The 4th week of recording my second album USB

Sometimes I realise I am a very happy and fortunate human being. 

I spent the last 7 days, working between 10-12 hrs a day, recording my second album, USB, with Stef Animal.

What an amazing experience. 

I wrote and began recording this soundtrack album at the beginning of 2012. The songs came very quickly, as did the key melodies and drum beats. 

I spent a lot of time learning about drum beats while writing the album. Thanks geeky music sites! Stef and I then began importing some of these, replacing them with better samples ;) and imported the key synths (I have spent a number of years sampling, as well as buying, my favourite synths).

Then we spent 2 weeks last year doing more recording. We record at Emery Music Services in Wellington. It's like an underground bunker, which is quite an appropriate place to record this album. It's dark and gritty and heavy, mixed with pop. 

Stef and I are on the same page when it comes to how we want it to sound. We share very similar taste in music. I sorta have to pinch myself that I get to work with her. She's so good at engineering and producing, it's so easy and so much fun. 

We have just completed another week of recording. Menno came in and recorded some guitars, I finally finished my vocals and Regan played some awesome bass. 

We still have to mix and do some arranging. Another couple of weeks work? I need to find a place to mix in Auckland, so if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be awesome. Aim is to release in September. 

I haven't blogged for a week so writing now feels weird.

Here are some songs we 'cleansed' our ears with when recording.
'Age of Consent' New Order
'Walking on a Dream' Empire of the Sun
'Astronomic Club' Air 
'We Share our Mother's Health' The Knife 

You can view the pics and stuff on my facebook site https://www.facebook.com/LittleBark

Some notes for recording - USB

I've been listening over the demos the album I'll be finishing this coming week (USB)

Here are some notes:
-Add heavy guitar
-Add arpeggiator synth
-Re-record vocals (I'm a perfectionist, poor Stef having to put up with me)
-Fuck this sounds amazing, we don't need to do much at all except record the vocals
-love the crystal rain!

Some background on how I record, produce and perform albums

I will be attempting to finish my album next week, which is freaking exciting but also a bit nerve racking. There's a lot to organise.

Stef Animal, my producer, is set to go. We've booked Emery Music Services for 7 days.  I am recording in Wellington, because that's where I started and it's where much of my support and music buddies live. I'll be staying with my parents and I'm hoping my Mum will have some tasty food at the ready when I get home late at night. 

When I recorded my last albums I'd spent 5 years at home trying to learn how to play, write, record and produce songs. I'd done this mostly on my own, taking University and other courses to teach me in areas I wasn't able to teach myself. It was Hannah Curwood, a friend and musician from Auckland, who convinced a very shy me to give her a CD of demos. She played it to Dale Cotton (producer Dunedin), who then contacted me and asked me if I needed a producer and would I come and record with him. I decided to do it. I didn't know how to play the drums, bass etc. so he asked some of his friends to help us (Bob Scott, Rob Falconer etc). Tristan Dingemans was good friends with Dale and I and came and played some guitar. So that's how the other instruments got played on the Sophie Burbery album. The Little Bark album was recorded right before I went to Dunedin. A long time music collaborator, Conrad Wedde (The Phoenix Foundation) agreed to make the Little Bark album (EP) with me just before I went to Dunedin. He and I spent long nights recording that album. I was working during the day, so would pick him up after work and we'd go to the Car Club (a Wellington music studio) and would work until well after midnight. It was exhausting, but the two of us had a lot of fun, making all the music ourselves (it was all electronic).

I had to make the album to work with other musicians. No one would take me seriously/form a band with me before that. Once I released the album, and people could hear that I had some talent and was driven to succeed, I was able to form a band of musicians to help me play live. These guys became very close friends and helped me manouvre through a world in which I had very little experience. I didn't even know them before I released the album, had I, I have no doubt they would have supported me from the very start. And god they knew how to have fun making music. Which is really really important. I can't wait to work with Menno Huibers (guitarist) and Regan O'Brien (bassist) again next week. It's gonna be awesome. 

For this album, I recoded some good demos, Stef and I have been working to build (and replace) the sounds. I love working with Stef. He's got very similar tastes to me, is an amazing producer. Keeps me focussed (I have a very short attention span), encourages met etc etc. I'm a very lucky lady.

I would love to have this album pressed on vinyl, but may need some funding to do this. I fund all my recording myself, and it costs a lot of money and time. Knowledge of secret piles of money anywhere would be greatly appreciated. 

Wish me luck

Oh also:

You can buy (and hear) my last album here 

A celebration of marriage and cool wedding dresses

NZ now has marriage equality. In celebration of this I thought you'd like to see how smashing my mum looked when she got married. What a babe! She let me wear her amazing wedding dress for lots of stuff to do with my music. I love my mum.

I wear her wedding dress in my music video - New York and The Dead
I wear her wedding dress in this music video - Hold My Hand
I wear her wedding dress in my photo booklet for my first album 'Hope Is Rubbery' and here and here and on it goes.

