Final Thoughts and Musical Philosophy

Hello, I'm John Kennedy, and joining me for this episode of Take Notes is Tom Mish to talk about how he wrote, recorded and produced the album Full Circle. I was joined by Tom at Strongroom Studios where we dug into his writing process, the stories behind the tracks and his method of bringing the album to life. This is the second time we've spoken to Tom. We first spoke to him remotely during the COVID days talking about what kind of music, his collaboration album with Youssef Days. Tom then had a bit of a break from music, and this album explores the moments that shaped his life over the last four years. It was so good to meet Tom in person and do the interview face to face . Such a lovely guy. And it was really amazing to hear about his production techniques, stories of recording to tape, his approach to making music, and being in the studio with some incredible musicians, and of course, lots of great guitar chat because he's just such an amazing guitarist. We filmed the entire conversation. So if you'd like to watch the interview and see into Tom's logic sessions, then head over to patreon.com forward slash tapenotes. Membership also gives you the chance to ask our guests questions, see behind the scenes content, and get entry into our monthly gear giveaways, among many other things. A big thank you as well to our partners at Tape It, they've recently released their new D-Noiser plugin. If you find your recordings often have unwanted background noise then I would highly recommend checking this out. It is excellent and currently half price. So head to tape dotit forward slash denoiser to check it out. But now without further ado, let's get started Tom Mish is an English singer songwriter and producer. Known for blending hip hop beats with soulful vocals and his distinctive guitar style, Tom first began releasing music on SoundCloud. His self-recorded debut album, Geography, arrived in 2018 and became a UK top 10 hit. A collaboration album, What Kind of Music, with drummer Youssef Days, was next in 2020, which Tom then followed with a series of releases under his club-focused alter ego, Super Shy. After a brief hiatus, Tom returned in March 2026 with his second solo album, Full Circle. Also self-produced, the record has been widely praised for its mature sound, carrying a deeply personal and intimate tone throughout. Today I'm at Strongroom Studios with Tom and what better way to start than by hearing something from Full Circle. This is Sisters With Me . When life moves so fast , it washes away with ocean deep , guess we are the same the youngest of three we have ov om we see the love life can bring is uncertainty . My questions remain , they keep me sane , Cause we are the same , yes. We are the same with my sisters. I breathe, it's my sisters I need my sisters with me my sist ers with me it is sisters with me by tom mish from the album full circle and I'm very pleased to say that I am back at the Strong room studio One with Tom Mish. Hello, Tom. Hey. It's great to see you in person because we have been in communication before. You're on tape notes back in the kind of COVID era, and we did an online conversation about what kind of music? Youssef wasn't there, but you were there. Um but now we're actually in the same room. Um thank you very much for joining us. We're gonna look at three songs from full circle. Um is there anything we should know before we' stdart with our first track about this album and what approach you were taking? Yeah, I think um it was born out of me taking some time away from my music career, I guess, you know, st stopping doing other things that I didn't get really the chance to do in my twenties because it was kind of so go go go. And so it was born from a lot of space and reflection and it's kind of about the songs, um, which is previously, you know, I'm I'm kind of foremost a musician, then a producer, but like I've never really thought of myself as a songwriter and this record is really stepping into that territory. Interesting. That's great. Excellent. And we're gonna dig deep into those songs today. The first song we're going to look at is Red Moon, so maybe you could play us a blast of the master, and then we'll find out how you create it. Tell me how to make it right . Cause I'm blue just like the sky . Yes, I'm lost, will you shine tonight ? I know that I need love Change her heart Change her mind ? Can you move for me? Like you move the tie Can you change the stars ? Can you make it right It is Red Moon by Tom Misch from Full Circle. So when and how did this start? So this yeah, this track um I made in Nashville was it last year or the year before? I actually can't quite remember. But it um yeah, this was this was like one month I had in in Nash ville, the idea was to go and finish the record slash make it. I mean we I had a lot of demos and stuff like that, but I hadn't really um I wanted to go in and kind of produce something with Ian Fitch up , who's a great producer, sort of plays like every instrument, guy from Nashville and I heard his music through this track called uh Slowburn by Casey Musgraves and um I was just like shit this is really good. This is like right up my street, it's like good good pop music, basically. Uh with the kind of real it real instruments recorded really nicely . Um so yeah, I I went to Nashville and and uh started that process. And and and Ian drew you there rather than Nashville itself. Yeah, Ian Ian drew me there. Yeah. I didn't really know much about Nashville, but I came I mean, I kind of just realised it's an incredible place for music. There's there's so much stuff happening there. I mean every you go walk down the street, everyone's playing in a band, everyone's insane. So it's a real music hub. And yeah, so this track was. I think it was a day I was I had a session. So we had uh this guy, Daniel Tashiyan, who I was writing with. Ian was there, and I think the the idea actually started with some piano. It was like Ian on the piano playing these chords and then it kind of turned into something very different through through the sessions. Do