After recording the demos, Lizzie gave me my own creative freedom for the other instruments and any structure changes I were to make. Initially wrote down the structures with some added extra bits for our next meeting which we could discuss. 

 

Lizzie initially said after recording the demos that these are ready for a band (at least guitar, bass and drums) to feature on them however, after listening to the demos of her songs, I came up with some initial ideas.

Two of the songs which would be recorded – ‘Miles’ and ‘The End’, I felt didn’t require a full band setup and would be more suited to a more orchestral approach for the backing music, particularly string sections. I played some parts which I said could feature on the above tracks. These tracks are noticeably slower paced and softer dynamically hence why I suggested string sections would be appropriate.

I showed Lizzie a particular song from Scottish rock band Twin Atlantic, and their song ‘Crash Land’, which, although the band consists of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, Crash Land is a much slower and stripped back song featuring cellos and violins, which could be a direction to take The End, and Miles in.

Lizzie agreed that this would be a better option than to try and write a drum part that would fit the songs and that a full band for these two particular tracks would be unnecessary.

 

Twin Atlantic – Crash Land – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mqC1E_-yjc

 

 

 

The next meeting me and Lizzie were to have, involved the recording of demos of the 4 songs she chose to record. She played the songs through a few times and we sat with guitars together to which I would improvise around with parts that I might include in the final product. This was a great idea as it gave me a real feel for the songs and gave me a chance to learn the base structures of each song straight away. We put a phone just to get the audio recorded to which I could sit down in my own time, play through the songs and also compose the other instrument parts over it.

 

Wild Things – Lizzie Sawyer (Demo) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2eh6Y3Jqm1YzdNUlRya2hiSnM/view

Miles – Lizzie Sawyer (Demo) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2eh6Y3Jqm1SUUwUXFHQ0NlMDQ/view

You, The Ghost – Lizzie Sawyer (Demo) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2eh6Y3Jqm1djJIMTNUMEZXbTA/view

The End – Lizzie Sawyer (Demo) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2eh6Y3Jqm1OEZqakVlTUxVd2s/view

 

After I had a copy of the demo, it gave me an opportunity to go over each song closely, composing other parts, and to any structure changes that could be made to the finish tracks. Lizzie gave me permission to change any orders of the songs around and to add any instruments that I’d like to initially add, and we could discuss these at our next meeting.