halfrhymes

Release: “Honest” by @harryjxck Role: Co-writer Produced and Mixed by @cashybearcashybear This one very much brushed past me on the way through, Harry showed the song to me while we were working on other projects and was slightly stuck on the exact lyric/phrasings in the chorus, so I threw a couple of quick ideas at him which helped him unlock the song. He then rewarded me with a far too generous split for my tiny scratch of a contribution (thank you). It’s a beautiful song and cashybear did a gorgeous job with the production too. Enjoy!

Release: “The Other Side of Falling” by @willtroywmusic Role: Co-writer, Producer Mixed by @john_foyle_ I had so many great moments from this session that you can basically hear the first murmurings of this one all the way to the final head scratching lyrical puzzles. Loved writing this with one of my favourite humans. Swipe for clips including a lyrical discussion about cosplaying (?)

Release: “Second Chances” by @jessieleithmunro Role: Co-writer Produced by @jonahsummerfield Loved writing this with Jessie, swipe for all the info!

Release: “I Hate The Sun” by @kingselliot Role: Co-writer, Producer, Mixer Written with Kings and @carolades Mastered by @joegrassomix Helped write this in one of the sunniest places on earth. Swipe for session clips and the skinny!

New Release: “Figure It Out” by @edenintherain Role: Co-writer Written with Eden and @whoisjack Produced by @whoisjack Mixed by @paul_tec_carr Mastered by @olimorgan.wav Made this in the Yorkshire Dales on a deep midwinter writing retreat with @edenintherain and @whoisjack at the start of this year. For a long time the song was just called “windchimes” because it started when Jack stumbled across some on a late morning stomp and liked their timbre. Over the windchime loop Jack quickly built this gorgeous opening progression which we tinkered with until Eden hit the verse melody and the first flush of lyrics, then we worked to finesse and tie it all together. It became clear the pre needed to be this almost atonal tension build, the lurching messy taxi ride at the end of a night out, the sound of tomorrow’s headache, so we stripped everything out and focussed almost entirely on the lyric for a long time (swipe for me yoghurting a very rough example of the energy) . I was so happy when we landed on the “tapping on the glass like I’m trying to escape / an aquarium fish on speed back to your space” line - but on the way oh so many words got eaten! I think the chorus was a bit of a Hail Mary throw after we’d played around with a bunch of other ideas that weren’t quite it and we all finally gelled with the energy of this thumping descending vibe - at its heart there’s a lot of frustration and intensity brewing under the surface so it made sense to finally release that pressure here. Jack and Eden did a brilliant job finishing the production and arrangement (Jack went in HARD on that sky-scraping bridge) and the three of us had an emergency FaceTime summit to finish off a few lyrical bits that needed to be brought together - I even understood what the song was about by the end! Thanks to Eden and Jack for having me out there, and props to @paul_tec_carr for hammering home the vision with his mix and to @olimorgan.wav for nailing the master.

New Release: “Enough” by @kingselliot Role: Co-writer, producer, mixer Mastered by @joegrassomix My god, this one takes me back..! Kings and I wrote this song in 2018 when we had just started working together. It was I think the third song we finished, the first out and out ballad we tried that brought out her more delicate, careworn vocal in a way that made us both realise this could “be a thing” going forward. Memories of the writing process are understandably hazy (scroll for some finessing facetime chats and pics that we dug up) but I remember that Kings wanted to get deep into a performative place to find the words for this one, so we worked hard to put her in that exact snapshot of being “unaware, unprepared” and tried to focus on exactly what was happening in her head, rather than be too specific about the details of where it was happening, the colour of the walls, clever similes etc… we wanted this one to be as direct and ‘in our feelings’ as possible. This song existed in a lot of different forms over the years as we struggled to capture it in a way that felt as unguarded as the writing. We had a version on a Wurlitzer that I liked a lot… I’m pretty sure we dabbled with a vocal only arrangement at some point… but at the end of the day the song always worked best when we played it live on piano with no click track, so in the end that was how we recorded it, doing a bunch of piano/vocal takes and taking a lot of breaks until we captured a performance that felt right! It was then just a case of figuring out how to add some subtle moments to lift the song as it grew. I made a nice synth pad out of dial tones for the second prechorus and these shimmering guitars to wash over the second chorus and that was all it really needed. It’s strange how the song I probably spent the longest time producing different versions of over the years has ended up one of our most stripped arrangements to date, but sometimes you have to try everything to realise that less can be more. I’m glad it’s finally out in the world, owed also in no small part to another OG @joegrassomix who did such a gorgeous job on the master and has been doing so since Kings’ first release!