you have early versions or uh what wha what should we hear first? Yeah, I've got um I've got an early demo, but it's this is the I haven't got the piano demo, unfortunately. I couldn't I couldn't find that, but I've got this is a bit further down the line. And it was this kind of answer and call response with And uh yeah, I'll I'll play the early demo. Yeah, which which sounds great. Yeah. Somewhat more demoy. Tell me are you on my side So what had survived from the piano demo in terms of what had you transferred from the piano was that rhythm, was that that that groove there initially or were you changing the piano chords into guitar chords? Yeah, the um so yeah, so so the kind of d dun that you can hear on the guitar, that was originally on a piano, it was like kind of held pushing piano parts. It was quite funky, and then I think I think because of the rec, you know, the record's kind of so acoustic, guitar-driven, and kind of intimate, we wanted to capture, we wanted to move that to the acoustic. So, you know, and something that I can play on my live show. Yeah. So so yeah, it changed it changed to you can hear Can you change her heart ? Can you change her mind ? I know that I need her. I haven't actually listened to this since she made it, so it's very very different. Yeah the percussion is really different. Percussion's different, there's a bit more stuff going on . But actually the drum loops quite cool. It's quite interesting 'cause we we recorded a bunch of drums and I think this was like a little loop that we found. We slowed it down on the tape machine and kind of gave it this warped effect that I really love. So the drums just they're they're very soft. The tape machine did something really special to that, to the transients, which I really like. Yeah. And and that transferred to the to the finished version. Yeah, that's in the finished version. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So recorded direct to tape, as in like real tape. Recorded to Pro Tools and then ran to tape post . And then slowed down . And then slowed down on on the on the on the tape machine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a bit it was a bit of experimentation just kind, of trying stuff. And then it was actually ran to tape again later on in the process. You know, when I was back in London, uh I was at Miles James's studio, he's like the tape guru guy, plays everything, and he uh yeah, he we we ran stuff to tape again, which was yeah, double double tape. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um he had a more kind of high fidelity sounding tape machine, whereas the one I used in Nashville was was it was I think it a two what do you call it, a two two real. Yeah. Which had a sound, more lo-fi So which bit of taping are we hearing now? So this is double taped. Yeah. Uh this is pre-mixing drum stem . And yeah, you can hear this some spring verb on . And you can actually hear a bit of bleed, some guitar in the back, because this was from a jam. And then we just cut this and ended up using it. Yeah, to then layer up the other instruments. Exactly, yeah. Yeah. And I like how how the track when the track starts you can hear you can hear that bit of bleed play again . It's sort of in key as well, which is nice. Yeah. So it's yeah, it's kind of just leaning into the real organ ic elements in this record, I really wanted to keep it human and and live because the lyrical content was you know was so much that. Yeah. Yeah. So what should we look at next? I mean the guitar from Yeah, so in terms of acoustics Two like close mic acoustics and and they they love that in Nashville. They they really go in on the different tones and stuff and I think this was a Gibson was a Gibbs and acoustic that just had a real woody real woody sound so this is also rantate , um double tracked. And then we've got that electric guitar sound which a kind of wah thing. Which is a uh I think it's my strat. I've got a John Mayer signature strat that I'm running into a distortion pedal into a moogafuga, which is the uh the Moog's kind of WAR thing. Base is it bass moogafo? I think it's bass moogafuga. Right. And is that that's a pedal, is it? It's a pedal. Yeah. So it's a envelope pedal. So you're playing the electric and do it using the mugafuga? Yeah, yeah. Well exactly. You just play into it and it opens up or closes. Mugafuga. Mugafuga. It's such a great name. It is. With a bit of verb and stuff on the sound I use quite a lot actually. But never used it on a record. But I used it I did a tiny desk like seven years ago or something, and there was a guitar solo that I did on this track called I Wish, and I used this sound, and then it kind of became a bit of it was like I felt like it was like not my thing but something that I did quite a lot, you know. And I was like, I I want to get that on the record. Yeah, interesting. We've got um some questions that we're gonna scatter throughout the course of our chat from patrons via Patreon and where we is Diego Fernandez who says, Can you share your pedal board? Which is quite a big ask, I think. Yeah. Um you know what I I actually can't even tell you what I've got because I didn't make the board. So I'm I'm putting my hands in the air. I'm I'm pretty clueless with setting up gear. So I've got my my guitar tech did that for me. And I I can explain basically what I mean, I've got a, but I don't know exactly what I've got. So I've got like a clone drive thing that kind of fattens up the sound a bit. I've got my uh muga fuga pedal, which I love. I've got a kind of three in one pedal that gives you delay drive and what are the what are they called? I wish I had a photo of it. Maybe I'd be happy to share a photo of it. Yeah, cool. Well you know, I'm not there's no C Yeah, that would be great. I mean send it on through and we'll we'll share it. Oh yeah. But I mean it's an interesting thing, isn't it? Because um and it's it uh g so many musicians it is if it works, it works. Don't know what it is, it doesn't matter, it it creates what I want. Yeah. Um and obviously at the same time um it's useful having friends who are very knowledgeable about these things that can put them together so that you can then use them to make your art. Exactly. 