So here we are - the summer has landed and we have had a few festivals already and everyone is enjoying the sun - and the wind and the rain - this is Britain!

Not letting that get in the way I am proud to be helping promote a new single by one of my fave singers Matilda Pratt, who has written a lovely song titled 'All On You'. This was released just recently on July 28th and it is available on iTunes, Spotify and many other smaller distributors.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/all-on-you-single/id1254132005

Matilda has written 4 songs with me at BB Studio now and recorded several covers too. She has released 3 plus 1 cover, all of which can be downloaded from iTunes and elsewhere.

Matilda has many skills and many ideas, which really does help in the song production process. She generally has a complete song in terms of structure and melody that she plays as basic chord sequences on a keyboard. From this starting point we build the song together accordingly, but Matilda does like things kept minimal and natural, meaning many ideas will be thrown in to the mix before the final production is agreed.

Of course there is a video for this song and we have pushed the boundaries quite a lot with Matilda on this one. I wanted to see how acting some scenes would work with Matilda and push her to express the song differently from others she has made. So we agreed on 2 very contrasting scenarios and set about finding suitable locations.

The song lends itself to a dark and moody location describing the 'stuck in a rut' feeling and a bright happy location to emulate the resolve. So after lots of research we zoned in on using the Albany Theatre in Coventry giving a wonderful dark red, warm but moody backdrop where Matilda acts 2 characters. One is her melancholic self, dreaming around the auditorium and the other is her released self, dancing on the stage. To contrast with the closed, almost claustrophobic environment of the lonely, empty theatre, we used backdrops of massive open fields, a large lake and castle ruins, all captured from above using a drone-cam to express freedom and progression! Our drone operator has the relevant licence to film and we checked the airspace was legal to use and film in. The weather was the gamble and we had to hold firm on abandoning the day whilst hoping that the clouds were moving sufficiently fast to clear - and we were so lucky - the sun came out and gave us possibly the best filming conditions we could have wished for.

The video to 'All On You' can be seen on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/3n7V482jFEg

Writing songs is one of the most exciting things about music. Not everyone has the skills, tools or determination to take an idea and push it to the point of public release. I have been helping artists through recording, mixing and sound production since 2004 at Born in a Barn Studio working with local bands and singer/songwriters of all genres. The ebb and flow of work changes and the emphasis of the studio may change, but at the core of the business is music and video production. If you have an idea - I can produce it.