Rameagle — Starting Again to Make the Record They Actually Wanted
From one song to thirteen — and then back to the beginning
Our relationship with Rameagle started before The Source Studio existed.
They originally came to record one song at our former home studio. One song became another, and before long we'd recorded 13 tracks together.
But bands change. Line-ups evolve, musicians develop and the sound you were chasing a year ago isn't necessarily the sound you want to put out today.
When Rameagle's line-up changed and The Source Studio opened in Exeter, we made a fairly big decision:
Start again.
Not because the previous recordings were bad, but because the band had become something different. Rather than trying to make the old recordings fit the new Rameagle, we wanted to capture the band as they sound now.
Four days. Thirteen songs. One new starting point.
We began by the band rehearsing for several weeks then recording guide tracks for the entire project.
Over four days, we worked through all 13 songs, creating the foundation for the new recordings.
But "guide tracks" perhaps undersells what happened.
We ended up recording Rameagle more or less live.
Rather than isolating everything and building the songs one instrument at a time, we found a setup that allowed the band to play together and retain the energy of a real performance.
That meant making use of the whole studio.
Amps ended up in the hallway and the control room, while the band played together across the recording spaces.
It might not be the neatest-looking recording setup in the world.
But it worked.
And that's what matters.
Capture the band first. Worry about perfection later.
There's something that can disappear very quickly when you start recording a band instrument by instrument: the way they react to each other.
Tiny changes in timing. A drummer responding to a guitar part. A bass player pushing into a chorus. The slight imperfections that make four or five musicians sound like a band rather than a collection of perfectly edited tracks.
With Rameagle, the priority was to capture that.
The guide sessions gave us a complete performance of the songs while also providing a foundation we can now build upon.
Instead of starting every overdub from a click track and a sterile guide, the musicians will be playing against Rameagle actually playing Rameagle.
Now the real detail begins
With the foundations recorded, we're about to start overdubbing the first single.
This is where we can start getting forensic: keeping the energy and feel of those original performances while replacing, strengthening and adding individual parts where the song needs them.
Rather than trying to perfect 13 songs simultaneously, we'll be able to focus properly on each release and give it the attention it deserves.
And when that first single is finished, it will leave The Source Studio for the final stage of the process.
The track will be mixed and mastered by Pete Marten.
That means the project isn't limited by the four walls of our studio. We're happy to collaborate with other engineers, producers and specialists where that's the right thing for the record.
Sometimes starting again isn't going backwards
We've now recorded versions of these songs twice.
That could sound like wasted work.
It isn't.
The original sessions helped the band develop the songs, learn what worked, hear what didn't and ultimately discover what they wanted the record to become.
The new sessions are capturing a different line-up, in a different studio, at a different point in the band's development.
That's part of making records.
Sometimes the most important decision isn't how do we finish this recording?
It's:
Is this still the record we want to make?
For Rameagle, the answer was to start again.
Four days later, we've got the foundations of 13 songs and we're ready to start turning them into finished releases.
Next up: the first single.
