During this time, it’s hard to be able to do any type of production of a musical theatre album while trying to practice social distancing. But Poppy Burton-Morgan and Ben Glasstone were able to find a way just to do that with their new musical The Rhythmics! I was able to ask them a few questions to find out about the process…
What made you want to create an entire album during this pandemic?
PBM - well if things had turned out differently the show would have been happening this year, so we wanted to find a way to keep it alive somehow. Also, it’s such a life-affirming show full of heart - I think a lot of folks could benefit from that right now.
BG - When Poppy said let’s make an album I jumped at the chance. It was so good to be able to have a project that was both artistically satisfying and achievable-in-lockdown (just!) and that gave actors and musicians a little bit of work and hope.
What difficulties did you face during this project due to social distancing requirements?
BG - I really wanted to get the band together in a room to be able to play as an ensemble, feel the tempo changes and, er, have a good time. That clearly wasn’t going to be possible, so to establish a good feel for each musician to build on, I decided to play the drum parts myself (being best placed to know the rhythmic feel of each track). I got help of my studio-partner, drummer Sian Monaghan who very patiently recorded my takes and we pieced together something solid for each musician to then lay their stuff on top of. But so much had to be got right at the beginning, as each successive layer would have to work off the one before.
PBM - Yeah working individually, layer by socially distanced layer, for the vocals was tough too. It was hard to recreate the sense of group banter and camaraderie that’s at the heart of some of the ensemble numbers. In the end the amazing Simon Small who’s mixed and mastered the album even added in some more of his own backing vocals to get a more raucous sound. Those 10 years in a punk band really paid off for him there.
What were some of the (fun) things that you did differently than in your previous work?
BG - Playing the drums is more fun that should be legally allowed. That said, getting them seriously bang-on in time while being recorded by a session drummer is kind of torture. Trying to negotiate a glasses-headphones-facemask combo when sitting in, score-in-hand, on recording sessions: sort of ridiculous fun in a steamed-up glasses sort of way.
PBM - well rehearsing over zoom was of course a brave new world of tech and WiFi fun. But actually, it was pretty straightforward because again we rehearsed each person one at a time and they could play the guide backing tracks in their sitting rooms so there weren’t latency issues. So that was fun and a different way of working for me. Also I turned off the video in my zoom rehearsals so I was just listening which is generally a useful process when you’re creating audio work because the face of the performer is still doing so much, but if that doesn’t translate into the voice in terms of colour and tone etc. then you’re scuppered. So, I’ll hold on to that for all my future cast albums, even when we can be in the same room again.
Ben Glasstone playing the drums
Was it difficult to schedule zoom meetings around everyone's schedules?
PBM - Well Jamie our wonderful MD was stacking shelves in Sainsburys to make ends meet and I have 2 small kids, so my working hours are only 10-1 every day, and even then the kids love to Zoom bomb my meetings. So, he and I worked separately with the singers, but again that was a remarkably smooth and efficient process. And for the singers I think it was great because there was none of that ‘being called to rehearsals and then sitting around for hours waiting to learn your harmonies’.
BG- Schedules, what schedules? Thankfully, Poppy had more sense than to let me schedule Zoom meetings. But generally, one of the fringe benefits of lockdown for me is that performers and musicians are pretty likely to be available!
Did you enjoy creating this album with social distancing / lockdown in effect, or do you prefer being closer to each other while working?
PBM - Nothing beats creating together with people in the room. And it was sad for me not to be physically present in the studio when the tracks were actually recorded - but I made a little poster full of motivational quotes for Ben to put up on the wall so hopefully my presence was still felt. Also, there are benefits to all the remote working - it can be more time efficient and there’s no travel time to account for, so as a super-busy working mum it was probably more manageable than doing it all in the flesh.
BG - And Poppy’s poster was still up there several weeks later. I’m not sure what Sian made of it. Pro drummers are a bit more rock n roll. I hope she didn’t think I’d joined some sort of cult. But I can only concur with Poppy: get me back in the room with the band!
What are some changes you would make if you were to do this again?
BG - Technical one: I had to work out how to build up the structures from the songs so that they would feel right, despite not being played by live musicians together. One choice I made was to use the Sibelius scores to generate the temp change information, so I had a click that sped up and slowed down exactly as I’d hear it played back by Sibelius. I then exported the MIDI click from Sibelius for people to use to record to in Logic or Cubase or whatever they were using. Turns out different programs interpret the MIDI temp-changing gradients differently. In other words, the timing was suddenly all over the shop, the last thing I wanted. Also, my score-based decisions about tempos etc. were my best guess, but further down the line I regretted some. Lessons? Keep the tech simple and remember, for mix engineers, the click track is God.
PBM - yes, we should have embraced the click track sooner, for sure. Also Jamie the MD made a brilliant cheat sheet so no little bits of music or backing vocals were forgotten, and I wish I’d done the same as Director because inevitably several of the little spoken lines, interjections and book scene moments were forgotten in the studio and actors had to re-record at home and hopefully you can’t hear the difference… but Ben and I can definitely tell! Also, the finished product sounds AMAZING but, a bit like putting on a live show, the whole process took way more work and energy to create, and headspace and planning and logistics and twenty million emails. And way more money than we’d budgeted for. So, I would probably try and raise more money and have more support around us to make the process a little easier next time. Which is exactly what we say after every show too, so I guess it’s in our nature to always stretch our ambitions a bit beyond our resources! Still, listening to the finished album, it was definitely worth it.
BG - Most definitely.
Neil McDermott in the booth recording for the album
Poppy and Ben show that it’s possible to work during this challenging time, and there were even some things that worked out better for them both. Even during difficult times we can still find a way to do what we love, but just in a different way!
Sarah Rusnak