Talvin Singh talks…
This month’s big news is that Pro7ect Headline Producer and Mercury Prize winner Talvin Singh is including the song ‘Hold Me In’, written at Pro7ect 2018, on his latest album.
Composer, tabla player and music producer, Talvin Singh has collaborated with many artists including Madonna, Massive Attack, Souxsie and the Banshees, Bjork, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Blondie.
Pro7ect Creative Director Lisa Fitz talks with Talvin about his beloved MPC, the inspiration behind his album ‘OK’, how the Bollywood sound inspired his early production decisions, and the ‘Hold Me In’ songwriting session at Pro7ect 2018.
“I’m currently finishing off a collaborative album with several producers and songwriters, inspired by Pro7ect… you pushed me to look through that window”
– Talvin Singh, Pro7ect Headline Producer
Talvin Singh - Headline Producer Pro7ect 2018
LF: Coming from a tradition of live performance your recording work is highly programmed. How did this evolution develop?
TS: Back in the day I was the percussionist playing on a lot of records, but in the late 80’s, early 90’s when I was working with Bjork, Guy Sigsworth and myself went into the multi-track and we started using a lot of those samples for the live concerts. That’s how it all started.
LF: What’s your studio set up?
TS: I haven’t had a desktop system for the last decade. I’ve been working with a laptop because they’ve got so powerful, using plugins like Soothe and Spiff, which identify the digital residue that you get when recording above 48k. I don’t really like looking at screens when I’m listening to music and adjusting EQ parameters, so I use outboard gear for most of that work.
I’ve become quite passionate about recording vocals, I have some really nice microphones and a unique set up just for vocals which is a DW Fern VT7 valve compressor, and on top of that, part of the chain, is a PEQ Lang EQ which is Solid State.
“The job of a vocalist is quite multifaceted because you’ve got to deal with lyrics, you’ve got to deal with intonation, you’ve got to deal with the most subtle aspect of an instrument – your body”
– Talvin Singh, Pro7ect Headline Producer
LF: Is there a plugin that you can recommend?
TS: The Spiff Oak sound works well for more transient shaping and the Soothe 3 I think is amazing… if you’re recording digitally, you’re going to get all of that airy stuff, and residue, and the Soothe 3 helps in that area.
Most of my songwriting I do on the MPC. The only problem with the Akai is that it has compression built in, which is the MPC sound, but sometimes I don’t want that. It goes up to 96K but sometimes I just want to program on it, and I wish I could switch that compression sound off. I like to do most of my songwriting on the MPC because I don’t want to feel like I’m listening to my favourite album and reading my favourite book at the same time.
LF: Can you tell us about how you came to learn the tabla and what drew you to that instrument?
TS: The instrument came to me at such a young age. The sound of the instrument and the physics, the ergonomics of sitting cross-legged playing it, I was attracted to that idea, the spiritual space, the yogic energy from playing this instrument. I originally learnt from a few visiting masters, and then I found my teacher who was devoted to guiding me musically, and spiritually. The tabla has given me a sonic understanding of sounds and rhythms… it’s a tuned percussion instrument (goes on to demonstrate the different tones on his tabla – watch the full interview).
Talvin Singh - OK album cover
LF: Your solo album ‘OK’ was released in 1998 to critical and commercial success, winning the Mercury Music prize and the Southbank prize. You recorded that album in 5 different locations, Mumbai, Madras, Okinawa, New York and London. Now days that happens all the time, but tell us about your production process on this album and the decision you made back then to record it in so many different locations?
TS: The idea of this travelogue album was very exciting, and there were so many musicians that I wanted to engage and work with like Bill Laswell in New York… the album was a melting pot of different people coming together and the experiences of travelling to these places was a big part of it.
Bombay was where we started because I’ve always been fascinated by the recording industry of Bombay. When I started getting into records and how they are made, the mysticism that I developed around studios and studio equipment, came from listening to records that were made there in the 80’s. Especially the saturated distortion which you heard on those Bollywood records… it blew my mind! It attracted me to the quest of knowing how? How can you get that sound?
It’s interesting because I found out that one of the chief engineers in the studios in Bombay had insisted that when the VU meters are red, that’s when you start recording, because he actually thought that meant it was ON!