Maybe I was just into the dress because I couldn't see myself getting married (beware of artists!) and if I did I knew I would never have a wedding dress as cool as my mum's. And it fitted me really well and it was like playing dress ups. Well the list goes on.

Yah for marriage equality and weddings and wedding dresses and suits and a special occasion for people to be the hottest babes they can be.

A new Little Bark song - some thoughts on modern songwriting

Does anyone care about this shit?

Do people even see musicians as writers and poets anymore?

This song came about while I was reading an opening passage of an article in 'The Wire' music magazine. The first two lines are totally ripped off from that paragraph.

Is that wrong? It did spurn an entire song, written in less than 10 minutes (an all time new record for me). Perhaps because the article sounded pretentious, it gave me the opportunity to make fun of pretentiousness and at the same time pay homage the art world that I genuinely draw inspiration and support from. Artists are genuine, intelligent, caring, supportive, interested, skilled people. From my experience pretentious people are those who want to have those qualities but don't take the time, or make the effort, to develop them. But 'pretend' they have.

I don't even know if any of the above has to do with the song I wrote, but when I think about this song, these are the things that come to mind.

And these collaborations:
Mike Heynes, Menno Huibers, Stef Animal 
Ruth Korver, Kate Logan, Conrad Wedde, Sam Scott
Mica Still - visual artist

Here's the lyrics to 'Modern Love'

Modern Love – Little Bark

You’re idiosyncratic

Forthright and eccentric - PLAGIARIST, GUILTY, BAD ME

Painting things into a view

That’s new

You’ve got lots of talent

Your words are like a magnet

That draws me nearer to your view

YOU’VE GOT A CROWN MADE OF LYNN

YOU’VE GOT ME SWIMMING OUT TO THE SEA OF

MODERN LOVE

You’re a polarized exposure

I would like to capture

Weave it into a motion

That takes me to you

Time with you’s a potion

One drop could fill an ocean

Take the gravity away

And give it to the moon

YOU’VE GOT A CROWN MADE OF LYNN

YOU’VE GOT ME SWIMMING OUT TO THE SEA OF

MODERN LOVE

Singing - some stories from Lil'b

I practice my singing. I have one more week until I have to record, so I'm doing more than usual this week.

I usually practice about 20-30 mins a day, 4-5 times a week.

I've had singing lessons since I was 8, when my mother, in her wisdom, put me into classical vocal training. That only lasted 2 years, because I suffered very bad stage fright (it is required you perform in front of others to pass grades. I froze and cried and ran). So my parents brought me a karoake enabled stereo, where I could play a tape, sing over the top (they also brought me a microphone and headphones, put a couch in front of the stereo, enabling me to 'hide'), record myself and play it back, analysing all mistakes and re-recording until there were many less/none.

Thanks to Janet, Madonna, Cyndi, TLC, Mariah (yes it's true), the wilson sisters, NWA etc.

Since the age of 20 I restarted singing lessons and now practice a technique called 'vocal calisthenics'. It sounds awful to the outside listener but does wonders for pitch, range and holding notes etc. Small world but the teacher ended up being the guy whom I used to babysit for, Antony Hodgson,'s Dad.

He went overseas after about a year of giving me lessons, and I have carried on since.

That's my story of trying to be a good singer.

'New York and The Dead' review - VanguardRed

"it’s a smooth package – front to back, top to bottom; audio and visual." Martyn Pepperell, VanguardRed


Read more here

"I could easily imagine the song as a Top 40 hit internationally" - Review of my latest single 'New York and The Dead'

New York and The Dead Review - NZ Music 4 U

"New York and The Dead", a more intense offering with house/disco roots, and a bloodline that goes back to acts such as the Pet Shop Boys and Giorgio Moroder.  The song is another example of Sophie Burbery's strong songwriting abilities, this recording being very well put together with great dynamics, nicely-balanced arrangements...and a healthy dose of drama. I love that chorus with the “Gregorian monks” on backing vocals!  I could easily imagine the song as a Top 40 hit internationally, but for me, what is interesting is that might also be in the hands of another act. Such is the beauty of Sophie's songs, which I think are eminently "saleable" to a range of artists. For example, (and hopefully not treading on too many toes), I can easily imagine someone like Rihanna using "New York and the Dead".  

Read more here

Watch the music video and listen to the song here

Little Bark should be published overseas - A review of my song 'party'

"There are clear 80s and 90s influences in her work, but the songs are strong enough to transmit across genres and could be used by a variety of artists. I wonder to what degree she is "published" offshore? "

More can I say? 

Listen to the song and watch the music video here

What the hell have I been up to?

Yes yes, I know, I  know.

So here's an update:

-I moved to Auckland
-I've been working on my second album, USB, with Stef Animal for the last 6 months
-I released a new single and music video 'New York and The Dead' 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBLQgbSgvAA


The move to Auckland has been amazing. A bigger population means more diverse music and hopefully more opportunities for mine.

I'm working on music full time, reading, listening to music, going to lots of gigs.

USB will be finished in April/early May. Expect some singles, a tour, a new website and a full blown album release in September.

Soph xx