Juno-Worthy Workflows
Professional Sound gets the stories behind the songs from the nominees for the Juno Awards ’ 2018 Engineer of the Year
As anyone in the pro audio and music industry knows , sometimes the people behind the console have a more interesting perspective on the music than the musicians themselves . Ahead of the 2018 Juno Awards , which were handed out on March 24 th and 25 th in Vancouver , Professional Sound caught up with this year ’ s five nominees for Engineer of the Year . Congratulations to Riley Bell , who ended up winning the prize .
In these candid conversations , each engineer shares the behind-the-scenes stories of how the pair of songs they ’ re nominated for came together and how each found its distinctive sound . Each Q & A included here is just a short excerpt of a longer , in-depth conversation .
To read the full interview with each nominee , go to www . professional-sound . com / features .
Nominated for :
Riley Bell “ Get You ( ft . Kali Uchis )” and “ We Find Love ” by Daniel Caesar from the album Freudian
PS : Modern R & B and soul tends to have a lot of electronic instrumentation , beats , and effects , but the songs on Freudian have a more classic band- and piano-oriented sound , but still with a modern vibe . Was that Daniel ’ s decision , or was it you with producers Matthew Burnett and Jordan Evans crafting that sound ?
RB : I feel like some of that just emerged naturally . It ’ s funny , more of the album is actually electronic than you ’ d probably think by listening to it . We would take organic sounds and manipulate them electronically so that something sounds classic but it ’ s new , you know what I mean ? Like on the early Freudian sessions , there was a lot of experimenting with different sonics and guitar tones and just different vibes . Once we hit on a specific guitar tone and sonic characteristic , I feel like it was intentional to remain cohesive to the sonic landscape that was being built . That just helps the album be cohesive and not have , like , an ‘ 80s guitar tone with ‘ 60s vintage [ drums ] or whatever . It is kind of like once you locked into a certain style of how we tracked the guitars and the sounds of those , then we kind of stuck to that throughout the album . The same thing with the keys and piano , which are recorded very similarly throughout the album . That was definitely an intentional thing .
PS : Daniel ’ s voice sounds pretty pure on Freudian . Were you doing much with effects or in the mix with his vocals ?
Photo : CARAS / iPhoto
38 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND