In this episode, John is joined by Olivia Dean and producer Matt Hales to talk about how they wrote, recorded and produced Olivia’s Mercury-nominated debut album ‘Messy’.

Taking us back to the very start of their story, the pair discuss the inspiration for the album, sharing their approach to marrying different musical cultures and the importance of the chats they had before writing.

As well as playing their writing session voice notes showing the exact moments each song took shape, we hear stories of mouth trumpet demos, creating artefacts to make instruments sound sampled, and the thought process behind choosing mix engineers. 

Listen to find out why so much of what makes a good record can come from turning things off, why it’s so valuable to just have things around the studio, and why tea can be such an integral part of the creative process.

Tracks discussed: UFO, Messy, Carmen

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Thanks to Audiomovers for supporting this episode. Their Listento Plugin has been a gamechanger for us and we use it across all of our remote interviews and recordings.

To see their full range of plugins, visit audiomovers.com and use the promo code TAPENOTES1 at checkout to get your free month (usually only two days).

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LINKS TO EVERYTHING TAPE NOTES  

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Listen to ‘Messy’ here - https://songwhip.com/oliviadean/messy2023

•  EMI, Universal Music

Intro Music - Sunshine Buddy, Laurel Collective - https://songwhip.com/laurelcollective/sunshinebuddy   

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TAPE NOTES TEAM

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