'Cause my strengths are not in the technical side of things. Yeah. Yeah. And going back to Red Moon, what what else can you share with us? Yeah, so I think the vocals are quite a big theme in this one, you know, the kind of low quiet voc al that I'm doing which is I wanted to lean into my natur my my voice how it is naturally which is kind of I like to sit within my comfort range vocally you know which is I'm I'm I'm a bass really I sing quite low and quiet ly and I uh I used an RE electro voice R E fifteen on this which I think was like used a lot in the 70s and yeah I'm just sort of s almost speaking into the mic and let me get the chain up because I really drove it up with like a preamp which gave the sound. Make it right . Yes, I'm lost where you shine to name. I think this actually would have just gone into my apogee uh duet interface. So nothing kind of fancy, preamp wise, analog wise, but then I'm I'm juicing it up with the Ne ve, yeah, this UAD Neve thing. Tell me how to make it. And then it's going into the acoustica L ray, which I've used a lot on this record actually. It sounds really analogue to me. Uh the spike stent preset, vocal analog warmth. And then into another tape plug-in, torp, and then another UAD one, which I was kind of using it more for the EQ aspect, the vocal warmth preset. And do you have all this set up when you're recording your vocal or do you do all this after No, no, this is i it's all kind of experimenting really while I'm going along. I don't I don't know what I'm gonna do, but you know, I kind of find I discover like you know that mic with these plugins for me is like a match, a great match. So if I go back to do something like this, I might use a similar chain. Yeah. So sometimes I save chains. Yeah. Which is good. Are we able to hear maybe it with the effects and without the effects. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So right. So this is without tell me how to make it right . Sky. And now I'm gonna turn them on. Cause I'm blue just like the sky . Yes, I'm lost where you shine tonight. So it's subtle, but it um it's compressing it and it's Yeah, just giving it. For me that kind of tape machine, if you're driving into a tape machine hot. Yeah. I like that kind of effect. Yeah. And it ha yeah, it has an extra warmth to it. You can hear it. Extra warmth. Yeah. Sounds great. Got the bass, which I played in originally and then um I had a session with Alex Buffanti who's a great bass player and on a lot of my records, previous records I've played a lot of the other parts, but I wanted to kind of make it feel as if I'm making an old you know, an old record. You would have various different musicians get a real bass player to actually do the thing. Ah, she's Yeah, so that's kind of and then and then I've got some B I've got some BVs going on, you know, the answer and call thing. Um how to make it red moon . Those are me. I've I'm doing some of the Red Moon answering calls and then did some um I wanted to have like the same female BVs across the record so I I met up with uh Rosie Elena and she tried some stuff. Which was cool. And Izzy from Woom tried some stuff as well. Are you able to maybe build up layer by layer the the whole track? Yeah. As we hear all the different elements come in. Start with drums . I had a shaker from congers . Bass . Acoustic guitar Main lead vocal vacuum guitar Change the stars Make it right there is actually some piano that comes in in the chorus here. Oh that's not the chorus yet. So there's not too many elements really. This on a lot of the record. The the whole the whole album. It's quite sparse. There's that great soloing though. And it's yeah, it sounds so cool. And it is like another voice, isn't it? Definitely. Yeah. Yeah, for me it is like my my voice and my guitar is like sign theature thing. I wanted to lean into that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Such a great groove. Um, anything else we should hear before we move on from Red Moon? Yeah, there there's um I had a lot of people asking me about this noise that they hear in this record that sounds like a accident or something, and it's a glass falling during a guitar take. And I remember Lex who makes the record was like, Shall I take this out? I just I yeah, I was like, no, keep it in. I feel like it's uh yeah, it's a vibe and I'll I'll play it because it's qu it's pretty loud as well. It's kind of um I'll solo the guitar part into There it is. So it's that just somebody knocked over a glass in the background. Or did you? I can't remember if I did or if Ian did, but one of us knocked over a glass, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then within the whole track? Within the record mix, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's I can move the time . Yeah. Wow. Now that you put um I hadn't noticed it when I was listening to the song before. Yeah. Um in preparation. Well that's really funny, but people have noticed it and have been asking about it. Yeah, loads of people have messed me. What's that annoying sound at two forty or yeah. That's funny because I did notice something when you were isolating the vocal track um I thought I heard some birds in the background. And I uh is that my imagination or were you You know what I just I noticed that were you recording outside or so yeah, I I recorded my vocal in in Burmundyse by the river where I was where I was living last year. Tell me how to make it right . Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. Just like the sky . Is that a crow? That sounds like a crow . Cause I'm blue just like the sky Yes, I'm last week. the price of me recording this. They'd be going all day just and I yeah, I'd I I've never had that before, so that's quite cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. And when you were recording your vocal outside in that way, are you using a particular mic? Oh no I I recorded this inside my house, but the windows were open. But the the the birds are so noisy they just it just comes through. Wow. That is amazing. That's great. Some actual I think I'll just play the end of the this guitar solo because this is the first time on a record I've kind of I guess distorted my guitar guitar more. I'm I'm more previously I've kind of you know originally I started using the Logic Pro 9 acoustic guitar amp, and I used that on geography and a lot of early records. And these days, you know, especially my live show, I'm leaning into like using a war pedal, crybaby wall pedal, and just really getting expression out of that. Um so this is like I think it's one of the first takes I did as well. So I'm not I'm not perfecting stuff, I'm just trying to Just letting it out. Just letting it out and responding so you were just kinda pretty much have the rest of the track all done and then just would do that? Yeah, it would it would have been in I did this in Nashville to be fair. Yeah. Yeah. We can we quickly solo the solo? Oh yeah. Let it hear it in all its glory. Oh god, it's gonna not gonna sound that good. So this would have been overdrive into mugafuga into a crybaby. Right . And when you solo what do you think about is that is there are you thinking when you're soloing, is it an intuitive response to the music or to the mood or are you conscious about what you're doing? There's not much thinking, not much thought, yeah. It's all doing. It's all doing and um you know, responding and you know, you've I think it's extreme you're extremely present. Yeah, I think I think there's melodies going on. You might hear I I sometimes hear lines, but I'm I'm not um there's no thought, there's no numbers, or I'm not a num bers guy, so that's not yeah. I know some people do have that in the And could be precise about what I'm saying , you know. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Um yeah. That's great. So you would probably carry on until you were happy with what was coming out and then think so that could be a couple of takes where it could be would you would you really persist if it would you go ten takes deep trying to find I would, I would, and I I do, you know. I think it's a I'd I'll try something, I'll see what comes out. If there might be things I like that I'll keep and then I'll I'll do another one and it's kind of a yeah, process of refining it. Yeah. Yeah. So good. So interesting to see how you created that. That is Red Moon by Tom Mish. And the next song we're going to look at is Slow Tonight. We're going to take a quick break. If you're serious about songwriting and building a sustainable career in today's music industry, this is worth your attention. 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So if you want to sharpen your craft, build your identity as an artist, and learn how to navigate the modern music industry, this could be a great next step. To find out more, head to trinitylarban.ac.uk. That's Trinity Lab an .ac. uk and search for the MA in songwriting. The next song we're going to look at by Tom Mish from Full Circle is Slow Tonight. But before that, I've got another patron question for you via Patreon. This time from Gabriel Gothi. What is your writing process and philosophy towards the structure of a song. Do you feel like it's more complete when working with other musicians, or do you like to sit on your own more with your work? Um I think it's I think it's a real combination of both really I you know I kind of these days I'm liking to write with with other people a lot I'm really leaning into jamming with uh different musicians and connecting with different people but I do need time to reflect by myself, you know, and I think that' thats's an important part of the pro process for me. Um like I'd find it hard to make a record like just with everyone there and have no time to yeah to process it by myself. So so it's a real combination. Yeah. Fair enough. Right, let's hear uh a blast of the Master of Slow tonight. Flashing lights, there's a rush downtown. It's a Friday night, it's the siren sound and I'm racin' home. Put the pedal down. Oh, I can't wait till we get to touch. Baby, we could take it slow tonight . Take it off over drive Come to mind and then the li es Just you and me Cause baby we could take it slow tonight Easy like the rising tide From the moon until the morning light Just you and me It sounds so romantic Tom. That is slow tonight. Um has such a great groove. How did this start? Did you have a demo of this? Yeah, yeah. So this this started in um in Portugal I, was doing a road trip in my campervan and I was in Lisbon. I ended up um doing a day session with uh Max Wolfgang, songwriter, and and yeah, we we just started kind of vibing on this on this uh I think you started playing some synths or something and and it changed drastically. The Sims got sacked, which is often how not not the sims getting sacked, but like how it often just changes from where it starts for me. Is that whistling? That'd be me whistling. We watch it through and we saw it brown and the something goes and it hits the crown and I knew it would I see it through and the something frown and the song good Maybe that's the slow net need to go over try the something from the o kay. So nonsense lyrics, just getting the melody down. But you can hear the the early stages. So tonight , don't need to take it over try There's something in the only life we saw it to And is that a drum machine or is it a a loop? It sounds like a drum machine. It's um it's a logic drum kit, probably like the Liverpool 70s kit or something and then it's going into it's slamming into this torp plug-in. Yeah. Which brings out all the artifacts. Kind of smashes it. It's the sounds like a drum machine though . And it was a hollow body Hoffner bass. So a kind of Liverpool theme. I guess so, yeah. And I love the idea that you're kind of travelling around in a camper van and you hook up with a another musician or songwriter and hang out with them for a bit and then get back in the van that's off you go exactly what happened. That sounds like such a brilliant troubadour lifestyle. Yeah, no, it's a good few months actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I