Initial Meeting with La Bête Blooms

For my recording portfolio I have decided to work with La Bête Blooms, a band whom I have previously worked with. I aim to record, engineer and produce an accurate representation of the artists sound through appropriate production techniques based on the artist’s direct influences.

The first step involved arranging a meeting between myself and the band to discuss initial considerations of the recording process. I first discussed what approaches the band have usually taken when working with other producers and which approaches they are most comfortable with as artists in order to get what I believe would be the best from them as performers.

 They informed me that they usually begin by recording bass and drums together to a click track and then follow suit in a typical multi-track recording manner, adding guitars, followed by vocals and any extra instrumentation. 

I followed this by asking key questions which may help me pin-point my research focus for this project. Firstly, I asked what key genres they would associate themselves with as an artist. They responded with;

‘Shoegaze, Grunge, Indie and Post-Punk’ 

I also asked which artists they consider influences on their sound, they replied with; 

'My Bloody Valentine, Pixies and Nirvana' 

I also asked if there are any producers the band were particularly fond of. Jack, the bass player informed me that they particularly admired Steve Albini who produced In Utero, by Nirvana.

The band also informed me that the main focus of their sound would be their 'wall of guitars' otherwise known as a 'Wall of Sound'.

I believe the following information has given me enough information to form a valid research focus to inform the practices I wish to employ during the recording, mixing and mastering process.