Wednesday, April 7, 2010

music...

Man just realised their was no music up on here or links for dudes to peep out,well all Ive got at the moment is some old stuff on my myspace page that i go on like once in a blue moon,their a song called mum an dad that's gonna be on my ep,produced by the homie haz,peep the sounds out an tell us what you think...

www.myspace.com/raezelia

also some of my mates pages yall wana peep out aswell aiite,just good music yo.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000776923305&ref=ts dj phaze
http://www.homebrewcrew.co.nz/
http://www.myspace.com/agentgoonmusic
http://www.myspace.com/reggietaku
http://www.myspace.com/hyclass05
http://www.myspace.com/accumulatedgesturesband
http://www.takubiznas.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/soulaverse

Art work






Art work for the ep,i was really looking at something real simple,nothing big or to detailed,just something with my name on it an white.Why white?well it stands out an its slick nah mean?anyways hooked up with a talented graphic designer,Matt beaton who is the man1,he done work for my mate ta-ku an that's where i first saw his artwork,immediately dug it an hit up,sharing my ideas.






We talked a little about it,an i told him what i was after and trying to do,so he sent back a rough draft of it,which i dug to.shot Matt.

Waiting game....

Well just waiting now on my ep to get mixed an mastered,its taken a wee while as Amy is finding time when she can get into the studio,i just go ta keep on writing an move on to the next one.

So finished doing a verse for a soul/funk band called accumulated gestures,the tracks called brother man,also feat on it a emcee called rezide from the the brow orchestra.The track sounds mean an is gearing up to be their first release,think they gonna put it on vinyl as well,which be mean,look out for those 2 groups to as they got big things on the way.

Also another verse on the brow orchestra first single called "the city",a real political type ish,me well i just went on it about how out tax money gets spent,its on some bullshit if you ask me,the tracks got rezide lacing some political fire on it as well,just questioning things really,but yea yet to record that one one,but should be aiite.

The recordings...











If i had this blog up before i could of explained it on the spot...but i didn't so let me take you back aiite.

Started in December,an due to my job then i could only record on weekends,also the availability of the studio,made some recording 6weeks in between,its just what it was,not ideal,but hey you just adapt.I had this idea that i would smash all the recording in 2sessions,like on some jay-z one take shit,but boy was i wrong.Recording i done before was just like,yeah that's cool,just leave it,ill finish it later.But this was going on a CD,like i couldn't front, i had to make shore that it was sounding tight,an being a kind of perfectionist,i was finding it harder than i thought.

Recording the acoustics,their was two options,1-record the guitar first,then lay the vocals over it later,therefore giving it a better mix,or 2-play an rap at the same time recording both yet not having such a great mix.I tried the first one for the first couple sessions an just found it unnatural,as I'm so use to playing an rapping at the same time,so i told Amy,this was after recording 2tracks the other way that i wanted to scrap them an do it the other way in which i played an rapped.I wanted the acoustic stuff to sound raw anyways so i wasn't to fussed about a mix with it,Also had the cuzz Sam in playing the base,that i later scrapped as well,i had keys an cuts to come in record over the acoustic tracks,but as things turned out,it wasn't to be,just me an the guitar,which was algood in the end.

I had scrapped the acoustic songs twice,an then recorded it the third time,with me just playing straight through talking in between the songs,just real chilled an natural,i found this approach the best for me.See when i came to record i had no idea what was expected an what i was dealing with,but once i sussed things out an herd different recording using different equipment an recording techniques i knew what i wanted,more importantly i knew what i didn't want,hence the reason i scrapped those first recordings.

The tracks over the beats were much easier,an less time consuming as well,so they wernt that bad to be honest,but if you've been recording the whole day,the vocal chords are going to play up a little sometimes.What i did realise is that recording can definitely take the energy out you,i found myself just drained when i came back from the studio,mentally an physically,its hard work yo!

But besides that,the experiecne was fun an i learnt so much as well an became a fan of recording after it,a massive massive BIG SHOUTS to AMY for taking her time out to record me an put up with me in their hahah,was such an ease to record with you,i owe you beers man,once its all done that us aiite.

So with all the recording finished,9 tracks all up,its the mixing an mastering stage.

first ep....

Well last year sometime i decided that i wanted to put something down,an record songs that i had been performing for the last few years.Never really been a big fan of recording,i thought that the timing was right an that i was ready to put these songs down an move on.

So this being my first ever release i wanted to record something that i was proud of an that truly represented me in my music an what i was doing now.I had been given heaps of beats from the homie ta-ku as we were in talks about doing an ep together,so beats i had heaps,but just didn't feel right doing an ep with me just rapping over beats.Did that truly repp me an what i was doing?nah.

So then i came up with the concept of doing 4tracks over beats,an then doing the same 4tracks,but over a acoustic guitar arrangement.This sat well with me,because some songs that I've done over a beat have came from me writing it over a guitar riff first an vice versa,so it was only fitting that i do it this way.

Now what was the next step???i had no clue how to go about all this all,pretty Green when it comes to this stuff.So i had the tracks an had finally finalised the beats after hearing so many.Id use 2beats from ta-ku,1beat each from haz (homebrew) an another local beatsmith alphanumerics.Much love to them as well for hooking us up with the beats to braddas,chyea boi.

So after that had to record,but because i was doing the acoustics i had to find a place where i could get decent recordings for both, as both had to be recorded differently.Had a couple mates lined up an a couple kind offers,but then got put on to my mate Amy"missle" who worked at sae (sound audio engineering).She worked an studied their an had access to their flash az recording studios.To cut a long story short,she needed to do a project for school an needed someone to record,i needed a place where i could record vocals for the beats an acoustic guitar as well,so we made it happen an we went into work.