drove back to London from from Lisbon. Right. So it was a good it was a real road trip. Yeah. But this this was in that period of you know, I've had four years away from like I haven't played a show for four years. Up up until I played the show my first show, you know, a few weeks ago, but before that it was a real period of just like Yeah, having space and time to do other things. Yeah. Which was really good. Yeah. But you took instruments and music was still on the book. Music was still there. Yeah. Yeah. Music was still there. Um but it was a spontaneous session with Max. Yeah. Fantastic. So you've got this demo. Yeah. Then what happens next? Do you then take it away and and work on it when you get back home? Yeah, so then then then I end up going to Nashville and I um and I I'm like, how can I bring this sort of drum machine y demo into the world of the Nashville world or the world that I wanted to create, which is more live. And this is pre-a lot of this track changed a lot when I had the mixing process with Lex. So I went I went in into the studio with Lex and we we did a lot of sonic shap ing together of stuff, you know, even nudging things here and there. So it's it sounds a little bit different. The drums sound a bit off to me. But we we kind of yeah, got that got that feeling good. So yeah, I'll play And who's playing the bass on this now? Is this you? This is me on on bass, yeah . But the vocal is is from Nashville, so I kept the vocal and I reworked everything else. But yeah, really minimal, not much going on, but it's just getting the right tones. Yeah, I think a lot a lot of the vocals that are used on this record is going into I bought a a Neumann U47 during this process. I bought a vintage Neumann U47 and that was like me really d uh committing to my vocal tone. You know, I wanted to have a mic that just really sort of married with my voice. Yeah. And previously I'd like take a lot of low end off my vocals, but on this record I've kind of embraced my voice as it is. So yeah, less less EQ, more more natural, ro und to tape again. I really wanted that vocal right at the front. Are you still using some of that processing you were talking about in Red Moon? Less so much on this one actually. This this was from Nashville and it it was kind of just good ready to go really. Um so yeah, there's that and then let's see what else we've got. The drums were we actually we recorded a kick and a snare and then hats was done separat ely. So we've got this . There was a reason for doing this, I can't remember exactly why we did that, but you've got the hats on top. So it's a pretty basic sounding setup, you know. Um I mean it's interesting here in the demo and you can hear that you used a drum machine and in in in a way that mimics that steadiness, but at the same time it's much more organic and real because you've transferred it to real instruments and Yeah, exactly. There was some yeah, there was something quite kind of drum machinier that we wanted to Yeah, continue. So I think I think maybe that's probably why we did kick snare first and then just go t- t yeah to have that real kind of regimented thing going on. Um but the bass is pretty um So this is a base actually, this is a base from before. This isn't the base on the on the uh on the master. This is one that we I did in Nashville that I ended up retracking, but it was it was very similar to this. But this one was just slightly distorted . But yeah. So you had to re do that when you got back to London? I redid that. Yeah, I redid that in Suffolk. Right. Um what else should we hear from Slow tonight? And in terms of inspirations, in terms of the sounds that you were searching for, were there any artists that you were particularly inspired by Yeah, I mean there's all sorts. And I mean in terms of this track, there's a bit of dire straits, right? I think going on, you know, that in the kind of guitar, this part here . It just kind of suited the vibe. Yeah. Uh there's a bit of James Taylor in inspiration. You know, maybe a bit of Joni Mitchell drew uh it doesn't sound like it, but I was listening to a lot of that and yeah no, I think I I do draw from a lot of different stuff. Yeah. Yeah. What else have I got here? So And then towards the end, we've got some VVs from Izzy. Maybe a bit of a fleet with Matt. Yeah, somewhat I don't know 70s thing with the with the harmonies. Easy like the rising tide from the moon until the morning light . Feels a bit yacht rocky to me. Yeah, and that kind of thing. In a good way. In a good way, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like yacht rock. Yeah. It it kind of gets you, I think. There's it's it's got such great rich melody in it that um it it seduces the listener. It does. You know. Yeah, it's feel good and yeah yeah and it has yeah that kind of vibe, laid back feel that again creates this lovely atmosphere for people when they're listening to it. I think that's one of the reasons why it hits so hard. Yeah, definitely. And so I mean we heard a bit of the demo and in terms of the lyrical evolution for a song like Slow Tonight and you know you were saying how no some of it is just improvised in the moment and then how do you hone what you w what you're going for? Is it a a word that just kind of stumbles out of your mouth that you think, oh actually that's leading me in a good direction with this one. Yeah, I think um it's often like I I'll sing a melody with nonsense lyrics, but there'll be something in there that I can pull out. And um you know I think I really express myself through melody and and and chords and production and and and that's my initial outlet, you know, I'm gonna do that. And then I have to sit down. I like to write with people, you know, I I like a big, you know, Max Wolfgang I wrote this track with, but uh Matt Mortice was a huge part of this record and and just sitting down and um and talking about life and being honest and finding things that you can that you can talk about that feel authentic. Yeah. So would Matt Maltese be more of a lyric person that you would discuss with? Yeah. I yeah, I I I go to Matt