New Release: “Calista” by @miluneofficial Role: Co-writer, producer Mixed and mastered by @donpattino This was a really personal song to Milune about growing up, leaving your childhood but not wanting to leave it fully behind (it’s named after her much younger sister). She sent me these stunning and strange ukulele chords to start the song as well as this bewitching melody and lyric, so there was already a really strong foundation to build on. As soon as I heard this I stumbled on this ascending melody and chord progression for the b-section (swipe to hear me rambling around it). M liked this idea so we built on it together, gave it a bit more space and fleshed out the lyric into something tangible. We only truly hit the chorus on the second day of writing. We had some ideas for it on the first day and we had landed on the “has innocence ended and how would I know?” melody at the very end, but overall it wasn’t feeling like a winner yet. On the second day M had an inspired moment that we needed to anchor the topline around the “innocence ended” hook and just Hail Mary’d this exquisite vocal run descending from heaven to tie it all together! The aim with the production was to keep it pretty sparse and create a subtle atmosphere for the song to live in. The chords and melodies felt very wintery to me and fortunately it had just been snowing in Switzerland so I asked M to go outside and voicenote me some clips of her walking in the snow, which you can hear in the intro and outro ambience. Then later in the song I added some new layers so it feels like she’s running in the second verse. I wanted to get this feeling of the opening being contemplative and mournful before being overtaken by a more anxious urgent energy as the song progressed and a groove starts to emerge. Thanks to M again for trusting me with this idea and to @donpattino for doing such a wonderful job of pulling the mix-master together and managing to blend the power and beauty we wanted this song to have so expertly!

New Release: “Rabbit Holes” by @miluneofficial Role: Co-writer, producer Mixed and mastered by @donpattino Milune already knew she wanted to make “rabbit holes” as the title track for EP. We chatted on facetime about the concept of escapism and getting pulled off track on dangerous adventures to try and feel something. I must have been in a particularly nihilistic mood that day as one of the main lyrical ideas I added to the doc was “I know they’re going nowhere / but where does anywhere go?” She arrived in London with some bewitching piano chords she’d carved out at home and we continued exploring from there (swipe for that start point, early jams including me hitting the chorus chords super early and saying “nah fuck that”!) After a while we simplified the progression and gave the song a more propulsive and less contemplative feel, wanting to chase something of a blood-rush emotion. Before long we had a verse that was giving teenage disillusion, frustration and desire for rebellion but weren’t really sure where to take it. We had to sleep on it after a lot of out of pocket ideas didn’t ever quite land right, but eventually the chorus chords revealed themselves and we patiently coaxed the right melody and lyrics out over a couple of hours, I felt like I’d been fighting for my life at the piano so it was a relief to finally crack it! I loved exploring the strange invincibility that deep depression can cause - the impulsive risk taking to try and feel something… the realisation that “nothing matters…” leading to the counterpoint of “nothing matters!!”. In my head it reminded me of the beautiful way @allie_brosh writes about that feeling in Hyperbole and a Half and the final illustration in “Adventures in depression” was what I wanted us to try and capture in the chorus. Thank you again @miluneofficial for trusting me with your vision and having the artistic patience to let the ideas slowly unfold themselves over time. Thanks also to @donpattino who did a truly incredible job on the mix and master. Please go watch the video which has just been released - @felicity.thea worked absolute magic with it!

New release: “Fever Dream” by @miluneofficial Role: Co-writer, Producer Mixed and mastered by @donpattino This was the first song Milune and I wrote together. We started it on Zoom which is often tricky, but she had a really clear idea of what the song was about so we mainly talked about the concepts and traded pages and pages of lyrical ideas before feeling out what the vibe of the music could be… I went away and dug out some chords and basic melodies that fit the ‘dark but playful’ feeling we’d landed on. I hit some early drafts of the verse and chorus. She then flew over to the U.K. where we chiselled away at the song proper and finished the writing. I got to go to town on the arrangement and production for this one.. tuned a rave recorded from a distant field for the main ‘synth’ sound… there’s a Swanee whistle playing the part of an old kettle boiling over to add tension… lots of pitch shifting snares and hihats… every item in my percussion drawer got an airing at some point. I wanted to create a deliberately unstable lurching feel in the verses, like you’re being violently pulled around, never quite stable, stumbling drunk from room to room in a chaotic house party… so there’s a lot of triplet-feel and staggered syncopation at play there, especially in the second verse where I let things get liberally unhinged. Thank you @miluneofficial for trusting me with your concept and vision and to @donpattino for all his hard work sculpting the wild thing I delivered into a tight, focussed mix and master!

