this month will be Ron Shaw-celloist and Fraser Spiers-harmonica player. Also due in the studio is Brian Rice and Clive Moorhead who will be completing the production of their single - The Edge Of Love following the vocal recording in New York of vocalist Rachel Pany. Producer Paul McKinna will be working with MC Profisee as well as finishing some tracks with some other tracks for Hip Hop artist Bruce. A podcast for Aegon Scottish Equitable is also taking place as well as the completion of songs by Ric Todd featuring various vocalists, still to be announced. So once again it promises to be another exciting month again at the studio.

James Forrest-Supasonic Music

Songwriter james Forrest is back in the studio recording songs we has recently written as well as reworking dance tracks he has recorded at other studios. James is a great source of singers he has used on his projects, several of which Offbeat has used also after hearing them on his songs. Most notably Anna Jarosz who also guested on songwriter Ric Todds tracks. James is also currently writing with Leona Lewis’s songwriters and will certainly have a hit sometime as he is a determined artist and has a good handle on the business side of music.

Songs Of Sister Act-the musical

Been a hectic couple of days finishing the rehearsal CD for the forthcoming Sister Act musical. On Monday it was an eleven hour day recording vocals for 11 songs and the harmonies for the tracks are incredibly complex. MD Rich Anderson did a great job of coaxing the singers through the arrangements despie suffering from a heavy cough. Yesterday I mixed the tracks in one session and for now the job is complete.

Kirsty Music - Feels Good

We are currently working on the debut single for Vocalist and Electric Violinist Kirsty. The song entitled ‘Feels Good’ is an acoustic guitar based song featuring electric violin and a strong dance groove.The track will be completed this month and then a video will be craerted prior to release in March 08. For the promotion of the single we will be doing a radio tour in Scotland and playing small venues in preperation for the main release. For the ‘live’ version the song will be performed acoustically.

Brian Rice and Clive Moorhead

Brian and Clive were in the studio on Saturday with a dance track they recorded on their home system using Cubase on a PC. All the tracks on the song “Edge Of Love” were converted to 48 audio tracks and we then dropped the tracks onto the Offbeat studio Logic Audio program. In the first five hour session I then reworked the the track, adding a new bass and piano sound to the mix. On Monday we mixed the backingtracxk which is destined for the USA where billboard charting dance artsist Rachel Pany will be adding her vocal at New Yorks Powerhouse studio. The vocal tracks will then be sent back to the UK where the final mix will be taking place in January / February prior to release. I really enjoyed this session, Brian and Clive, who hail from Ireland, were a pleasure to work with and their clear direction made the song turn out great so far!

Colin Asquith and James Forrest

Also in the studio this week is songwriter Colin Asquith who’s track ‘In 3/4 time’ has turned out amazing. Despite the title the track has 3 time signatures, 2/4 - 4/4 - and 7/8 and not 3/4 as the title suggests. It was a tricky track to program but it has turned out sounding quite natural and flows really well.

I am also doing a remix for a dance track for songwriter James Forrest which is fun.