for to to write lyrics with him, you know. That's interesting. Yeah, 'cause he's an incredible songwrit er, I think. And we have a you know we get on really well, so it's like a it's a good match. Yeah, yeah, that th it's just really interesting that one person is is right for one aspect of songwriting and another could be right for Yeah. A completely different Definitely . Yeah, I wouldn't have written this with Matt. This isn't very Matt. But this you know, this is you know, Max Wolfgate. I mean he's an he's a he's an incredible pop songwriter. He's done a lot of Olivia Dean's e records. So yeah. Could you build this track up through the layers, do you think? Yeah, it's it's so minimal. It's about four parts. Base . Such a mess, this logic part . Okay , guitar part . Lead vocal. You say I don't like your friends that much well often all if it's one soon There's a bit of whirly in there just kind of padding stuff out. But other than that, it's it's really sparse. Can we hear just the backing vocals? With Izzy. Do you give direction? Like do you say I I want this, I want that. I do that sounds a bit dictatorial. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, I do, I do. I mean it it's it's a case of you know, I often know what I want, but it's trying stuff. It's definitely trying stuff and seeing what feels good. And seeing what what the other person brings. They might have a certain thing you want to lean into. Let's take it slow to move. Izzy's beautiful voice. Take it off over drive . Come to my Seems like an important element in this song because you're saying let's take it so tonight. She's she's agreeing. Yeah so she's on board. So it's going well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's it's gotta be the right the right voice. Um baby we can take it slow to now And I love I love this group Womb. And that's how I heard their stuff and then that's how I contacted Izzy and said, Do you want to come and do stuff? She's got a real like Take It off . Old school sounding voice. Come to mine and dim the lights. And do you put processing on her voice or not much. So I so I've got a bit of EQ and then I've got this L-ray plug-in again, the vocal analog warmth setting. And that that's it really. I've got I I've got a bit of bit of verb going into the what am I using? I use different plates, sometimes I use sound toys plate, I'm using the UAD plate reverb here. Take it slow tonight . So in my vocal as well. Cause baby, we could take it slow tonight . Take it off over drive . Come to mine and down the lies just you and me ? Cause baby we can take it slow tonight easy, like the rising tide from the moon until the morning lig ht just you and me of scatting over the final guitar bit . It's funny how when you when you sort of finish a project often find there's so many things I'd change. Now it's out. I'd want that acoustic guitar louder. I just I really like it turned up. Yeah. Yeah. Um but that's just how it goes. Yeah. Fantastic. Maybe we could have a a a blast of the ending of that and then we'll go to our final track today. Let's do it. I guess so w when you perform these songs live you can make some of those kind of adjustments then maybe to if you want the acoustic louder in the the frame of the song or Yeah. Yeah, it's always different live. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Right. The next one we're going to look at is Days of Us . Tired of background noise ruining your recordings, meet the new tape it denoiser, the plug-in that automatically profiles your noise and removes it cleanly without touching your sound . No artifacts, no degradation, just your recording as intended . Drop it into any door as a VST or use the desktop app to clean files outside your session. Quick, easy, and flexible. To find out more and to get a special launch offer of 50% off, head to tape dot it forward slash denoiser and hear the difference for yourself . The next song we're going to look at is Days of Us from Full Circle. If you could get us a blast of the master, that'd be brilliant to be a little bit more. You say it's not the same things have changed No it's so hard for me to hear what's wrong? What do you need ? It's not enough . So many days of awesome con Sho stay that's me halfway I know we c no choice , I hear it in your voice. We need our time to go no matter where we go , your al ways feel like home It is Days of Us by Tom Misch from Full Circle, so I guess the first question is about that saxophone sounding so fantastic. Who's that and how did that come about? Yeah, that's Kaidi Akanebi, who's like a a good friend of mine and someone that I've kind of grown up with, you know, lives lives locally and we've kind of I've always known his family and and yeah he he um he's come on tour with me a lot. He he's makes amazing music himself and and we we wrote we had a session like five years ago in Unwound Studios in Deptford and I remember I think we were just messing about. We we were doing something else, I can't remember what. Might have been something for Super Chat actually. And then um he just started playing this arpeggiated sax part and we just started yeah messing around and and I think this is really interesting track because I love the I love the sparseness of it and and just the sax doing that arpeggiated thing like yeah, I just I haven't really heard much much of that before. So it's yeah, it's it's a cool one. Um but then also to put your voice on top of it is is a different move, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So is this the oldest song on the album then? Yeah, this is this will be the oldest song on the record, yeah. This this is um this is like five years, six years old. And how realised and developed did it get back then? No, h was it kind of right, we've done this and and or did you kind of dig it out and revisit it? I knew it was something it felt really special to me and it was sitting around for years and I never had the right time to put it out. And um I uh yeah, the original demo was is often how things turn out for me where I don't have a lyric. I'm just singing a melody, and you've got the kind of structure there, and then I ended up writing the song with uh Carmie who I love to write with. And yeah, so it's actually it's been sitting around for a while and I can play the demo. Oh right, great. Uh which is wow, twenty twenty one March. Lost the mo od I could say wait and wait I could say to what I will say today . Move away . I could go round it all but another time I level away and show It's a slightly different structure. But you can I mean it's basically the the track minus uh a good vocal take and the lyrics. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. So I mean you just were able to take the Oh there sorry, there there's some drums. Uh which we took out. Yeah . But you just used the whole of Kides part again. Yeah. Basically. So so that stayed. Yeah. Um, luckily it was on a separate track. So you're able to do that yeah easily. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and then you could have rebuilt it after that. But with I mean the vocal melody is very similar. It's yeah, pretty much the same, yeah. So you didn't Kide back in to re record anything or I think we might have re recorded a few bits, but actually uh yeah, I think it's mostly from the original demo. And he he plays it live and it's re it's really challenging part to play live 'cause it's so just requires so much breath. But you force him to do it. I force him to do it. He does it ev every time, incredibly Um But it hadn't been so I was gonna say it hadn't been part of live sets but then you haven't been playing live so so it wouldn't have been. But it is now. So that's quite exciting. I mean that so having had that demo and in effect that idea for such a long time, going back to it, how did you approach it? You know, because you obviously didn't want to spoil the magic of what you had created then. But you knew you needed to develop it and Yeah, I think there was a there's a question of does it does it fit on the record? 'Cause really kind of sits in a space of its own. It it it doesn't you know's doesn't exactly you know when I play it next to Slow tonight, which is in this kind of like seventies Yacht Rocky Sultan's um diast race thing, you know, it it it it really feels like its own thing, but I I I think it's a beautiful track. It it was either gonna start the record or end the record. And we we we put it at the end. Um yeah it it really didn't need it just needed perfecting and I needed to write the lyrics and I needed to record it well. And that was what needed to happen. And then we got some strings and did a little outro thing with some drums. Yeah. Maybe I guess talk us through all those elements, maybe. Yeah . So you really just got this saxbar , which I think needs the verb, so it fills that space. So I've got a bit of L-ray using the vocal analog warmth setting again. Actually a bit of pitch correct on his sacks, because there was stuff that was slightly out and um Echo Boy, Dark Echo Can preset and then some verb and this is actually an incredible plugin which I use for I often use this on vocals and boosts a bit of top end. But it's sound this acoustic plugin sounds incredible. The purple too. It's not the same . Things have changed. I'm doubling up on the L-ray on the vocal so you can hear. No, it's so hard for me to hit I think there's so much space in the track that the vo I I'm allowed to that, you know, you you can have that vocal just being so full, which in other tracks it wouldn't you know it might not work, but what's from so yeah it takes up a lot of space the vocal very loud what do you need s not enough so many days of arts and c stay. I've got the Liverpool logic base , which um just kinda works . No choice . I hear it in your voice. We need our time . And quite a badly recorded acoustic guitar . But I just kinda liked it . I know we've got no choice . I hear it in your voice we need our time to go no matter where we go , your way And this section of the saxophone playing was this all on the original demo? This was on the original demo, yeah. Kinda goes into a waltz, which I've never done before. Yeah, and then verse two and strings come in. Um which I don't annoyingly have on this project . But they're in there on the record . So verse 2. And then we've got this kind of outro thing where it gets a bit psychedelic . Nikidi's just an incredible player. He just loves to like go off somewhere. Yeah, fade out. Kind of takes us to another world, I think, at the end of the album. Very much goes to another world, yeah. Yeah, which is really exciting. It's like the world is full of possibility for Tom Wish. No, where what where are you taking us now? No. Thinking of the the troubadour Tom, who's off in his camper van Fantastic. And uh such a combination and to think that you're playing that live now is really exciting too. Yeah, it's a great part of the show that really people really draws people in. I think they're just like, how can how can he do that? He's just constantly, he's playing for three minutes. This he does something cool, I think circular breathing where he's like breathing in and out at the same time. I don't know how he does it. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, it's a magic, isn't it? Fantastic. We've got a few more patron questions. So we've got a couple of questions that we ask everybody, but maybe we should have a a blast o of the ending or maybe that string section if you've got the do can access the master Yeah, let me let me play the master. I think it'd be nice to hear the strings. So w in do you have go to string people or do you do those write those yourselves? Yeah, so Toby Trip, um some,one that you I've worked with for years. I like to work with Toby and it's just him and he layers stuff up. Right. I did do the strings on flowers and bloom myself, but then Toby did the rest of the record. Yeah. But let me playy pla the ending . And what would you have said to Toby when you were suggesting that he do something? I think um you know it's the it just capturing the feeling of the track and I think there's something quite ethereal and and and mystical, you know, they might