LF: Is that why the music sounds so hot, so crunchy in the mid and high frequencies?
TS: Exactly, so everyone followed that tradition, and it became the Bollywood sound!
In London the Strong Room was the headquarters for the project. We used the Neve room because I wanted that warm, saturated sound. But we ended up recording it on Radar, that was our main machine. In Bombay we used the Tascam… I still have it. In Bombay we recorded with DA-38’s, they became really popular at that time. But everything we recorded we ended up transferring onto Radar.
I was executive producing the record, but I had such an amazing engineer (Tristin Norwell) who helped with recording, housekeeping, and mixing. It was intense though, we would finish at 3 or 4 in the morning, and my start time was 9am. But sessions were like that back in the day… you would have a lock-out in the studio for 3 weeks, and you wanted to make use of the time, not resting, or sleeping.
LF: Tell us a little bit about the ‘Hold Me In’ songwriting session at Pro7ect 2018. You were Headline Producer in the Prism Sound Sing-Star Studio with 3 other songwriters including Bev Lee Harling as Featured Artist, how did the day roll.
TS: Bev Lee’s energy was a reflection of everything that took place that day. She allowed things to happen, that’s very important in a studio environment, or any creative environment… to let things happen. The job of a vocalist is quite multifaceted because you’ve got to deal with lyrics, you’ve got to deal with your intonation, you’ve got to deal with the most subtle aspect of an instrument – your body, there’s a lot of things going on there. When you’re in that writing space there’s pressure to get something down and Bev Lee was letting things happen. I think that’s what produced a really good song. She sang the vocal in one take!
After the ‘Hold Me In’ session Bev Lee said to me, very softly, “I love the way you recorded the vocals”, and I was like, “are you sure?” but when I heard it back in my studio I was blown away! I thought that I might need to clean a few things up, I often use Melodyne (pitch correction software) in a really subtle way, but I didn’t need to use any of it! I said to her afterwards that this is really amazing… when you have a take where there’s no editing involved, you’re storytelling, it doesn’t have to be perfect AND YET IT IS PERFECT! Because you can’t take anything away, and you can’t add anything. It’s a piece of art.
Talvin Singh with ‘Hold Me In’ songwriting team at Pro7ect 2010 - Hotel Pelirocco: Will Cox, Talvin Sing, Bev Lee Harling, Stefan Schmid
Watch the Talvin Singh interview at:
ANNOUNCING OUR 2023 DATES:
PRO7ECT WILL BE RETURNING TO ROCKFIELD FROM 18TH TO 26TH JULY 2023
APPLY BEFORE 01.01.23 FOR THE *EARLY BIRD RATE
Pro7ect 2023 Headline Producers.
Now in our 8th year, Pro7ect Songwriting Retreats at the world famous Rockfield Studios, is the only residential songwriting retreat in the UK offering music production in the room and an opportunity to collaborate with internationally acclaimed writer/producers.
P7 Headline producers include Stew Jackson (Massive Attack), Youth (Sir Paul McCartney, The Verve, The Orb), Roni Size (Reprazent), John Fortis (Razorlight, Ellie Goulding), Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers), Iain Archer (Snow Patrol, James Bay), Andrew Levy (Brand New Heavies) and Mercury Prize Winner Talvin Singh, just to name a few.
So far, we’ve had 18 releases & 4 sync’s from songs written at Pro7ect retreats, as well as numerous collaborations and professional opportunities via the P7 Alumni artists community.
I look forward to sharing with you in this monthly column songwriting & music production experiences, advise, tips and insider secrets that I’ve discovered along my Pro7ect Collaboration Navigation adventure.
Take risks,
Lisa Fitz
Pro7ect Session Notes is an insider’s guide to real life songwriting, collaboration, and music production experiences from Pro7ect Songwriting Retreats & Creative Director Lisa Fitzgibbon.
Links to media mentioned in this blog: https://www.pro7ect.com/session-notes
For more information and to apply for Pro7ect songwriting retreats and Masterclasses: www.pro7ect.com
Pro7ect is proudly sponsored by Prism Sound.
Images: by Ian Wallman