New release: “Great Nothing” by @edenintherain Role: Co-writer, Producer Mixed by @willlreeves Mastered by @olimorgan.wav One of my favourite sessions I had last year. I think this was my second write with Eden and I’d just stumbled on the chords before she walked in. We quickly refined them and the verse melody immediately fell out of her. As we were riffing early phrases she quickly decided she wanted it to be about the pain and frustration of a close friendship being destroyed by an unexpected declaration of love, so we had a lot of fun re-sculpting our initial verse ideas around this theme of living in the edge of a friendship spilling over “run the tightrope / flirt with danger / no man’s land is where I’m safest”. When Eden landed on the chorus idea everything fell together fairly quickly on the first day… we decided that trip hop was a good jacket for the song to wear so I had a lot of fun building the drums and start-stop bass part to weave in and out of the melody. Made most of the kit out of doors slamming shut as it felt symbolic to the overall themes of the song. Eden Rain song lore: we added the middle eight very late for this one and originally it was wordless with some floaty pad vocals before reprising the pre but I felt like it needed one line to give the section a new feeling… unfortunately it was to be delivered to mix the next day and she was bedridden with flu… but trooper that she is, we agreed on the lyric, she sung it into her phone from her sickbed and I just plonked it into the song. It worked surprisingly well, to the point where I wondered why I don’t just have an iPhone on my mic stand..! Shout outs and big love to the incredible @willlreeves who did such a wonderful job of mixing this and making it sound so powerful, aided in no small part by a punchy master from @olimorgan.wav - truly a dream team! I’ve put a few of my favourite clips from the session recording here so swipe for “POV yr a fly” content. Thank you @edenintherain for your brilliant heart and brain, it’s a rare joy to make music with you.

New release: “Closer” by @edenintherain Role: Co-writer, Producer Mixed by @willlreeves Mastered by @olimorgan.wav Eden had never really written “a love song” before, and this one happened almost by accident. Through our ritualistic 4-hour pre-session chat that we have to avoid doing any work, it emerged that someone she cared for was grieving. She was in the strange position of wanting to reach them to help them through it, whilst also knowing it would simply take time for them to process it before they became emotionally available again… so it was a really pure feeling to write about, this impossible longing to help someone but knowing you have to wait for them to heal themselves. It took me a long time to find the right chords, there’s always that usual struggle of trying to write a sad song in a minor key before remembering that major keys have the potential to bring out way more pain… I was going back and forth between piano and guitar trying to find something that felt bittersweet, yearning, plaintive… there was a lot of “no no no no…” before finally arriving at “maybe this is something?” I wasn’t actually sure this song would see the light of day. It was gorgeous but it had a tricky draft opening lyric about cutting hands on coffins and bloodied hands on grass (a true story, and a great metaphor for a backstory to the song, but perhaps a bit much as a cold open and actually kind of off-message) so I wasn’t sure how accessible the song was. It was also missing a middle eight which I felt like it needed as the chorus kept feeling like it was ascending towards somewhere and it needed some payoff. Full credit to her and her team for seeing the beauty and potential in it as a release - as soon as we redrafted the most morbid lines and built a bridge that led us to a heavenly coda the song suddenly clicked into place! I’m really proud of how this one turned out, owing in no small part to a dreamy mix by Will Reeves and some smooth mastery from Oli Morgan keeping the song warm but with just enough punch and urgency. Go and watch the stunning video Eden made for it. Featuring 200 identical oil lamps that I believe she now reluctantly owns.

JANUARY 2024 HAPPENINGS - showed up to NYE sober at 11:45 and do not remember this being taken 20 mins later - acoustic rendition of Like I Was Never here with @kingselliot - catching @houseofjohnson and @sarahrosesounds in town - Museum of knitting and slavery (or something like that) in Dent, Yorkshire - BTS writing with @edenintherain and @sowhoisjack - weird musical synchronicity with @milune.official - I wish I’d looked at the poster to know who these guys were but I clearly enjoyed myself - watching Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands ballet with @kingselliot , dare I say I loved it even more than the movie - stunning concert by @nanamrose at Old Church Stoke Newington - @bitterroot_theatre putting on a devastating show “If It’s To Break” with @jake.rb.art and @chris__richards_ Profoundly moving and immaculate physical theatre! Experienced that with @kingselliot and @tom_gracefield