have been words that were being thrown around in the session. And and because I play the violin, I kind of know the lingo of you know, it can be like give us a trill or you know , because viol violin was your first instrument. That was my first instrument. Yeah.ah. Ye And I don't I don't pick it up but I but I'm what I'm gonna start using it in the studio, I think. It's a waste. Yeah. Um Yeah, kinda wanted it to go like pre-chaotic towards the end. Then it fade out. Yeah. Beautiful. So that is Days of Us featuring Kydi Akani bi. Um we're gonna let you go Tom, but we have a a couple more questions that we ask everybody who comes on take notes and I I've got a few more questions from our patrons on Patreon. Nico Kay's got in touch to say, you are a guitar hero. Uh the new album is mixed very dry, intimate, almost demo-like on some tracks. What was the thinking on this style of production? Love it, of course, says sneak. I mean it is very intimate, isn't it? That that you would as you've been saying, that's what you wanted to create. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think um yeah, it was it you know, it was l it was thinking about what like what is signature me and and and my vo So it's leaning into those things, stripping back production, uh, and having space for that for those things to shine and for the song to come across. So so yeah, it's like um I think it's just keeping things minimal. Yeah. Um Robbie Sco says, is there a synth or patch you've leaned on for so long it's become part of your sonic fingerprint? Something you reach for even when you're trying not to . I mean, thinking of that, I'm unthinking of the Muga Fuga possibly. Yeah, the Moog the Mugafuga is is is is definitely one that I've only recorded you only used on one record, which is Red Moon. But that I'd say that's like a signature thing. I'd say the Liverpool logic base is something that I seem to come back to a lot. And it doesn't even sound that good. But I just come back to it. I think it's uh maybe habit is reliable. I like the sustain on it. So mugafuga and Liverpool bass. Very interesting. We ask everybody who comes on about a piece of tech or equipment that they feel they couldn't have made this album without the current record? Nah. I think I I think it's a hard question actually. I mean my you you my my vintage U forty seven mic is a big part because the vocal is so important and I think I've really kind of honoured the vocal with with something that captures all the frequencies in such a warm, present way. So I'd say I'd say, you know, that mic is incredible and I love it. Um and there's something about it being vintage that you just kind of sing into it differently. Or I I find I do. Yeah. And uh did you have to hunt high and low for this or did you was it easy to pick up or was it expensive? Cheap. It was expensive, yeah, yeah, yeah. And um I did a shootoff. I I kinda ha I went to a studio and and tried some different forty sevens. There's one at Conch that I really love, this is this blue uh U forty seven that just sounds so nice. So I I did a kind of shoot off with that and it was almost almost on par. So I was happy with that. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. I loved it. Fantastic. And we ask for advice, you know, looking for your words of wisdom that you can share with other people. So is there anything that you've learned along the way um that you would pass on to other people or or are there any words that people have given you in the past that you think you know people need to to I think uh you know really trying to enjoy enjoy the process of of making music and and and performing it and um you know find ways of doing it that feel good for you. 'Cause I think a lot of people make music but it but it comes at a cost or they're you know, they're not they're not really able to enjoy it and I think that's a shame 'cause there's there's a lot of joy to be had in you know, in making music and and sharing it. So yeah, d you know, d not necessarily rushing things, taking time and work out what you really like and what excites you. Yeah. And and it seems like it was important to you to be able to have taken some time out of the the treadmill of having a music career in a way. You know, yeah. To go back to enjoying music and putting yourself in different positions, uh situations, places. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was it was vital for me really and um you know, even just just as a person I I think, you know, if I'm happy and healthy and feeling good and then music will just happen 'cause it's an extension of me and uh you know, but music isn't I I don't wanna I don't want want my life to be focused around music. I want it to be something that happens 'cause I'm living a good life. Yeah. That's my kind of philosophy. Yeah. Yeah. Seems like a great great approach to me. Yeah. No, and it shines through the music. The album sounds fantastic. We should play one more song as a as like an outro number. Um what should we go for? Ooh, from from full circle that maybe we haven't heard. Um Echo from the Flames. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Tom, thank you so much. Great to speak to you. And this is Echo from the Flames by Tom Misch from Full Circle. Thank you for listening, and in particular, thanks to all of you who have signed up to support us on Patreon. I'm just one part of the team that brings you take notes and it relies on your support. Access to Patreon includes the full-length videos of new episodes where possible, ad-free episodes, and detailed gear lists among many other things. If you'd like to join, head to the link on our socials or website. For pictures, highlight clips and behind-the-scenes content, head to our Instagram or YouTube channel and on Discord you can join the growing take notes community. Once again, thank you for listening. Until next time. I'm burning up Face down in the ashes I'm reaching up No one's dead catch it , sat by the fire dis montan cool man was it just another echo cho from the flame , Echo from the Flame I look around disconnected sil ence . Take my hand