I’d heard great things about Miloco, and a lot of my favourite artists have recorded there over the years, so even in this contemporary world, it seemed like a room with history - without the heritage, if that makes sense?
We set up mics around the room for the seven-piece band with the in-house tech to play in the round and get that live energy going, and set up a glass screen for the brass players to contain their wildness. I’d never recorded as a full live band including vocals before, so I was intrigued to see if our live energy could truly be replicated.
It might sound like an odd thing to add, but the huge China light balls in the room with adjustable colours really helped set the vibe in the room, especially when using colour is such a huge part of my process. We set them to a deep red, and
they filled the room with a really nice contrast to the rich blue/pool-like floor. We ran the song through once, and then decided to hit record. Each take was great, and so we settled on the sixth, I think. One for good luck, and inevitably agreed on the take before! Being able to play in the round due to the size of the room was a definite time saver, and also kept the energy up throughout the whole day.
The process was also being filmed by videographer, Benjamin Edward Simmons, who had the tough job of covering enough takes using the right angles to get footage of all seven of us. We continued to play to our best take whilst he captured some great shots of each individual player, and some grouped shots too. The staff at Miloco were great, they really knew what they were doing! Jamie even popped his head in to have a listen, and I was lucky enough to get a tour of some other rooms. It was decided I’d definitely be coming back! I can visualise a VC Pines album launch party in the Red Room as clear as day in my mind, I can tell you..!