In the last couple of weeks, I was working on a pitch for a children’s show, and that pitch included some new songs made with lyrics provided by the (potential) client.
Also, as part of the pitch, I included some songs from previous projects that showed some range in style, tone and orchestration.
When I went back to listen though, I realised that when producing the tracks I hadn’t recorded versions with guide vocals for the performers for one of the shows – Emergency Story Penguin. If I’m working with performers, say, for a theatrical production, and I can work directly with them in the rehearsal room, I can teach the songs face-to-face, so I’ll skip the process of recording myself to save time.
Although… I say it’s to save time, but if I’m being completely honest, it’s because I don’t like the sound of my own voice, either singing or speaking.
So, when I say to save time, what I really mean is I chickened out. Even though it would save time in rehearsal if the performers had already heard the piece with the vocal guide track in place. Sometimes I can be a coward when it comes to having to listen to a recording of myself! Ridiculous, but true.
Nevertheless, I needed these songs for this recent demo, so I womaned up and recorded myself into the arrangement, and gave the mix a little polish too, along the way.
Here are the songs in all their glory.
I loved working on Emergency Story Penguin. There were some right problems behind the scenes but, in classic Heather fashion, I was mostly oblivious until after the fact. Working on these pieces in this last week has brought back only the happy memories, how much joy I found in the story and being able to inhabit the world on set with the actors and puppets, sets and effects. It was glorious.
A lovely trip down memory lane.
(I also wrote about the process of creating the iconic, breakaway pop hit ‘Power to the Engines’ here – Scoring the Song.)